"A husband is very much like a house or a horse"
About this Quote
A neat piece of Trollopian wit collapses the Victorian marriage market into two familiar purchases. A house and a horse are objects one must live with daily; they promise comfort and conveyance, yet can become burdens if chosen badly. They demand prudence at the outset, regular maintenance afterward, and a steady eye for fit: soundness, temperament, location, cost. So with a husband, the remark suggests, romance cannot entirely eclipse the prosaic arithmetic of life.
Trollope’s fiction returns again and again to this practical calculus. Women in his novels often must weigh men as they would investments because the law of coverture and the customs of class leave them economically dependent. The simile is not merely cynical; it is a lucid acknowledgment of constraint. A house offers shelter and social placement; a horse offers movement and energy. A husband, in this world, must be both: he shelters a woman within his fortune and family and also carries her through the demands of society. Choose poorly, and one may be stuck with leaks and temper, with debts and danger. Choose wisely, and the daily journey becomes bearable, even satisfying.
Characters like Alice Vavasor and Lady Glencora weigh precisely these terms. The glittering but unstable suitor promises a thrilling ride and a fall; the solid, perhaps dull alternative promises a firm roof and a quiet road. Trollope neither mocks nor romanticizes the decision. He recognizes the moral strain of treating a person like property while also exposing how social and legal structures incentivize that stance.
The line also hints at responsibility. Houses and horses respond to care; neglect breeds misery. A marriage, like ownership, entails stewardship rather than mere acquisition. Behind the jest lies a sober ethic: passion may start the bargain, but it is compatibility, upkeep, and a wise appraisal of real conditions that determine whether life under the same roof, and on the same road, will hold.
Trollope’s fiction returns again and again to this practical calculus. Women in his novels often must weigh men as they would investments because the law of coverture and the customs of class leave them economically dependent. The simile is not merely cynical; it is a lucid acknowledgment of constraint. A house offers shelter and social placement; a horse offers movement and energy. A husband, in this world, must be both: he shelters a woman within his fortune and family and also carries her through the demands of society. Choose poorly, and one may be stuck with leaks and temper, with debts and danger. Choose wisely, and the daily journey becomes bearable, even satisfying.
Characters like Alice Vavasor and Lady Glencora weigh precisely these terms. The glittering but unstable suitor promises a thrilling ride and a fall; the solid, perhaps dull alternative promises a firm roof and a quiet road. Trollope neither mocks nor romanticizes the decision. He recognizes the moral strain of treating a person like property while also exposing how social and legal structures incentivize that stance.
The line also hints at responsibility. Houses and horses respond to care; neglect breeds misery. A marriage, like ownership, entails stewardship rather than mere acquisition. Behind the jest lies a sober ethic: passion may start the bargain, but it is compatibility, upkeep, and a wise appraisal of real conditions that determine whether life under the same roof, and on the same road, will hold.
Quote Details
| Topic | Husband & Wife |
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