by Thomas Hardy
He should have remained obscure. No, seriously, as a story, it was pretty horrid. a young man’s hopes and dreams are stymied one by one. As a statement on matrimony and contemporary mores, I get it.
“And so… the two swore that at every other time of their lives till death took them, they would assuredly believe, feel, and desire precisely as they had believed, felt, and desired during the preceding few weeks. What was remarkable as the undertaking itself was the fact that nobody seemed at all surprised at what they swore.”
In various ways, the story aimed to show the ludicrousness of this entire situation.
