There is something fascinating about a man having multiple wives, a practiced allegedly adopted by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Latterday Saints (the ‘Saints’). And recently, polygamy seems to be creeping its way into the book and film plots of popular culture as we are offered a voyeuristic, albeit fictional, behind the scenes view of life in a ‘plural marriage’.
One Big Happy Family
The HBO TV series Big Love took us into the homes and bedrooms of a modern Salt Lake City suburban polygamous marriage. This series proved to be seriously addictive viewing as audiences were drawn into the politics and sex lives of one man, three women and a multitude of children, all living fairly harmoniously under one roof. Now, David Ebershoff’s excellent new novel The 19th Wife returns to the fascinating territory of polygamy.
The Lost Boys
In both Big Love and The 19th Wife the main protagonists, now men, were once ‘lost boys’: boys between 13 and 21 who were banished from their polygamous communities by the older men in order to reduce competition for wives. Accordingly, both Bill in Big Love and Jordan in The 19th Wife have been excommunicated upon the orders of ‘the Prophet’. In Jordan’s case, it is now a decade down the track and his mother (his father’s 19th wife) has been arrested for her husband’s murder, and Jordan sets out to prove her innocence.
‘Celestial Marriage’: Polygamy Justified
Intertwined with Jordan’s narrative is the story of some of the original converts to the Mormon faith from the early 19th century. It is fascinating to read from the original Mormon sources, written by men and women who were early followers, to see where the whole ‘celestial (plural) marriage’ lark began. Apparently, the ladies weren’t too keen on the idea back then either.
The way Ebershoff tells it, far from being an original principle of the Mormon church, polygamy was a practice introduced later for the Prophet’s own ends. The church's first and second leaders (Joseph Smith and Brigham Young) wanted a couple of wives, so every other man in the Latter Day Saints had to take one as well. What man would criticise their Prophet for polygamy when he had a couple of wives at home himself? It was the Prophet’s best way to protect himself from censure.
The church’s official line on polygamy justifies its existence: to further God’s work on earth, Latter Day Saints must produce as many offspring as possible, and more wives means more children simultaneously. But in both Big Love and The 19th Wife the implication is clear. Polygamy is not the will of God. It’s every man’s carnal wish fulfilled. When even the church says it’s ok to upgrade your wife to a newer model, who can argue?
A Tale of Two Husbands
Jordan’s father in modern America, who loves guns, online sex chat rooms, gambling and crystal meth, is a far cry from Mormon church founder Joseph Smith’s original Saintly followers. Although both are polygamists, the modern husband is corrupt, while the 19th century husband is merely misguided in his religious devotion. But Ebershoff leaves us asking an interesting question. Are these two types of men, separated by almost 200 years and a cultural revolution, really so very different?
David Ebershoff, The 19th Wife, Transworld Publishers, published 2/01/2009, ISBN 9780552774987
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