The quality of mercy

It is often a question to me whether the religion of the world is not more odious than its want of religion.

Anthony Trollope, Dr. Wortle's School

Jesus himself, when sounding off against hypocrites, probably would have agreed with Dr. Wortle in his comment above, for hypocrisy and an absence of grace are themes that run through Anthony Trollope's 1881 novel Dr. Wortle's School.

Dr. Wortle operates an exclusive school for boys bound for Oxford and Cambridge, and there is no shortage of parents willing to pay the steep tuition. That is, until controversy erupts regarding an excellent teacher named Mr. Peacocke when it is discovered Peacocke and his wife may not be legally married. The couple had married in America after learning that her husband had died, but then this supposedly late husband had reappeared. Rather than separate, the couple fled to England. Then the husband's brother shows up with blackmail on his mind.

With more charity than most people in his situation might possess, Dr. Wortle sends Mr. Peacocke back to America to determine whether that husband really is alive or, as Dr. Wortle suspects, now dead. Meanwhile he allows Mrs. Peacocke to remain in her residence at the school. This starts tongues wagging, and parents begin withdrawing their sons from the school.

In a subplot, Lord Bracy, one of Dr. Wortle's most promising students, falls in love with the doctor's daughter.

The story actually seems a bit thin, but Trollope milks it for everything it holds, while making readers consider how they might act were they in the position of Mr. Peacocke, Mrs. Peacocke, Dr. Wortle or one of the other key characters. Sometimes choosing between right and wrong, or between the lesser of evils, seems easier when it is not your choice to make.