However, before citing parallels between Milton's ideas and the liberal divorce legislation of the later twentieth century one should note that in all instances Milton presents the man as the suffering party. He does not deny that the woman also might suffer, but consistently she is portrayed as the potential cause of the state in which 'instead of being one flesh, they will be rather two carcasses chained unnaturally together' (WJM, III: 478). She is presented as such not because Milton regards women as more prone than men to such specifics as infidelity, but because more often than not it is the woman who has to prove her potential for social and intellectual compatibility (Newlyn, 1993). He gives an example: 'who knows that the shy silence of a virgin may oft times hide all the unliveliness and natural sloth which is really unfit for conversation? & #8230; nor is it...
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