Privacy and Marriage in To Room Nineteen, by Doris Lessing

Objective – Explain basic sociological concepts of the family, marriage, and intimate relationships. (Pg. 365)

The family shows both continuity and changes which can be seen by looking at nuclear families and single parent families respectively. Before 1940s, marriage was considered an important part of society and thought to be a social institution essential for order. Divorce and single parent families were considered dreadful, sex outside marriage was not acceptable, it was a moral offense. The tempo of divorces was very low, but this social behavior soon ended in the post war era. By 1960s, this was no longer the case, as women started to work. They became much more independent, laws were changed and increase in divorces and cohabitation rates had shown that marriage was not compulsory in one’s life.

The idea of women being the ‘nurturers’ and the men being the ‘providers’ has been around for ages. Both articles suggest that this idea no longer fits in with the modern ideas of marriage because marriage is now seen as an equally shared experience. The concept that the work in a marriage and raising children should be shared equally between partners has become an expectation. Each article points out expectations their partners have and how these assumptions lead to angry

Throughout this article Brady uses ethos, logos, and pathos to illustrate her opinion that the wife does too much in a family. Brady connects with her audience by relating to what was expected of them back in the 1970’s. She states reasons to why she wants a wife and lists what she says a wife would do for her. Lastly, Brady connects emotionally to her audience by

Power, dynamics and stress have an effect on family and marriage livelihood. Family and marriage examinations help therapists to identify relational developments, family developments and the stress factors involved. The therapists are able to determine the systemic aspects seen in a family relationship through establishing time for dialogical communications (Harold Goolishian, 1988). The studies can either be based on fictional prospects or scientific research. The relational theories and processes involved help in studying a particular connection among the family members. Through applying psychological hypothesis in the case study, it helps people to understand the different behaviors of people.

While both authors stand on the idea of marriage changing in roles, Hope Edelman in “ The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was,” inserts her view about marriage in her own experience that shows her attitude on marriage mainly through her husband leaving all the responsibility toward her. When parents are not there for their kids, often times kids feel unattached with their parents creating a weaker bond. Edelman’s frustration came from having a dream of marrying happily to having it demolished.

In her article “The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was”, author Hope Edelman claims that perhaps the ideal, balanced, and harmonious marriage that many couples yearn for is merely an unachievable myth. Edelman’s anger and frustration drives her essay as she recounts her childhood, analyzes societal gender roles, and narrates her own relationship in order to explore the concept of shared responsibility in a marriage.

A main reason why there is a division of household sphere is the fact that society affects the way people identify their manhood and womanhood, which creates a family devotion scheme. In Hochschild, The Second Shift identified three types of gender

In this essay I will explore the different schools of feminism such as Marxist, liberal and radical feminism, who share the view that women are oppressed in a patriarchal society but differ in opinion on who benefits from the inequalities. Each school of feminism has their own understanding of family roles and relationships which I will assess through this essay.

In “The State of Marriage of the 90s” the author, Sally Macdonald states that marriage has majorly changed from the sixties    . The stereotypical gender roles in marriage have been blurred and instead of the the man being the “breadwinner”, women are also becoming the breadwinner to make this a team effort.  This article connects to Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter” because Shoba is a business woman and is just as much the breadwinner as Shukumar is. This author writes about how marriage has changed so much and some people get married for forever or just for a temporary time, Shoba and Shukumar are the ones that were married for a temporary time and fell apart over something they could’ve worked through. Divorce rates ranged from six to

In To Room 19, Susan Rawlings becomes emotionally and physically isolated from her family after learning of her husband’s infidelity. Susan struggles with processing the affair; intelligent Susan tries to ignore the affair and act like it didn’t matter “the whole thing was not important” (866 Lessing), emotional Susan is confused and betrayed. Susan’s inner turmoil over the affair causes her to begin to crave complete isolation from her family and the world around her. “In that case why did Susan feel…as if life had become a desert, and that nothing mattered, and that her children were not her own?” (867 Lessing). In The Yellow Wallpaper, the storyteller becomes isolated following the birth of her first child. Her isolation, unlike Susan’s is involuntary. Having been diagnosed by her husband with “temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency” (580 Gilman), the storyteller is “absolutely forbidden to work” (581 Gilman) until she is well. Although she believes that “congenial work with excitement and change” (581 Gilman) would benefit her, she yields to

Falicov, C.J., & Brudner-White, L. (1983). The shifting family triangle: The issue of cultural and

Contemporary Home, by Jack O. Balswick and Judith K. Balswick comprise of various approaches in biblical, theological, cultural, and sociological perspectives. The author focus is strictly to “integrated view of contemporary family life based on current social-science research, clinical insights, and biblical truth. The background of the author’s work is from a previous edition upgraded with current changes in our “modern society including a section on marriage, mate selection, cohabitation, expansion of family life, parenting, rearing children, adolescent, challenges of the later-life premarital cohabitation, recognition of the importance of biosocial influence, and the interactive effect of bio-psycho-socio-cultural factors to understand family dynamics. The audience of this book are for families and marriage in conflict, every life stage, maintaining balance through the joys, pains, ups, and downs,

Marriage is the joining of two people as husband and wives according to laws and customs. In our society today, women get married of their own free will and gain respect from their spouse. "A dream of the 21st century" is a story written by " Winnifred Harper Cooly". It is about a young women's dream. She imagines that women in the 21st century will have a better place in the society. Ideal marriages in the 19th century were very hard to achieve and most of the time, they were without true love. This short story portrays that women of that time would marry someone to overcome financial difficulties. It also describes the lack of respect between the married couples.

Secondly, Women‘s liberation also made a big “bang” in family’s function. Recall to the traditional nuclear family, the position of women is being as a “good wife or a good mother” and limited within household’s area and husband’s authority, so Women’s liberation changed this image into a “potential good worker” because it lifted women’s position into a higher level. Starting at the 1960s, women had more chances to enrol in the paid work world and to join in more social activities. David Popenoe (1991) has investigated that women employment rate is increasing twice as much as it used to be. Therefore, this permutation of women’s social position also affects and changes the function of the nuclear family.