Aren't they cousins?
Are the two young lovers cousins? If so, doesn't that make this entire premise incredibly creepy? Thoughts on this?:
shareIn case you people were unaware......
Not long before the book (which made this movie) was written, marrying your cousin was not considered incestuous or 'gross' and technology wasn't developed enough for them to understand reproducing with a cousin could cause birth defects etc in the child....
So really when Richard and Emmeline fall in love, the author did't believe (nor did the rest of society) that the 'entire premise incredibly creepy'.
Thank you, but it's no good. In every age, people judge those in the past by their own age's standards. It's kind of silly, but I even catch myself doing it from time to time.
I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
- Jon Stewart
First off, sex between cousins is NOT incest. That word has been grossly misused in this thread. The legal definition of incest is sex between siblings, children, parents or grandchildren. There is actually very little (if any) more risk of birth defects for children born from cousins than for children born to non-related parents.
Around 20% of the world's marriages today are between cousins, it is legal in most Western nations including the United States to marry your first cousin and the cultural stigma against marrying your cousin is a very recent development in human history.