In reading, one finds that a common thread runs through the fabric of the material that one encounters within the pages of literary works. Zora Neale Hurston’s Sweat, A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, and The Yellow Wallpaper, penned by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, all deal with the interpersonal relationships shared by a man and wife. The three selections shared a familiar theme and, as it turned out, characters with similar circumstances hosted the tales. While each couple came from different backgrounds, Sykes and Delia, Minnie and John Wright, and Ann and John managed to turn the concept of wedded bliss inside out. Perhaps love is universal, but spouses rarely survive in a perfect manner.
To address the common themes, one must first consider the ingredients that resulted in this potent concoction. Sweat was based in Florida in the midst of the 1920s and the meat of the story unfolded in a
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small home inhabited by one Miss Delia and one devilish husband named Sykes. As a struggling low-income minority family, problems were bound to develop. Sykes physically and verbally abused his wife and did little to bring money into the house, all the while publicly cheating on her. In A Jury of Her Peers, Mrs. Minnie Wright was a hard-working housewife to a husband who had broken her spirit. The narrative took place in the aftermath of John Wright’s death as the authorities were investigating their quiet little farm house. The newly widowed Minnie Wright became the prime suspect. The town biddies were put in charge of collecting a few of Mrs. Wright’s things as the men searched the house for significant clues, and happened to come across a small, yet disturbing clue that pointed to the motive. In the case of The Yellow Wallpaper, John locked Ann away in a room and tried to discourage her from the one thing that brought her pleasure--her poetry, in favor of rest. Despite the fact that her husband seemed caring and at least somewhat attentive, Ann was still abused, although in a different manner. Her spirit was broken just as the others were. Removing everything from her presence that could potentially occupy her mind, eventually drove the woman mad. In light of these similarities, one can easily say that spousal abuse and escape are two very prominent themes.
A woman of broken spirits is not really living. In each of these cases, abuse within the marriage occurred over a period of time, and eventually the wives broke. In two of the scenarios, the abusive husbands lost their lives; however, in the third, the wife finally appeared to have completely lost her wits. The male roles in these pieces of literature did not validate the female roles; women were made to feel inferior, as if they didn’t know better. As stated here, men were commonly found “leaving women to unravel mysteries and then keep real stories hidden in a dark pocket where men will never think to look.” (“Literary Interpretation”) Love did not triumph--neglect and abuse won out in all three scenarios. In each of the stories, some sort of escape or revenge prevailed for the wife. Abuse and neglect must eventually go hand-in-hand with escape and revenge in a more concise manner than the idea that marriage and love go hand-in-hand with one
another. In sepia-tinted photographs, many people picture marriage as a beautiful stroll through life emotionally connected with the love of your life. However, this is not generally the case. Married life is a tough row to hoe. As reflected in these short stories, husbands and wives often drift apart and as the wife devotes herself to hard work, she loses her heart and soul. Romantic love is almost a concept to be scoffed at when peering out of the windows of these types of stories. The inkling of love is a very twisted version of romantic love. Love is not coherently present in the marriages depicted. To draw up the loose ends, the commonalities found within the three short stories depicted the way that men and women treat one another in dysfunctional marriages. Several lessons can be taught here--evil will be driven out, two wrongs never make a right, and ignoring the problem will not make it go away. Regardless of social standing and background, abuse can take place in any marriage. Abuse does not always have to be verbal or physical, it can take place when a spouse is neglected and needs are not met. To be sure, marriage is not as full of love as most would like to believe.
Mrs. Ames from “The Astronomer’s Wife” and Elisa Allen from “The Chrysanthemums”, two women in their best ages, did share similar lives. They were loyal wives, of decent beauty and good manners. They were married for some time, without any children and they were fighting the dullness of their marriages. At first, it looked like they were just caught in marriage monotony, but after the surface has been scratched deeper, it was clear that these two women were crying for attention: but they had different reasons.
Essentially, to acquire a healthy marriage, a few keys to success are commitment, good communication skills, trust, and patience. Without these qualities, marriages can immerse in negativity which often leads to divorce. In Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh” and Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, a failing marriage seems to be the similar theme. Both short stories provide instabilities in their relationships and how they lack these fundamental qualities. In “Shiloh,” Leroy and Norma Jean deal with the loss of a child; the grief and unsupportive environment leaves their marriage questionable. In “Cathedral,” the nameless narrator becomes jealous when his wife, who is also nameless, invites an old friend Robert to stay the night after the visitor’s wife
Harwood uses poetry to document her experiences and observations of marriage. She opens her life to the reader as she shares personal and intimate reflections on her choices in life. By this Harwood is able to re-create a vivid image of a life of a married lady during the 1940’s. Gwen Harwood was married during the year 1945 and moved with her husband, William Harwood, to Tasmania and away from her beloved childhood home in Brisbane. This change in Harwood’s life was a struggle as she did not completely agree to the move that will forever be thought of negatively. Harwood’s struggle of acceptance of her new life was evident in her poem “Iris”. In the poem Harwood looks at the positives and negatives of a marital relationship. Harwood uses the word ‘…singularity…’ to describe her relationship, this word makes the point that her and her husband have become one unit in which they walk through life and experience the good and the bad together. As well as having positive co...
