False Picture of Marriage in The Dead by James Joyce and Odour of Chrysanthemums by D.H. Lawrence

Gabriel is rather opposite to the little boy because Gabriel is conscious of his actions, however, in both of these cases, love becomes a blinding factor to these characters (Gabriel and the little boy). Even though during the party Gabriel was anxious and nervous he remained calm and collected with the hopes of impressing his wife Gretta. Their relationship is almost one that should be admired. However, as Gretta was listening to The Lass of Aughrim being played Gabriel stood still and began observing, “There was grace and mystery in her attitude as if she were a symbol of something… If he were a painter he would paint her in that attitude” (Joyce 2192). In this brief moment husband and wife become strangers, the distance between them makes Gabriel see his wife in a new light. Although this may be arousing for him he questions how well he knows her. His connection to a painter depicts the idea that he is starting to understand the internal beauty of his muse, Gretta. Adding on, every painter starts with a blank canvas so Gabriel can ignore her mistakes and paint her without flaws, depicting Gretta perfect. Gabriel’s need to be accepted by this perfect woman is important to him because without her he feels insecure and degrades himself. Having a human interaction and being understood can demonstrate the social acceptance of these characters.

Harwood throws the readers the suggestions to acknowledge the most unlikeable elements of marriage and love. The truth that a woman’s self in Harwood’s time would be completely lost with her wedding vows. This becomes equally relevant to date because of questionable equality between the sexes. Harwood is therefore condoning the practices that endorse

Although most of the poem talks about Gabriel's wife being death and his way of taking that in to mind. It also discusses about him and how he was as a husband. For example, in lines 5-6 it says, "It hardly pained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life", that shows how he was not that good of a husband to her because it did not hurt him to know that his wife was dying next to him. Just like in lines 25-28, "...Aunt Kate would be sitting besides him, crying...telling him how Julia had died.

“They knew how to do screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements.” (Marquez, 18). When Angela Vicario is married away to Bayardo San Roman, a wealthy man from a respectable family name who could provide financial and materialistic support for Angela, but perhaps nothing more, it is revealed to the characters in the world of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, as well as to the readers, that Angela Vicario is not a virgin when she consummates during her short-lived marriage for the first time. Due to the preconceived expectations that are enforced upon women in the culture of the literary work, the discovery that Angela gave away her virginity to Santiago Nasar before marriage engenders an almost hysteria in Angela’s family. In summary, it is because of the objectifiable standards women are held to that Angela Vicario was seen as a victim of circumstance as well as a harlot all the same, and perhaps if women in the culture of the literary work were treated with more respect and allowed rights to their own body, Santiago and Angela’s sexual encounter could have remained as just that- a sexual encounter, and not an arguably justifiable motive for

Throughout history, marriage has focused on one of two things: money or love. In court, dowries, land, and titles were given to men who married daughters of kings, dukes, or other high members of society. This tradition has continued for hundreds of years. However, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, writers Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton decided to write about monetarily defined marriages and their corrupt qualities. Henry James, William Dean Howells, Wharton, and Chopin made up a few of the writers of the Realism period, which according to Donna Campbell at Washington State University is the “faithful representation of reality…” that “denotes the representation of middle class life.” This definition fits well with

Despite writing in different centuries, both writers explore the aspect of relationships in Joyce’s collection of short stories ‘Dubliners’ and Larkin’s collection of poems ‘The Whitsun Weddings’. Philip Larkin was writing in the 1960s when there was a huge revolution in social norms, such as attitudes towards sex, which is highlighted upon in his poem Wild Oats. In both Dockery and Son and The Boarding house, the writers express an unfulfilling view of love after marriage. Whereas Larkin believed having children sparked the catalyst to an unfulfilling relationship, as expressed in Dockery and son; James Joyce believed the influence of the 19th century Catholic Church was to blame for Dublin society restricting people from pursuing love, as expressed in The Boarding house. Yet Joyce’s writing also shows he probably did believe in true love, as reflected upon in his final short story The Dead. Joyce draws upon the struggle of having a marriage stuck in paralysis and uses an epiphany to elevate the deepest expression of love.

