Argument
The overarching argument is that private divorce by mutual consent for incompatibility is consonant with Christian Scripture, specifically Matthew 19:3-9, where Christ seems to specifically forbid divorce. Yet although buttressed by Scriptural authority, much of Milton's argument hangs on his view of human nature and the purpose of marriage, which rather than the traditional ends of procreation or a remedy against fornication, he defines as "the apt and cheerful conversation of man with woman, to comfort and refresh him against the evils of solitary life". Milton argues that if a couple be "mistak’n in their dispositions through any error, concealment, or misadventure" for them "spight of antipathy to fadge together, and combine as they may to their unspeakable wearisomnes and despaire of all sociable delight" violates the purpose of marriage as mutual companionship.
Read more about this topic: Milton's Divorce Tracts
Famous quotes containing the word argument:
“You have such strong words at command, that they make the smallest argument seem formidable.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Mistakes are made on two counts: an argument is either based on error or incorrectly developed.”
—Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)
“A striking feature of moral and political argument in the modern world is the extent to which it is innovators, radicals, and revolutionaries who revive old doctrines, while their conservative and reactionary opponents are the inventors of new ones.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)