Woman’s Most Distinguishing Quality
St. Paul once said, “Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love-- and the greatest of these is love.” Throughout history, the power of faith, hope, and love have repeatedly proved themselves to be unstoppable forces that can overcome any challenge, such as the loss of a loved one. In the story “The Wife of His Youth” written by Charles W. Chesnutt, the main character, Mr. Ryder, meets Liza, a woman from his past, whose loyalty and fidelity cause a change of character. At the beginning, Mr. Ryder is portrayed as a more shallow man who has more or less selfish reasons for marrying another woman named Molly Dixon. However, throughout the duration of an exchange he has with Liza, a part of his
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Ryder describes his love for Ms. Dixon, his soon-to-be fiancé. The details about her that he highlights are extremely apparent and seem to be only surface-deep qualities which ultimately will assist his escalation in the social stratum. For example, he shares how young, pale, and well educated she is. His infatuation with her physical characteristics, as well as the social advancement marrying her would give him, expose his ulterior motive which is to be fully accepted by the white community. Mr. Ryder believes that in order for the people of “mixed complexions” to be accepted “...[they] must do the best [they] can for [themselves] and those who are to follow [them]. Self-preservation is the first law of nature” (4). At this point in the story, he prioritizes self-preservation above loyalty. Through his dialogue and thoughts, it can also be inferred that Mr. Ryder’s only fidelity is to himself. Though not directly stated, it can be assumed that Mr. Ryder is mainly marrying Ms. Dixon for personal gain because of how he is portrayed by Chesnutt. His character lacks the sense of devotion that Sam, the man Mr. Ryder used to be, once had for Liza when they were both slaves. When his life depended on a “self-preservation” mindset in order to escape, it caused him to lose sight of who he is and the promise he had made to Liza to be faithful. When free in the North, Sam is lost and Mr. Ryder, a man of selfish …show more content…
Ryder is reintroduced to Liza. As she talks with him, her sense of devotion and loyalty awakens a part of Mr. Ryder that he had since then locked away. The authenticity of her voice when she talks about Sam,leads Mr. Ryder to uncover the memory of a man Liza had once held so highly in her thought. When Mr. Ryder challenges Sam’s loyalty to Liza she responds with, “He would n’ marry no yuther ‘ooman ‘tel he foun’ out ‘bout me. I knows it” (9). Then she goes on to say, “Sam ain’ dat kin’er man. He wuz good ter me, Sam wuz…” (10) after Mr. Ryder asks if Sam would ever abandon her to be “in [a] world where he wouldn't care to have [her] find him” (10). Liza believes in Sam so much so that she travels around the country searching for him for twenty-five years. The love she expresses through her dedication is what persuades Mr. Ryder to look past himself and revives someone who he had hid deep down. Though he tried to suppress the memories of his past self, he was not able to ignore Liza’s faith in a man who was so in love that he promised to either risk his life in order to help her escape, or save up to buy her her freedom. The scene ends with him “gazing thoughtfully at the reflection of his own face” (11) after Liza leaves. Her encounter with him encourages him to reflect on who he is and the sacrifices he made in order to be where is
In The Wife of His Youth by Charles Chesnutt, he shows many predicaments of post-emancipation life. One of these predicaments is that the social status of freedmen compared to white men left little room for improvement and made it hard for them to survive. The freedmen were illiterate and not used to being out on their own, because as a slave all they had to do was work in the fields. They were still viewed as inferior, but had little to no jobs to provide money for the necessities in life. Another predicament shown in the story was how when they were slaves they were sold to different plantation owners and separated from their family and people they care about. This caused many of them to search for years after they were released, with the hope that they would one day find their loved ones.
A History of Marriage by Stephanie Coontz speaks of the recent idealization of marriage based solely on love. Coontz doesn’t defame love, but touches on the many profound aspects that have created and bonded marriages through time. While love is still a large aspect Coontz wants us to see that a marriage needs more solid and less fickle aspects than just love.
In the end, readers are unsure whether to laugh or cry at the union of Carol and Howard, two people most undoubtedly not in love. Detailed character developments of the confused young adults combined with the brisk, businesslike tone used to describe this disastrous marriage effectively highlight the gap between marrying for love and marrying for ?reason.? As a piece written in the 1950s, when women still belonged to their husbands? households and marriages remained arranged for class and money?s sake, Gallant?s short story excerpt successfully utilizes fictional characters to point out a bigger picture: no human being ought to repress his or her own desires for love in exchange for just an adequate home and a tolerable spouse. May everyone find their own wild passions instead of merely settling for the security and banality of that ?Other Paris.?