In “The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed female protagonist is going through a rough time in her life. (For now on, this paper will refer to this unnamed character as the “the narrator in ‘Wall-paper,’” short for “The Yellow Wall-paper. The narrator is confined to room to a room with strange wall-paper. This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse. At first there is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free. The institute of marriage ties the two heroines of these two short stories together. Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were expected to stay married. Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo. This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters.
Symbolism is a literary device in which words, phrases or actions allude to something more than their literal meanings. In the short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, a major example of symbolism is the quilt. The quilt is perhaps the biggest example because it can be tied to many other examples of symbolism within the story, and can also be interpreted in different ways.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of the Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are viewed from a woman’s perspective in the nineteenth century. They show the issues on how they are confined to the house. That they are to be stay at home wives and let the husband earn the household income. These stories are both written by American women and how their marriage was brought about. Their husbands were very controlling and treated them more like children instead of their wives. In the nineteenth century their behavior was considered normal at the time. In “The Story of the Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” both women explore their issues on wanting to be free from the control of their husband’s.
It is safe to say that the box next to the “boring, monotone, never-ending lecture” has been checked off more than once. Without the use of rhetorical strategies, the world would be left with nothing but boring, uniform literature. This would leave readers feeling the same way one does after a bad lecture. Rhetorical devices not only open one’s imagination but also allows a reader to dig deep into a piece and come out with a better understanding of the author’s intentions. Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Wife’s Story” is about a family that is going through a tough spot. However, though diction, imagery, pathos, and foreshadowing Guin reveals a deep truth about this family that the reader does not see coming.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" and the "Astronomer's Wife" both portray the idea that over time lust and love that is not true love fades. Both of these stories are based on marriages where love is nonexistent. There may have been some form of love or affection in the beginning, but it was not true love. Neither of the marriages in these stories have the warmth and comfort that is usually associated in marriage. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" the marriage is more like a doctor-patient relationship rather than a husband-wife relationship. The marriage in the "Astronomer's Wife" is more l...
“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.
Immediately, the narrator stereotypes the couple by saying “they looked unmistakably married” (1). The couple symbolizes a relationship. Because marriage is the deepest human relationship, Brush chose a married couple to underscore her message and strengthen the story. The husband’s words weaken their relationship. When the man rejects his wife’s gift with “punishing…quick, curt, and unkind” (19) words, he is being selfish. Selfishness is a matter of taking, just as love is a matter of giving. He has taken her emotional energy, and she is left “crying quietly and heartbrokenly” (21). Using unkind words, the husband drains his wife of emotional strength and damages their relationship.
Can a story contain more than one antagonist? In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman there is an overwhelming amount of conflict the unnamed narrator must endure. The protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the narrator who is suffering from depression and is taken to a house for the summer to rest. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the wallpaper is the antagonist because it causes the narrator to have a breakdown at the end of the short story; John, the narrator’s husband, cannot be the antagonist because he is doing what he believes is best for her, and the narrator cannot be the antagonist because she wants to improve her mental state.
Marriage can be seen as a subtle form of oppression, like many things which are dictated by social expectations. In Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour, Louise Mallard finds herself in distress due to the event of her husband’s death that makes her question who she is as a person. The author cleverly uses this event to create the right atmosphere for Mrs. Mallard to fight against her own mind. As the short story progresses, we see that Mrs. Mallard moves forward with her new life and finds peace in her decision to live for herself. This shows that marriage too is another chain that holds oneself back. Not wanting to admit this to herself, Louise
Edith Wharton, was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in literature, she wrote a lot of stories that focused on marriage. Many of her stories are set in the high society world of America in the 1900’s. An example of this, is the short story she wrote called “The Other Two” which takes place in 1904 in New York. “The Other Two” discuss the concepts divorce in the early 1900’s and adaptive behavior which is based on Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the fittest”.
The bleak tone of this story takes a particularly sad and disturbing tinge when the wife illustrates a scene from early on in her marriage where she tries to get her husband to satisfy her desire and provide her with mutual satisfaction, only to have him rebuke and reprimand her. In fact, the husband responds in such a particularly brusque and hysterical manner that the reader can see how traumatized the wife would have been at ...
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.