Most people in our society have the dream of going on the perfect date and finding “the one.” When picturing marriage, some women imagine their husband having a great sense of humor, or some men can see themselves marrying a woman with a kind soul; most importantly, both men and women look for love and happiness with their future partner. In Mavis Gallant’s short story “The Other Paris”, these expectations our society has for marriage are non-existent. The main characters Carol and Howard future marriage involves everything but love. Through Carol and Howard and a disdainful, mocking narrative voice, Gallant portrays a society where love between husband and wife is unrealistic; this causes the society to treat marriage as something they have …show more content…
Gallant writes, “Before his engagement he had sometimes been lonely, a malaise he put down to overwork, and he was disconnected with his bachelor households, for he did not enjoy collecting old pottery or making little casserole dishes. Unless he stumbles on a competent housemaid, nothing ever got done. This in itself would not have spurred him into marriage.” This passage resembles how the lack of a wife doesn’t bother him. It also tells how when he thinks of a wife he doesn’t think of love, but rather someone to do all the tasks he doesn’t want to do. Although he is aware and comfortable with the absence of a wife, his mind easily changes by a small comment his sister makes: “‘Soon,’ she told him, ‘you’ll just be a person who fills in at dinner.’” The narrator explains his satisfaction with his lifestyle is looked down upon by others. His sister says he will just be at …show more content…
She says yes to Howard merely because she feels as if she is running out of time and uses “conditions” as her guidelines for finding a husband. Gallant explains Carols expectations by stating, “All winter, then, she looked for these right conditions in Paris. When, at first, nothing happened, she blamed it on the weather. She was often convinced she would fall deeply in love with Howard if only it would stop raining.” The narrator mocks Carol through this statement because the weather has no factor for love. The relationship isn’t working and Carol has to find an excuse as to why, besides the fact that they are not right for each other. After this realization, Carol begins to accept the fact that she doesn’t love Howard because it doesn’t seem relevant as long as she has someone with an acceptable status and the same background as her to call a husband. While describing Carols attitude, Gallant states, “The fact that Carol was not in love with Howard Mitchell did not dismay her in the least.” The narrator teases at the fact that this society does not marry for love, but in fact for the betterment of themselves. Carol doesn 't care that she doesn’t have a genuine relationship with her soon-to-be husband because that isn’t the purpose for why she is marrying him; she is marrying Howard simply to have a man to call a husband. Carol absorbs what she learns in her
Love waxes timeless. It is passionate and forbidden and a true head rush. Marriage, on the other hand, is practical, safe, a ride up the socioeconomic ladder. In "The Other Paris," Mavis Gallant weaves the tale of Carol and Howard, a fictional couple who stand on the verge of a loveless marriage, to symbolize the misguided actions of the men and women in the reality of the 1950s, the story's setting. By employing stereotypical, ignorant, and altogether uninteresting characters, Gallant highlights the distinction between reality and imagination and through the mishaps and lack of passion in their courtship mockingly comments on society?s views of love and marriage.
Throughout history, women conformed to societal expectations of marrying for financial security rather than pursuing a strong emotional relationship. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist Janie struggles to find her autonomy through the ubiquitous scrutiny from others. While transitioning from adolescence to adulthood, Janie’s internal conflicts in self exploration heighten, forcing her to comply to other’s opinions. Once wedded to Tea Cake does Janie finally comprehend her cause of happiness: love. Through Janie’s maturation, Hurston conveys Janie’s deviation away from monetary stability as a source of happiness, but instead finds fulfillment in ardor, which reveals no amount of material wealth ensures a jubilant life.
For as long as we can remember, the idea that marriage is sacred, desirable, and even necessary has persisted in the western world. In a way, society has taught us that in order to live a normal, fulfilled life, one must find their soul mate, marry them, and spend the rest of eternity together. According to tradition, a perfect marriage is characterized by a husband that goes to work every day while the wife remains within the home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. Tradition has further dictated that once the husband returns from work, the wife has dinner ready and the family sits down around the table to share a meal together. American literature is full of stories that both play on or challenge these traditional roles within a marriage. But, one might ask, does
All over the world, marriage is one of the main things that define a woman’s life. In fact, for women, marriage goes a long way to determine much in their lives including happiness, overall quality of life whether or not they are able to set and achieve their life goals. Some women go into marriages that allow them to follow the paths they have chosen and achieve their goals while for other women, marriage could mean the end of their life goals. For Janie, the lead character in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, who was married twice first to Joe sparks, and to Vergile Tea Cake, her two marriages to these men greatly affected her happiness, quality of life and pursuit of her life goals in various ways, based on the personality of each of the men. Although both men were very different from each other, they were also similar in some ways.
Henry David Thoreau famously said that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” When we compare and contrast these two stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby,” by Kate Chapin, we learn that this sentiment may be especially true for women. Kate Chapin uses “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby” to bravely explore the social inequalities of women in terms of marriage and divorce. The combination of these two stories point out that despite the presence of love, not all marriages are happy and not all divorces are sad. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Desiree has married for love and wishes to stay married and through no fault of her own, she is forced to divorce. In contrast “The Story of an Hour” is about Louise, who has married out of social obligation and wishes to divorce, but is forced to stay married. Both women are forced to follow paths not of their own choosing and submit to the rules set down by a male dominated society. In spite of society’s tendency to romanticize marriage, many women find marriage to be a limiting burden; for others, marriage may be the only chance at life.
“Like most wives of our generation, we’d contemplated eventual widowhood but never thought we’d end up divorced” (Hekker 278). Traditional wives married for love and to follow th...
