At the surface, "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time" by Peter Taylor seems to be a story about an odd elderly couple who have a great influence on each new generation of children, despite their parents’ wishes. Mr. and Miss Dorset, a brother and sister, have lived in Chatham all their lives even though the rest of their family has either passed away or has moved to different areas around the country. This leaves Mr. Alfred and Miss Louisa Dorset by themselves and with only each other’s company. Through their lives, Mr. and Miss Dorset have created a relationship that is based so much on solidarity and exclusiveness with one another that the story suggests that they have possibly passed the boundaries of a normal brother-sister relationship.

From the very beginning, the story sets up in the reader’s mind the possibility that perhaps Mr. and Miss Dorset have not only a brother-sister relationship, but some sort of an incestuous relationship as well. The first sentence of the story says, "Their house alone would not have made you think there was anything so awfully wrong with Mr. Dorset or his old-maid sister" (Taylor 760). As the story progresses this first sentence is an indication of many events and oddities surrounding the two, but the underlying theme throughout the whole story of possible incest is predominant with this statement.

One of the examples that the story draws on to illustrate the Dorsets’ peculiarities is an observation by a paper boy (who the reader is later introduced to again) when he peers through a window of their house. The paper boy, as yet unnamed, sees Miss Dorset "pushing a carpet sweeper about one of the downstairs rooms without a stitch of clothes on. . .just as unconcerned as if she didn’t care that somebody was likely to walk in on her at any time" (Taylor 761). If Mr. and Miss Dorset truly had a normal brother-sister relationship, the story seems to suggest, then Miss Dorset would not be prancing around her living room naked.

In the story, Mr. and Miss Dorset throw a party at their house for the young people in the community. Although the two seem more normal during this party than at any other time, they still have some odd behaviors. One of these, the story notes, is the "looks that pass between them" (Taylor 764) when Mr. and Miss Dorset are dancing. The story notes that several of the children notice these "looks" and perhaps this is one of the oddest occurrences throughout the evening. The looks also seem to be so powerful in their own right that the children seem to stop what they are doing and become amazed by the literal harmony that happens between the two, more than just a brother-sister relationship would ever have.

The biggest indication to the reader that perhaps something odd is going on, and has been going on for some time, between Mr. and Miss Dorset comes with the description of a picture that is hanging on one of the walls of the house. The picture, "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time", has been literally torn out of a magazine and clumsily tacked up to the wall. Noting that part of this painting includes a depiction of Venus and Cupid, who are mother and son, holding each other in an incestuous, passionate way, the reader is further led to believe that perhaps Mr. and Miss Dorset really do have some sort of incestuous relationship beyond that of a normal one between brother and sister.

If this does not convince the reader yet, then perhaps the parallel to Mr. and Miss Dorset that is drawn later in the story between a brother, Ned, and his sister, Emily, will finally convince the reader once and for all. Ned, Emily, and Tom (the paper boy that the reader was introduced to before in the story) want to try to play a trick on Mr. and Miss Dorset during their annual party. Part, if not almost all, of the trick is to mock behind their backs the strange relationship that Mr. and Miss Dorset have with one another. When the two are not paying attention at the party, Tom (impersonating like Emily’s brother) and Emily kiss, imitating the possible acts of Mr. and Miss Dorset. The action becomes an even more obvious parallel of Mr. and Miss Dorset when Ned proclaims , "Don’t you know?. . .Can’t you tell? Can’t you see who they are? They’re brother and sister! (Taylor 774). With this exclamation the reader is further led to believe that perhaps this mockery that the children pose is, in reality, not just mockery but truth.

The author of "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time", Peter Taylor, suggests that there is more going on between Mr. and Miss Dorset than just a brother-sister relationship. Even though this fact is never stated directly, it is implied in several different parts of the story. Either way, this kind of suspected relationship makes up just one of many oddities for the townspeople in Mr. and Miss Dorset.

Works Cited

The Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines incest as "sexual intercourse between persons so closely related that they are forbidden by law to marry" (608). In the story "Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time" Peter Taylor’s incest is defined with much broader strokes, to include the social incest of small towns like Chatham, where marriages and most types of social interactions are restricted to those persons within a particular class or group. Using this broader definition, the question of whether or not Louisa and Alfred Dorset are guilty of incest is easily resolved. They did it. However, the more difficult question to answer is what kind of incest did they commit?

