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Strindberg, August, 1849-1912

"Married"


One evening, after a lecture on "The Ethical Moment in Conjugal Love"
or "Marriage as a Manifestation of Absolute Identity," for which the
lecturer received nothing but his expenses and a grateful pressure of
hands, they were sitting in the denuded dining-room on their
uncomfortable cane chairs, discussing the subject.
"You mean to say then," said Helena, "that marriage is a relationship
of co-existence between two identical Egos?"
"I mean what I said already in my lecture, that only if there exists
such a relationship between two congruous identities, _being_ can
conflow into _becoming_ of higher potentiality."
"What do you mean by _becoming?_" asked Helena, blushing.
"The post-existence of two egos in a new ego."
"What? You mean that the continuity of the ego, which through the
cohabitation of two analogous beings will necessarily incorporate
itself into a becoming...."
"No, my dear lady, I only meant to say that marriage, in profane
parlance, can only produce a new spiritual ego, which cannot be
differentiated as to sex, when there is compatibility of souls. I mean
to say that the new being born under those conditions will be a
conglomerate of male and female; a new creature to whom both will have
yielded their personality, a unity in multiplicity, to use a
well-known term, an _'hommefemme.


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