WIBCI if we learned from LITERATURE?
I re-watched the 2016 movie Love and Friendship staring Kate Beckinsale recently. This movie is based on Jane Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan. An epistolary novel is a story solely consisting of letters between characters, and this one is basically an 18th century satirical rom/com. In the movie, at the end there was the particular mention 0f one of the 10 Commandments; Thou shall not bear false witness. Why was this in the script? I like when there is a little unformed seeds that are dropped in movies, a thin Ariadne’s thread that not everyone notices.
Wikipedia describes the 10 Commandments as: ‘religious and ethical directives. The canon ‘To Bear False Witness’ in particular, is described as ‘widely understood as (a) moral imperative in Judaism and Christianity‘. This is the commandment against false testimony, and further defined as:
‘Offenses against the truth express(ed) by word or deed, a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God, and in this sense, they undermine the foundations of (the) covenant with God.’
Further down under the heading: ‘Ancient Understanding’ it says:
‘You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.’
— Exodus 23:1-
This explanation seems to make this commandment much broader than I first thought. The shall-not part about – ‘spreading a false report’, aka, voluntarily lying…. like almost everything on the internet? Spoiler alert for those that wish to get ahead in politics, breaking this one may be unavoidable. The shall-not part about – ‘join hands with a wicked man’….. for those that wish to get ahead in many appendages of the business world, breaking this one may be unavoidable. Don’t ‘join an evil group’, like what? A cult, most religions, or maybe upper management of any corporation? And no lying in the law?! I mean come on, this was obviously written a long time ago, lying seemingly happens all the time in courtrooms with little to no repercussions. You don’t even have to pay fines when found guilty anymore right?! Let me clarify; you don’t have to pay if you’re rich and/or infamous anymore right?!
It seems rather difficult to not do this shall not…. So why was this Commandment so prominent in the film? The woman asking the priest about it at the end particularly disliked the woman to whom this question seemed to be concerning – Lady Susan (who was pregnant and the baby is NOT new husband’s). So…..was she asking because SHE wanted/did not want to spread a rumor about Lady Susan if it is offensive to God, OR, does she wish to know if she is beholden by this commandment to commit oneself to moral uprightness and therefore expose Lady Susan, OR, does she feel that some of her own conniving, albeit well intentioned, has broken this Commandment? I really don’t know which it is…what do YOU think?
Last Updated on 09/16/2025 by Death of Hypatia Inc.
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