Finally, one of the most endearing stories of marriage that has been provided in this course is actually toward the end of Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. Toward the end of the selection provided, there is a short anecdote about how a ferryman works diligently to provide for his wife and son. Teary-eyed, the man admits that his wife and son are on the verge of death “for my wife and one of the children are visited, but I do not come at them” (Longman 1C 2307). The narrator, who appears to stand for Defoe’s own perspectives, becomes so touched by the interaction between the ferryman and his wife that he throws them money to help with his aspirations. In doing so, Defoe is praising the marriage and ideals that it stands for, or at least with this couple with whom even the plague has not broken apart.
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