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Scots writer’s play sheds light on a troubled but devoted relationship
By Mike Merrit

A LEADING Scottish playwright has produced a new twist on the life of Charles Darwin: the evolution of the relationship between the scientist and his wife, Emma.

It seems their marriage survived largely by avoiding the issue of religion. While Charles lost his faith, his devoted wife remained a committed Christian.

Now, in the bicentenary of the scientist's birth, Caithness-based writer Murray Watts, who wrote the screenplay for the film The Miracle Maker, will show that love really did conquer all in the Darwins' marriage. The couple hardly spent a day apart in more than 42 years of marriage.

Even in marriage Darwin was ever the scientist. Used to jotting down daily notes on animal breeding, he scrawled rambling thoughts - one with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry". Advantages included "constant companion and a friend in old age better than a dog anyhow" against points such as "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time".

In his play, entitled Mr Darwin's Tree, Watts show that despite their religious differences the couple's relationship survived on a deep love.

Emma was part of the Wedgwood pottery family and was Charles's first cousin. The couple had 10 children but lost two girls and a boy.

Emma grew up belonging to the Unitarian Church. For a time in her youth she was sent to Paris, where she studied piano with the celebrated composer Frédéric Chopin, and conducted a grand tour of Europe.

The naturalist frequently lamented his own lack of musical skills, which seemed to heighten his admiration of Emma's playing. In The Descent of Man, Darwin wrote: "I conclude that musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex."

Emma was with her family when they helped Darwin overturn his father's objections to the voyage of the Beagle, which sparked his evolution theory.

She accepted Charles's marriage proposal in 1838, at the age of 30, and they were married the following year.

But a source of difficulty in the Darwins' marriage was the inevitable conflict between Charles's scientific findings and Emma's own devout Christian beliefs.

The tension was increased when, following the death of their daughter Anne at the age of 10, Charles no longer accepted the orthodox Christian view of God. After the biologist TH Huxley coined the word "agnostic" around 1868, Darwin used it to describe himself.

Now in Mr Darwin's Tree - which will star TV actor Andrew Harrison - Watts hopes to show that Emma was in many ways her husband's opposite.

"Charles's father told him not to confide his doubts about faith to his wife. He felt it would cause trouble in the marriage," said Watts.

"But Charles told Emma that he had misgivings. The truth is that he did not have that much faith to lose, despite him at one-time contemplating life as a clergyman.

"People forget that some of Charles's greatest supporters were leading Christians of the time.

"Emma even wrote a letter to Charles to avoid confrontation. When he was ill she would leave a letter on his pillow. She thought he had not faced the chain of difficulties on the other side'.

"For Charles, God and faith were a series of propositions that he could knock on the head. So the couple did not talk about faith much. Emma felt there would be a painful void between them if they did. Their marriage survived by avoiding the issue of faith.

"But she did tell him, I wish you could have my faith and the perfect peace of Christ.' Emma was totally supportive of Charles in every way. She made sure she did not judge him.

"Love came first in their relationship, not faith."

Labels: Charles Darwin, marriage, Mike Merrit, Mr Darwin's Tree, theater

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