Human beings are not isolated individuals. We do not wander through a landscape of trees and dunes alone, reveling in our own thoughts. Rather, we need relationships with other human beings to give us a sense of support and guidance. We are social beings, who need talk and company almost as much as we need food and sleep. We need others so much, that we have developed a custom that will insure company: marriage. Marriage assures each of us of company and association, even if it is not always positive and helpful. Unfortunately, the great majority of marriages are not paragons of support. Instead, they hold danger and barbs for both members. Only the best marriages improve both partners. So when we look at all three of Janie’s marriages, only her marriage to Teacake shows the support, guidance, and love.
The number of marriages that end in divorce in America is one out of every five; the number of marriages that end in death is about eight hundred thousand per year. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is the tale of a married woman who finds herself on an emotional rollercoaster after learning that her husband was killed in a train accident, only to have him walk through the door within the hour. At first, she mourns the loss of her husband. However, as she realizes the breadth of the freedom she now possesses, this sadness soon transforms into joy, and she emerges from her upstairs bedroom a changed woman. Then, when her husband unexpectedly walks through the front door, she is all at once overcome with a sense of grief, and she collapses on the foyer floor, unable to bear the thought of returning to her marriage. Chopin, a controversial author, explores the negative side of the construct of marriage. Maintaining one’s independence can, in fact, strengthen a marriage, by promoting equality within the marriage, bolstering one’s
In today’s society, the notion and belief of growing old, getting married, having kids, and a maintaining of a happy family, seems to be a common value among most people. In Kevin Brockmeier’s short story, “The Ceiling,” Brockmeier implies that marriage is not necessary in our society. In fact, Brockmeier criticizes the belief of marriage in his literary work. Brockmeier reveals that marriage usually leads to or ends in disaster, specifically, all marriages are doomed to fail from the start. Throughout the story, the male protagonist, the husband, becomes more and more separated from his wife. As the tension increases between the protagonist and his wife, Brockmeier symbolizes a failing marriage between the husband and wife as he depicts the ceiling in the sky closing upon the town in which they live, and eventually crushing the town entirely as a whole.
Mahin, Michael J. The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper: "An Intertextual Comparison of the "Conventional" Connotations of Marriage and Propriety." Domestic Goddesses (1999). Web. 29 June 2015.
A lot has changed in the past few decades, not to mention centuries. Perhaps you’ve heard your grandparents, or any adult in general, talking about how much the world is changing. In the past few decades, commitment has gone on a rollercoaster. At times it’s going uphill-marriage rates are up, divorce rates are down, and people are happy in their relationships. At other times, it has been quite the opposite. In A Brave New World, they show a glimpse of a possible future society; the novel serves as a warning to help the world slow down when it comes to technology and love. The expression of love has evolved throughout time due to the decrease of chivalry and the increase in divorce rates because of the change of “steps” in a relationship.
Women are free to explore higher education, travel around the world, and to marry whomever. “We had to be sure...that this was more than any old professor-student romance; that it was the Real Thing, because the longer the indecision went on the longer Mrs. Piper would be left dangling in uncertainty and distress”. In this line of the story, the reader can see that the narrator, a young woman in college, is away having an affair with her married professor. (172-173) “Mr. and Mrs. Peter Piper had been married for twenty-four years...no longer in love with each other... I loved him... and so far I was winning hands down”. (173) “I love you, I said to Peter...How much do you love me?...Inordinately! I love you with inordinate affection”. (174) These lines bring ones attention to the great amounts of love the narrator has for her lover. “Peter said...Your Ind aff is my wife 's sorrow, that 's the problem”. (175) Peter has put the blame for his marriage falling apart on the narrator. While waiting at the restaurant for their lunch “Two waiters stood idly by and watch us waiting...one was young and handsome...about my age...he smiled... I smiled back, and instead of the pain in the heart I 'd become accustomed to as an erotic sensation, now felt, quite violently, an associated yet different pang which got my lower stomach...The true pain of Ind Aff...I stood up...Where are you going? He asked, startled...Home”. (176) The young waiter helped the narrator to realize that she is young and there are so many men her age that would really love her not just use her for
For many, marriage is the most important steps in life because it doesn’t just represent two people taking a vow to be with each other. But marriage also exemplifies purity and singularity because it gives people the strength to overcome any temptations by engaging in a love that can be given and received physically, emotionally, and spiritually. However, in The Story of an Hour, Chopin also displays how all marriages can be oppressive, even the “kindest and loving” ones, which implies that people just want to be free physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She does this by having Louise Mallard react to her husband’s death with joy and also not having any sort of bitterness or contempt over his passing either.
Bridget Burke Ravizza wrote the article, “Selling Ourselves on the Marriage Market” and is an assistant professor of religious studies at St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI. After talking with an unnamed group of college students, she discovers that “These college students have grown up in a society in which nearly half of all marriages end in divorce.” She also reveals “they are fearful that their future marriages will go down that path, and some question whether lifelong commitment can—or should—be made at all.” Furthermore, Ravizza finds that “students are bombarded with messages about sexuality and relationships—indeed messages about themselves—that seem to undermine authentic relationships.” Simply put, culture has accepted divorce as a “normal” thing and has already begun to affect the next generations. The surveyed students are so fearful of divorce, they are, in essence, afraid of marriage as well. They even go to the extreme of avoiding divorce by saying they may not get married at all to prevent the “undermining of an authentic relationship.”
Within these marriages, readers get a sense of how education plays an important role in a successful marriage, as this fulfills both of their dreams of personal identity. Although women in the nineteenth century were viewed to be superior wives and mothers, manage the household, and perform domestic tasks, it was important for women to become educated as “an education was supposed to enable these girls to become successful women in society” (Leigh 117). Women were not meant to be “trained” in some way to become good wives, but needed to be formally educated in order to be a successful wife and