A Sorrowful Woman And Jarvik's Dead Right

“Why Did I Get Married?” directed and produced by Tyler Perry is a movie based on four couples who take a reunion vacation to the Colorado Mountains in order to reunite with friends from college. On this vacation things didn’t go according to plan. Throughout the movie there was heartbreak, infidelity, suppressed feelings, conflict, and secrets raging throughout each of the couples’ relationship in some aspect. With these unfortunate events occurred at various times throughout the film it cause their trip to evolve from a place to relax, enjoy friends, and time off from work into an emotional and tense atmosphere with the involved couple seeking validation from the other couples on the reason why their marriages are the way they are. Even though the movie ended on a good note in their celebration of Janet Jackson’s character (Pat) receiving an award one of the marriages did not survive. This couple’s relationship will be my focus for this paper.

Marriage unites two people for better or worse, in sickness and health, until death they do part. In earlier times, some people might say wedding vows were taken more seriously; other say divorce was different back in the day. Looking at Katie Chopin and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who both exemplify martial vows in their short stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “The Birthmark.” It is clear in one instance, it was because divorce was different but then on the other hand the stories demonstrate the seriousness of the wedding vows. However, these stories express a husband-dominated relationship, in which the men possess ideals such as possession, perfection, and being all knowing.

Television psychologists and pop culture self-help gurus tell us that marriage is hard work; marriage is compromise; marriage is a choice between being right, and being happy. All of these statements are true. What these experts don’t tell us, however, is that marriage is also about putting on blinders, or looking on the bright side, or one of a hundred other trite phrases to explain the art of self-deception. In marriage, there are times when we may find it necessary to look the other way from our spouse’s faults or indiscretions, in the interest of self-preservation. For if we examine these problems too closely, our darkest, most secret fears may come true. Therefore, it can seem easier to focus on the positive. In her poem “Surprise,” Jane Kenyon uses denial, selective perception, and fear of betrayal to illustrate the self-deception that can occur in marriage.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Sinclair Ross’s “The Painted Door” are both stories about women protagonists who feel emotionally isolated from their husbands, who both go by the name John. Ann in “The Painted the Door” and the wife whose name may or may not be Jane in “The Yellow Wallpaper” are women who deal with emotional isolation. Emotional isolation is a state of isolation where one may be in a relationship but still feel emotional separation. In these two stories, both women feel emotionally isolated from their husbands due to lack of communication. In both stories, lack of communication results from one individual failing to disclose their true feelings and instead he or she are beating around the bush, hoping the other party will know what they want. If both parties directly disclose their desires and feelings to one another, there would be a better understanding of each other which as a result would help save marriages. This paper will look at how both women lack communication, how they both their approach their emotional isolation differently, and how their failure to communicate to their husbands and their approach, results in the failure to save their marriage. “The Painted Door” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” are stories that show how both women protagonists are emotionally isolated due to their failure to communicate their feelings and desires to their husbands. Instead of direct communication to their husbands, the women find other

“Wife-Wooing” is written by John Updike and was published in the New Yorker in 1960. In this short story, John Updike portrays the life of an ordinary family, which he portrays through marriage. Throughout the story, Updike uses vocabulary that makes him extremely different from society. Another aspect that makes this story different are no Character names are mentioned in the short story. Although, no characters’ names are mentioned in the story Updike describes the husband and wife so well that readers will be able to relate and understand each character. A wide variety of love is displayed in “Wife-Wooing”. Misogyny also takes place in the short story.

One could say that they become so close that they each become half of one heart. In the poem “Marriage of Many Years” by Dana Gioia, marriage is described as a way for two people to become closer than ever before. It is a process where the two mutually grow and share memories with one another. Through this process she says that her partner has become “a language I have learned by heart” (Gioia). By comparing their love to a language, shows how natural their relationship has become. Their love has allowed them to become one unit and understand each other like it is second nature. This contrasts greatly to how marriages used to work in the past. No longer are women expected to make changes for the man. Each partner makes changes to ensure that the other is content with the

Frequently, married couples value the stability of their relationship over the true pillars of marriage; trust, connection, compatibility, and most importantly, love. This leads to a desperate attempt to grow love in the relationship, which often fails. Such is the case in the short story, “The Other Paris,” by Mavis Gallant. Here, Gallant portrays her disagreement with this idea of love through her mocking tone and sarcastic characterization of Carol and Howard Mitchell.

The short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston seems to exemplify what a dysfunctional marriage is. Hurston uses foreshadowing, irony, and symbolism to demonstrate the relationship between an abusive husband and a wife. In the story, it’s clear to see that the husband, Skyes, doesn’t operate by the saying “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Hurston’s use of literary elements shows that Sykes will get what he deserves. In Hurston’s “Sweat,” the reader can see from the beginning the physical and mental abuse that Sykes places on Delia.

Modern literature is known for questioning society and its various conventions. One question that these works often ask is, “What is real?” Some modern authors explore this question by placing their characters within self-constructed illusions that are later shattered by the introduction of reality. Marriages are frequently at the center of this theme, with one spouse crafting an illusory impression of the other. Modern literature demonstrates that a marriage built upon illusion will falter when exposed to reality.

“Till death do us part”. When taken literally, this is a powerful, committing set of words that over two million Americans swear to each year as they tie the knot. Despite the intensity of this phrase, the American Psychological Association shares that the current divorce rate in the United States is 40-50 percent. Suffice to say, the majority of these divorcees do not end their marriages because of death, but rather due to relationship troubles that darken the once bright light that shone over their spouse. The concept of marriage has been around for centuries and through the years the roles of males and females within this sacred partnership has evolved to its state. Historical literature has suggested that, particularly for females, complete transparency, freedom, and expression whilst being a part of a marriage has not always been easy to own. The work of several writers and public figures has reflected this theme, as they looked to highlight many of the consequences brought onto women who have devoted themselves to a man. Evident from these pieces of work, strict limitations have been placed upon women in the marriage arena, which has considerably reduced the freedom that they

Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” was written with a double purpose. First, the purpose is to provide different ways that marriages and relationships can be. The second purpose is that she is devoted to challenge writers to examine their way to ease into their plots and ways of writing. This short story is far from a traditional story. Atwood wrote six different scenarios that implicate the same characters.

People ruin their lives with romantic ideas, excessive demands, obsessions, intolerance, rules fanatism, political ideals and causes which ultimately lead to disharmony in their lives. He gives a positive approach to family, love and marriage through his novels with his characters who initially don’t accept it’s importance but by the end of the novel they realize it. With the same fervor John.J.Robinson, the author of the book Of Suchness (1980), writes about love, sex and marital

Marital discord is as old as the organization of marriage itself, even if it has diverged from time to time and from person to person. In the pre-industrial period, men and women who came jointly in marriage shared intellectual values, mutual dedication, belief and hope

They each begin with marriages that contain secrets and tension. The main characters try to figure out what the problems are and how to fix them. However, they have very limited insights as to what marriage is really like. These first two pieces also show that although a marriage may seem successful and happy from an outsiders point of view, there is a lot more complexities into marriage than presumed. The protagonists of the stories judge and observe the marriages failures even though they cannot fully understand what it takes to keep a marriage

In the short story “They’re not your Husband”, Raymond Carver describes the society in the 20th century by emphasizing the relationship between the characters.