The Doctor’s Deduction on Mrs. Old Pontifex’s Childlessness
Samuel Butler writes, “Hers had long ago been considered a hopeless case, and when on consulting the doctor concerning the meaning of certain symptoms she was informed of their significance, she became very angry and abused the doctor roundly for talking nonsense… from whatever cause, however, her refusal to recognise the obvious arose, she certainly refused to recognise it, until one snowy night in January the doctor was sent for with all urgent speed across the rough country roads. When he arrived he found two patients, not one, in need of his assistance, for a boy had been born who was in due time christened George, in honour of his then reigning majesty.” The doctor settles that Mrs. Pontifex would never bear any progeny. The inference would be branded as dependable based on the doctor’s proficiency. However, later Mrs. Old Pontifex bears a son. George Pontifex nativity is ironic because the doctor had unquestionably ruled out such prospect. The ironic unfolding is comparable to that of the Biblical Sarah’s motherhood which extraordinarily emerged during old age.
Theobald’s Aversion to Clergy Work
Samuel Butler elucidates, “He returns home, conscious that he has done his duty, and administered the comforts of religion to a dying sinner. His admiring wife awaits him at the Rectory, and assures him that never yet was clergyman so devoted to the welfare of his flock. He believes her; he has a natural tendency to believe everything that is told him, and who should know the facts of the case better than his wife? …He does not like this branch of his profession—indeed he hates it—but will not admit it to himself. The habit of not admitting things to himself has become a confirmed one with him.” Superficially, Theobald designates that he is cheerful and unswerving in his liabilities as a clergy. However, inherently he is not gratified with functioning as a clergy. The companion’s surveillance about him being ardent to the flock is ironic. The irony of Theobald’s outlooks towards his vocation conjecture that he is undertaking the work as a rudimentary onus to God, not because he of mystical conviction. Theobald validates that he is risen above the fleshly encumbrances, but it does not galvanize his contentment. Theobald’s circumstance mirrors religious extremism that is enacted on children gripping them to submit to the façades of religiosity.