The couple, Mel states, was driving down the interstate when an intoxicated nineteen-year-old “plowed his dad’s pickup truck” into the couple’s camper (146). Though the driver was pronounced dead on arrival, the couple survived. They were, however, in critical condition. During their recovery, Mel states, the man was depressed: even after learning that his wife was safe. The reason being that, “…he [the man] couldn’t see [his wife] through his eye –holes…his heart was breaking because he couldn’t turn his goddamn head and see his goddamn wife”, an idea that would, by popular accounts, define the real nature of true love: of the two becoming one (151). Despite his self-proclaimed knowledge on the topic of love, Mel cannot fathom the thought of two people having such a level of affection for one another that the reality of not being able to see one another interferes with their ability to heal. As a cardiologist, it is Mel’s job to fix broken hearts. It is the one area where he feels he can relate to the heart. Yet with this couple, though he could physically mend the man’s broken heart, Mel cannot mend the man’s heartache. This leaves Mel feeling confused and
In “The Wife of His Youth,” Liza Jane also delineates deceptive in having social equity. She was married to a slave in the civil war. Her husband was a light skinned slave who managed to escape the slavery and he vowed to come back and get her. Nevertheless, he left his life, and created a new name and life to become allowed into a white society. Liza Jane the wife always knew her true identity in the story. Even in the period of of slavery, she accepted her past and worked as a housewife, meanwhile her husband worked in the plantation. While this life was troubling, she stayed hopeful to maybe come back together with her husband after the civil war ended. Liza Jane searched twenty five years for her husband Sam Taylor. She stayed a loyal housewife and had hope in her husband thinking that he will return looking for her. Mr. Ryder was going to give a ball, there were various seasonings why this was an suitable time for such an occasion. Mr. Ryder can be suitable the president of the Blue Veins. The original Blue Veins was a civilization of colored people gathered in a certain Northern city shortly following the end of the
Not all characters get a happy ending, and a particular character’s husband turned out to be someone much different than who she believed to be marrying. Through dishonesty, confusion, and chicanery, each character had a helping hand in dishing out each other’s fate, but nonetheless, the relationships that resulted in a law-binding marriage beat destiny and overcame every hardship standing in the way of love and happiness.
Ryder being the dean of the Blue Vein Society, he met many people, but one person really stood out to him and her name was Margaret Dixon. Margaret was a light-skinned young lady who was very high class, charming, and educated. Mr. Ryder fell in love with her the very moment he met her and wanted to prove this to her by planning a ball in her honor, so he could propose to her. Since Margaret had so many great assets about herself, Mr. Ryder thought she would be a great wife for him because she would not only continue to help him grow in society but also help him with his social status. By doing this Mr. Ryder shows his true colors because is signifies his hypocrisy due to the fact that he isn’t only wanting to marry her, so he can benefit, but also because he is still a married man. Mr. Ryder’s wife Liza is anything but acceptable to him and his society, and since he left Liza behind to create a new life it goes to show what kind of man he is. Liza as well as Mr. Ryder has experienced slavery, however she never once tried to cover up her heritage. Instead, she spent the past 25 years working all while trying to find her long-lost husband. The racial inequality is shown very clear when comparing Ryder’s new life and Liza’s, Liza embraced her background while Mr. Ryder was trying to write his off. In doing so, it portrays the inequality and weakness between societies. However, if Mr. Ryder marries Margaret he thinks it will eventually cover up his past. On the other
“Like a river flows so surely to the sea darling, so it goes some things are meant to be.” In literature there have been a copious amount of works that can be attributed to the theme of love and marriage. These works convey the thoughts and actions in which we as people handle every day, and are meant to depict how both love and marriage can effect one’s life. This theme is evident in both “The Storm” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman; both stories have the underlying theme of love and marriage, but are interpreted in different ways. Both in “The Storm” and in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the women are the main focus of the story. In “The Storm” you have Calixta, a seemingly happy married woman who cheats on her husband with an “old-time infatuation” during a storm, and then proceeds to go about the rest of her day as if nothing has happened when her husband and son return. Then you have “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the narrator—who remains nameless—is basically kept prisoner in her own house by her husband and eventually is driven to the point of insanity.
The Wife of His Youth In Charles Chestnutt’s “The Wife of His Youth,” Liza Jane is a woman who is determined to find her long-lost husband, Sam Taylor. When he ran away from slavery and escaped up north, he left his wife behind. He changed his name to Mr. Ryder, to forget his past with slavery. Soon he became involved with a group called the Blue Veins, which were a group of people who believed in the preservation of light skinned blacks. In this group, he was known as the dean.
Where Blanche's marriage, to a man whom she dearly loved (Miller 43), proved catastrophic to her, Stella's marriage seems to be fulfilling her...
Love caused his logic and sensibility to fail him, and provoked him to commit monstrous acts that destroyed many lives. Through analysis of “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, it can be concluded that one of her many intended lessons was to show the value and the powerful effects of love. Atwood successfully proved this lesson by using powerful examples of both successful and disastrous relationships to illustrate the positive and negative effects of love. Atwood truly demonstrated what it is like to follow your heart.
Brockmeier’s short story represents a damaged marriage between a husband and a wife simply due to a different set of values and interests. Brockmeier reveals that there is a limit to love; husbands and wives will only go so far to continually show love for each other. Furthermore, he reveals that love can change as everything in this ever changing world does. More importantly, Brockmeier exposes the harshness and truth behind marriage and the detrimental effects on the people in the family that are involved. In the end, loving people forever seems too good to be true as affairs and divorces continually occur in the lives of numerous couples in society. However, Brockmeier encourages couples to face problems head on and to keep moving forward in a relationship. In the end, marriage is not a necessity needed to live life fully.
She would not have grieved over someone she did not love. Even in the heat of her passion, she thinks about her lost love. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked safe with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. Her love may not have been the greatest love of all time, but it was still love. Marriage was not kind to Mrs. Mallard, her life was dull and not worth living, her face showed the years of repression.
married. However, “for pragmatic reasons, the author’s conclusions favor marriage as the ultimate solution, but her pairings predict happiness” (“Austen, Jane”). Als...
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...