Script Notes: Sexuality

The society depicted is very repressed about sexuality. The entire subject is normally taboo, a source of embarrassment in mixed company, of fear and of salacious sniggering. John and Jean Guthrie are driven into enmity by their inability to discuss sex and its consequences. Ultimately this inability leads to Jean’s suicide. The strictness of the Scottish Church's doctrines wrap all sexuality in shame and guilt - John Guthrie despises himself for his natural instincts, which he thinks of as "the sins of the flesh".