Unnamed Women Married by J.P.s

In the middle of describing Sutpen and Ellen's wedding in Absalom, Absalom! Mr. Compson interrupts his reconstruction to generalize about women who never had formal weddings: "women who were married by tobacco-chewing j[ustices of the] p[eace]s in country courthouses or by ministers waked after midnight" (37). According to his misogynistic assertion, it is the longing of these women for a more ceremonial wedding that is the cause of "most divorces" (37).