A modern Utopia that retains special ties
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.
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
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