Analysis Of Say Yes By Tobias Wolff

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In the story Say Yes by Tobias Wolff, a marriage is broken overnight by a revelation of the insufficiency of their love in the test. Along with the husband’s wrong response to the “Love Test”, the relationship is dramatically demolished by Ann’s sudden realization of the superficial love of her husband. Even though her husband tries to please Ann with the right answer, her feelings of love has already been shattered by distrust and suspicion. The hypothetical “Love Test” in the story reveals the superficiality of his love, drastically shifting the relationship from intimacy to uncertainty.
From the daily actions of the husband in daily lives, we can see that his blindness to love hampers his definition of love into simple consideration. And such superficial love directly accumulates dissatisfaction and it is unleashed by the love test. His husband’s attention to do the housework appears when he “overheard a friend of his wife 's congratulate her on having such a considerate husband.” (1, Tobias …show more content…

So how transition was made from stable marriage to the demolition as the story approaches its end in the last paragraph?
“The room was silent. His heart pounded the way it had on their first night together, the way it still did when he woke at a noise in the darkness and waited to hear it again - the sound of someone moving through the house, a stranger.”(4)
Firstly, it reflects the change of the relationship from mutual trust and love into awkwardness and uncertainty to each other as a result of the Love Test. Because the answers and actions from her husband greatly disappoint Ann for his shallowness, the request “Turn off the light” (4) by Ann can be interpreted that she doesn’t want to face the fact that she has to sleep with a man who can’t be trusted

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