Judge and prosecutor had hammered it home that Lady Chatterly was an immoral woman, that she had had sexual relations before marriage, that she had committed adultery under her husband's roof; as if these charges somehow disqualified her from participation in serious literature. Indeed, there were long periods of the trial during which an outsider might well have assumed that a divorce case was being heard.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Tynan criticizes the trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover for focusing on moral charges rather than literary merit.
- In plain terms
- The trial treated the book like a moral case instead of a serious work.
- What can you take from it?
- Moral judgments can overshadow artistic value.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Should art be judged by morality?
- What defines serious literature?
Another view
Moral concerns are sometimes relevant to public literature.
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