Poverty isn’t a
particularly applicable aspect to this story, as the characters are not in
poverty, as far as the reader can tell. The two main character’s marriage is
only together by value of material objects and financial stability. The
character’s are not capable of achieving happiness because material possessions
are in the way to them being able to break away from each other and the parts
of their lives that are dragging them down.
The wife, who
remains unnamed, is suggested to have always had wealth, ‘she, who one had a home’. The husband, who is also unnamed, states
that he ‘has had to build [home] from
scratch’, suggesting that he did have to work for what he has in the way of
material possessions. Other than those two quotes, the text doesn’t particularly
indicate whether or not they were born
The husband is
shown to regret that he and his wife have drifted apart, and that their
relationship has crumbled. As she begins to cry, ‘his heart contracts but he moves further away’, showing that he
still cares for her, and ‘the spectacle
of this self-help saddens and irritates him’. ‘He has wanted to touch her
for years, but they have been to formal with each other’, is told from what the
reader can guess is the husband’s point of view, and the tone of the thought is
a sad, longing tone, again demonstrating that he cares more about his
relationship with his wife than the material possessions he is surrounded with.
The text doesn’t provide an idea of whether the wife cares more for material
possessions or her relationships with other, but more he self-love.
Neither characters
must compromise their ethical values to achieve a comfortable standard of
living. They do, however, must compromise some of their values of self-worth
and self-preservation to both remain married and suffer through a divorce.
The Courts of the Lord doesn’t have
characters affected by poverty, but is does demonstrate how wealth can have an effect
of the strength and bond within a marriage.
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