結婚生活が幸福をもたらす条件
同じ理由で,社会の慣習が固定していることも,いわゆる不幸な結婚を防ぐ傾向がある。もしも,結婚の絆は,最終的なものであり,取り消しできないものであると認識されるならば,(家庭の)外へさまよい出て,もっと精神的に高揚する幸福がありえたかも知れない,と考えるような想像力に対する刺激は存在しない。このような精神状態が存在している場合,家庭の平和を確保するには,夫も,妻も,世間一般に認められた上品な行動の基準を,それがどんなものであっても,大きく踏みはずしさえしなければよい(のである)。 |
Chapter X: Marriage, n.6Another condition which makes for happiness in marriage is paucity of unowned women and absence of social occasions when married men meet respectable women. If there is no possibility of sexual relations with any woman other than one's wife, most men will make the best of the situation, and, except in abnormally bad cases, will find it quite tolerable. The same thing applies to wives, especially if they never imagine that marriage should bring much happiness. That is to say, a marriage is likely to be what is called happy if neither party ever expected to get much happiness out of it.Fixity of social custom, for the same reason, tends to prevent what are called unhappy marriages. If the bonds of marriage are recognized as final and irrevocable, there is no stimulus to the imagination to wander outside and consider that a more ecstatic happiness might have been possible. In order to secure domestic peace where this state of mind exists, it is only necessary that neither the husband nor the wife should fall outrageously below the commonly recognized standard of decent behaviour, whatever this may be. |