Social Status: A Barrier to Love in Literature

In the stories “The Boarding House” by James Joyce and “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, it’s ironic how different these two stories plots are, yet they are dealing with the same problem. The protagonists let their social status and the opinions of others come between their relationships instead of basing their decisions on modesty and love. In “The Boarding House,” Mr. Doran is one of the boarders and he is having an affair with a young woman named Polly, the owner of the boarding house’ daughter. He has to decide whether or not to marry Polly in order to save this perception people have of him. In “Desiree’s Baby” Armand marries an orphan woman, “She was nameless… What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?”

These men were so infatuated that other people thought so highly of them, that they never even considered any of the other factors involved In Status and Identity in Marital Interactions” Stets notes, “In adulthood, women are more likely than men to derive feelings of well-being from the “success” of their marriage…for men, feelings of well-being are tied to “success” at their job” (10). Both Mr. Doran and Armand put their social status as their first priority without ever thinking about the antagonists, Polly and Desiree or about how they felt with the situations they were in. Leaving them with no choice but to remove themselves from the heartbreaking decisions their mates had made without a second thought. Polly made it clear that she would “put an end to herself”, while Desiree packed up and left along with her baby. Although Polly did not actually put an end to herself, it was Mr. Doran’s selfish actions and thoughts that drove her to that point of wanting to kill herself. It is not clear what really happened to Desiree and the baby, it is implied that she took her own life as well as the