Viewers of Downton Abbey may have noticed in the recently aired first episode of Season Six that Carson the Butler articulated, in a delicate but firm and unmistakable way, the truth that marriage is a conjugal union. Mrs. Patmore, the cook, is sent as an emissary of Carson’s fiancée, Mrs. Hughes, the housekeeper, to inquire whether Carson expects their marriage to include “more” than “deep friendship” and “close companionship.” What “wifely duties” would be expected? Might the couple live “as brother and sister”? Or was a “full marriage” expected?
Carson (brilliantly acted by Jim Carter) does not take offense at the question or at Mrs. Hughes’ (via Mrs. Patmore) asking it. As an Englishman of the Edwardian era might say, he is “not unsympathetic” to why a woman, especially one of Mrs. Hughes’ age, might prefer to “live as brother and sister.” But his answer, given from the heart but plainly informed by an understanding of what marriage actually is and what true goods it embodies and makes available, is that he does indeed desire and expect a “true marriage”—one in which, as he explains “two persons become as close as two persons can possibly be.” It is not lust that prompts Carson’s firm insistence on a consummated bond, but rather a desire for genuine marital communion—“a true marriage, not a lie,” as he finally sums up his position.
