The Age of Consent (1932)

Reginald Barlow: Mr. Swale

Quotes 

• Dora Swale : [at the hospital, crying]  He ain't dead, is he? So that's what it's like. Gee, life's pretty lousy, ain't it.

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : We ain't the ones to say what's right and wrong.

  Dora Swale : Who *knows* what's right and wrong! A swell kid like that, who wasn't doing anything but tryin' to make somebody else happy. If there was a right and a wrong why wasn't he taken while he was breaking the Commandments instead of while he was tryin' to help somebody. Is that wrong to try and make somebody else's load lighter? Tell me that!

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : We ain't the ones to say about these things, Dora.

  Dora Swale : Then why does everybody do it! Don't do this, don't do that. This is right, this is wrong. How do they know what's right and wrong? How does anybody know?

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : You don't have to take their word for it, Dora. I've always tried to teach you what's right and wrong.

  Dora Swale : Yes, that's just it! You've always tried to teach me what you *think* is right and wrong. What if *you're* wrong, where's my comeback? I listened to you this morning, I listened to you all laying out my life for me. Just because I did something wrong - didn't seem wrong to me. But even if it was wrong, the only thing that's gonna make me right is to steal something that doesn't belong to me, then I don't wanna be right!

• Prof. David Mathews : It is a terrible pity Mr Swale that things happened the way they have. But how would it make things right to force them to marry? Just because the social system ignores the natural impulses of the young.

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : So that's it, eh? So that is what you teach them in college. Well, what about the sanctity of the home? What about the marriage laws?

• Prof. David Mathews : Mr Swale, marriage wasn't intended to ruin people's lives. It was intended to bring them happiness.

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : What do I care about her happiness? I am thinking about what is right and what's wrong. I've tried to be decent about this thing. I don't want to drag my daughter's name in the gutter. And if you want to, we'll let the newspapers decide whether it is right for a low dog to come into a man's house and ruin his daughter's honor. And while we're about it, we'll have them print the kind of stuff being taught at the university. Boys and girls learning that morals is all wrong. That the church is all wrong and that they don't have to marry.

  Prof. David Mathews : Oh, Mr Swale, you misunderstood.

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : Oh no, I didn't. I ain't been to college but I understand the English language.

• Mr. Swale - Dora's father : A word is as good as a bond with me. Here, give me a hand.