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Originally Posted by issybird
I'm not addressing your main point, but I want to note that Sarah's marriage to Henry was in a registry office, so not a vow to God. I was thinking that, and then I realized there was a buried irony that Greene didn't bring up. The priest still ruled Sarah's marriage as valid and binding, however, it wouldn't have been if it had been known she'd been baptized as a Catholic, since Catholics have to be married in a church-sanctioned ceremony for a marriage to be recognized by the church.
A related issue is the physical nature of her marriage to Henry. When reading it, I thought it was merely that she was unfulfilled physically; however, I saw in some brief plot description that Henry was in fact impotent. Did I miss that? Because of course if the marriage hadn't been consummated, it was invalid on that basis, also.
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Oh, I'd forgotten that about the registry office - so the first vow was only to Henry.
I saw nothing to indicate that Henry was impotent. Sarah writes:
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is my husband so unattractive that no woman has ever wanted him? Except me, of course. I must have wanted him, in a way, once, but I’ve forgotten why,
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which suggests there was something physical in the beginning.