"Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination"
About this Quote
Bierce turns a single word, "Incompatibility", into a courtroom verdict. Then he yanks the rug out from under the sentimental premise that marriage succeeds through shared interests. The joke is that the only "similarity of tastes" he trusts is the ugliest one: a mutual appetite for domination. It lands because it’s not just cynicism for sport; it’s a brutal little theory of power disguised as a marital observation.
The line works like much of Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary: a definition that pretends to clarify but actually exposes the social myth underneath. Victorian matrimony sold itself as moral order and companionate harmony, while often functioning as a legal and economic arrangement that granted men formal authority and demanded women’s compliance. Bierce doesn’t give a reformist speech about patriarchy; he compresses it into a poisoned bonbon. If both partners crave control, the union becomes a permanent contest. If only one does, "compatibility" is simply another name for surrender.
The subtext is that conflict in marriage isn’t an accident of mismatched hobbies; it’s structural. The institution trains people to treat intimacy like territory: who decides, who yields, who gets the last word, the last dollar, the last version of reality. Bierce’s brilliance is making domination sound like a shared "taste", as casual as preferring oysters, which implicates not just individuals but a culture that normalizes control as romance’s hidden ingredient.
The line works like much of Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary: a definition that pretends to clarify but actually exposes the social myth underneath. Victorian matrimony sold itself as moral order and companionate harmony, while often functioning as a legal and economic arrangement that granted men formal authority and demanded women’s compliance. Bierce doesn’t give a reformist speech about patriarchy; he compresses it into a poisoned bonbon. If both partners crave control, the union becomes a permanent contest. If only one does, "compatibility" is simply another name for surrender.
The subtext is that conflict in marriage isn’t an accident of mismatched hobbies; it’s structural. The institution trains people to treat intimacy like territory: who decides, who yields, who gets the last word, the last dollar, the last version of reality. Bierce’s brilliance is making domination sound like a shared "taste", as casual as preferring oysters, which implicates not just individuals but a culture that normalizes control as romance’s hidden ingredient.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marriage |
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