Charles Darwin Marriage Decision Framework
Charles Darwin's systematic approach to life's biggest decision
Pros of Marriage
- Children (if it Please God) - Constant companion, (& friend in old age) who will feel interested in one,- object to be beloved & played with.- -better than a dog anyhow.-
- Home, & someone to take care of house- Charms of music & female chit-chat.- These things good for one's health.-
- Purpose: My God, it is intolerable to think of spending ones whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, & nothing after all.- No, no won't do.-
- Comfort: Imagine living all one's day solitarily in smoky dirty London House.- Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music perhaps-
- Reality Check: Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Grt. Marlbro' St.
- Conclusion: Marry-Mary-Marry Q.E.D.
Cons of Marriage
- Freedom: Freedom to go where one liked- choice of Society & little of it.
- Intellectual Stimulation: Conversation of clever men at clubs- Not forced to visit relatives, & to bend in every trifle.-
- Responsibility Burden: To have the expense & anxiety of children- perhaps quarrelling- Loss of time. -
- Personal Time: Cannot read in the Evenings- fatness & idleness- Anxiety & responsibility- less money for books &c- if many children forced to gain one's bread.-
- Location Risk: Perhaps my wife wont like London; then the sentence is banishment & degradation into indolent, idle fool.-
- Social Complexity: There would be an infinity of trouble & expense in getting & furnishing a house,-fighting about no Society-morning calls-awkwardness-loss of time every day.
- Daily Management: How should I manage all my business if I were obliged to go every day walking with my wife.-
- Financial Risk: Horrid poverty, (without one's wife was better than an angel & had money)-
- Isolation Alternative: One cannot live this solitary life, with groggy old age, friendless & cold, & childless staring one in ones face, already beginning to wrinkle.-