Peter Taylor has acknowledged his intention to depict the social aspects of incest in "Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time." In an interview with Barbara Thompson, Taylor remarked, "One of the things it’s about is incest – not just the brother and sister, but all the young people. It’s a form of incest to want to marry only within your class, your own background exactly . . . especially when it’s within a class in a certain town" (407). The social incest in Chatham is reflected in the rigidly exclusive guest lists for the Dorsets’ parties. Louisa and Alfred populate their festivities with only the children from the wealthiest (and therefore important) citizens in town, thus perpetuating rigid class distinctions.

It’s not surprising that Alfred and Louisa eagerly participated in this brand of incest and the illusions of superiority it helped to maintain. David Robinson explains that the Dorsets took "pride in inviting only the ‘best’ children to their party, fortifying their sense of self-worth by an imagined capacity to know such superior individuals intuitively" (301). This sentiment is echoed by most of the town, who for as many years as they could remember had set the highest standards of social ranking upon the shoulders of the wealthy Dorset family. When the parents died and the rest of the family left along with the money, their class and status slipped as their economic situation and eccentricities developed. One could rightly assume that they were destined for a life of obscurity and genteel poverty, but for their annual youth party. Inviting only young teenagers, the Dorsets were the hosts of what David Robinson called an "imprimatur of caste" (299).

Indeed for most ‘proper’ Chatham families it would have been considered a social disaster if their children weren’t invited and allowed to attend the Dorsets’ annual party, but seemingly for no concrete reason other than social tradition. Taylor writes "If when you were thirteen or fourteen you got invited to the Dorsets house, you went; it was the way of letting people know from the outset who you were"(763). Since both Louisa and Alfred had thoroughly convinced themselves of their ability to recognize the presence of anyone with an air of quality, their shock at being duped by a common paperboy was devastating. Taylor speaks for Alfred "Oh we couldn’t make a mistake of that kind! People are different. It isn’t something you can put your finger on, but it isn’t the money" (777). Until the events of the last party ended it, Louisa and Alfred clung to this last symbol of social standing from their old lives.

Understanding the Dorsets’ participation in the tradition of social incest, one now contemplates if the siblings ever engaged in actual intercourse. The circumstantial evidence of sexual incest that surrounds the Dorsets is almost overwhelming. Yet it is through an understanding of how Louisa and Alfred were affected by the deaths of their parents that one is convinced that they lived an asexual life. David Robinson explains: "The Dorsets dealt with the trauma of their loss by retreating into mutual self-possession, finding their relation as siblings, and their family home, a haven from threatening change" (300). Time stopped for Louisa and Alfred when their parents died, emotionally and financially. They were as Robinson has noted, frozen within "their emotions at preadolescence" (300).

For the Dorsets, the annual parties were their way of creating a believable reflection of youth, and reaffirming their delicate hold upon the social lives of Chatham, even though they had long since lost their youth, their wealth, and much of their status. Louisa and Alfred’s stunted sexuality is a direct result of the trauma of their parent’s death, as it occurred during the delicate time of early adolescence and their awakening sexualities. This emotional stew of innuendo and confused innocence spills over and onto every aspect of the party, but especially the dance performed by the Dorsets. David Robinson calls it "pantomimed sexual intercourse, the most direct suggestion of incest in the party, followed by the most desperate plea[s] of innocence"(300).

Ironically, the party itself seems to have been designed to specifically quell such incestuous implications. Robinson claims that the Dorsets’ parties "provide them with a forum to protest their innocence, an innocence they equate with presexuality" (301). In fact, everything the children saw at the party was designed to elicit and encourage the budding sexual curiosity of the children. If Louisa and Alfred could produce a reaction in the children with the pictures of other things on display, as Robinson says, the Dorsets’ "own incompletely repressed sexual natures [would] seem somehow validated" (301).

In the final analysis it is social incest that the Dorsets are guilty of. Their continued efforts to identify only with a certain segment of Chatham and their staunch belief of a noticeable difference between the classes proves this. Yet Louisa and Alfred did not have sex, they did not commit incest in the classic sense. Their twisted commitment to innocence wouldn’t allow it. However, their perpetual state of preadolescence did give rise to temptations. They came the closest to acting upon them only through the dance they performed each year for the children. Louisa and Alfred lived in the past both socially and sexually. They carried on with their lives as if they never grew old, and as if they still retained the wealth and status provided during their parents’ lifetimes. It was only through the intervention of the children that everyone began to see the entire truth, and with it, the end of everyone’s innocence.

Works Cited

Works Consulted