‘The Dead’ begins and ends in two entirely different places. What begins as a harmless portrait of simple human interactions, morphs slowly into an examination of the nature of time and memory. James Joyce uses every level of his writing in order to reveal this complex paradox. He breaks down the boundaries of life and death, of time and memory, by breaking down the structure of his grammar. He exposes the ambiguities of existence through the ambiguities of pronouns. In the midst of this acrobatic vernacular, Joyce is able to maintain the humanity of his ideas through the character of Gabriel. Gabriel, who undergoes a more dramatic change than the text itself, begins entirely average, too average. He is just sort of existing, no more, no less. His actions and moments of “passion” are comical, not visceral. His anger, his embarrassments are only perceived “as if” they existed not as though they actual do. Gabriel is in every way the embodiment of a self-referential figure. He is constantly outside of himself, judging and analyzing his actions, desperate to remain, as he has always been, average and innocuous. Joyce takes this figure and gives him the biggest epiphany of his life. In the final moments of the narrative, Gabriel realizes that memory allows both the living and the dead to live in a sort of timeless boundless space, where past, present and future are relative and interchangeable. In ‘The Dead’, Joyce uses this combination of linguistic, structural elements along

Towards the end of the story Gabriel’s wife Gretta hears a song that reminds her of Michael, her childhood lover. She began to cry over the remembrance of him and how he ultimately died for her. Though he was dead, Michael still affected Gretta, suggesting that the dead appears more alive than the living. Ironically Gabriel seemed to think that Michael was more alive than he was, and realized that he was competing with a dead man for his wife’s love. The conversation with his wife led Gabriel to contemplate his own life, which leads to a moment of self-realization. He realizes that was going through the motions of life, but not truly living. As he lay “His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead… his own identity

Atwood begins her story with scenario ‘A’, which both develops the foundation for the rest of the story, and highlights one of her secondary claims that a successful marriage is the idealized “happy ending” for society. In this introductory plot, Atwood establishes a clichéd ideal of a happy marriage, which is both uncomplicated and unrealistic. John and Mary are in love, possess remunerative jobs, a charming home, great children, a fulfilling sex life, and worthwhile friends (). Throughout her

Joyce continues to describe Gabriel’s outlook on both the world and the meaning of life with a dark and doleful tone. Gabriel imagines the frail form of Michael Furey, the man who did not fail in loving Gretta. He then thinks of the influence of the dead on his life, as well as on the lives of many others around the world. It is almost as if he begins to question his own existence as person on Earth, since Joyce mentions Gabriel contemplating his mortality by knowing that his “own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world” (2310), a world otherwise known as one that belongs to the dead. Joyce also mentions how Gabriel feels as if the world of the living is “dissolving and dwindling” (2310), thus emphasizing how he, a mortal living

In the book the conjugal notion of marriage says to be “the correct view of marriage, understood as a basic human good, [and] a distinctive way of thriving” (Anderson, George, Girgis 35). A hero in literature, according to An Introduction to Fiction, is “the central character in a narrative… [in which] the choice of words often implies a positive moral assessment of the character” (K&G 718). The almost stubbornness in this claim demonstrates the author’s theory that the conjugal view is a

Character Analysis In James Joyce’s “The Dead,” the character Gabriel is described as controlling, jealous, and insecure. In the opening of the narrative Gabriel is watching his wife sleep while contemplating on how beautiful she must of have been when she was young. The authors describes Gabriel as disconnect and somewhat regretful and depressed about himself and the relationship with his wife. He was extremely jealous to know his wife had another lover before him.

In addition, in the second paragraph we are enlightened by these words, “He watched her while she slept as though he and she never lived together as man and wife,” this text allows us to see the true emotion behind Gabriel. When we go through an almost impossible challenge as human beings we tend to deflect our true thoughts and feelings; we begin trying to push the feelings of loss, failure, defeat, regret so far down sometimes

On the other hand Gabriel is also shown as not carrying enough for his wife because she tries to talk about her problems and his mind is some other place.

England has always had a rich history of interesting cultural traditions but arguably none as prevalent as marriage. Marriage, the union of two people with emotional ideals and expectations, are brought on by many different factors that include: for love, for money, for climbing social status, escapism, survival, etc. In Jane Austen’s novels, she focuses on the importance of marriage in her world because she wanted to emphasize how marriage is the most important life event of a woman as this would determine her place in society. Persuasion shows readers good and bad examples of marriage: the amiable Crofts and other couples such as Sir Walter & Lady Elliot and the Smiths. Jane Austen uses the Crofts to support the importance of marriage