# A modern Utopia that retains special ties

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH07.P037](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH07.P037/#char=72,130): "their ultimate hope is the dissolution of all special ties"

Wells supplies a useful contemporary test of this sweeping characterization, though this sentence does not name him. In *A Modern Utopia* (1905), chapter VI, §4, marriage can end through misconduct, desertion, or other specified circumstances; a childless marriage may expire after a stipulated term. That differs sharply from Chesterton’s demand for an irrevocable bargain. Yet §5 also defends individual homes for children and relatively enduring parental unions. Wells considers repeated remarriage a danger to family coherence and favours continuity through the mother’s years of child-rearing, while allowing divorce for incompatibility. [*A Modern Utopia*, VI, §§4–5](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hgwells/1905/modern-utopia/ch06.htm).

The disagreement concerns the duration, grounds, and authority of obligations, rather than a simple choice between obligations and none. Wells is a documented comparison, not an established exclusive target. His qualifications also warn against treating Chesterton’s ‘all’ as a neutral inventory of modern Utopian proposals.

## Sources

- [H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hgwells/1905/modern-utopia/ch06.htm), Chapter VI, ‘Women in a Modern Utopia,’ §4 (marriage termination and childlessness), §5 (home, successive marriages, and duration); inspected MIA HTML transcription

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