The Decision Is Made For You

(Lines 434-440). This shows that she sees that controlling husbands are negative things and believes that men should obey their wife or they would not be able to live a long

John Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums” features many themes: themes of gender suppression, love, passion, and betrayal. This short story revolves around the character Elisa Allen who has a strong love and a great passion for her flowers, for her beloved chrysanthemums. However, when a mysterious man arrives towards the end of the text Elisa’s love and passion for the chrysanthemums weakens and she feels betrayed by one of the things she loves most. Steinbeck uses the unlikely encounter between the Tinker and Elisa, as well as, the encounter between Elisa and her husband as a way to express the theme of love and betrayal.

These flowers serve as a constant reminder of this fertility-- not just to the reader, but also to the handmaids, whose main purpose is to reproduce. They are everywhere in the setting: a “watercolor picture of blue irises” (14) in Offred’s room; a “fanlight of colored glass: flowers red and blue” (15) at the end of the hallway just outside that room; the bathroom, “papered in small blue flowers, forget-me-nots, with curtains to match” (74); on the dining room table, “white cloth, silver, flowers” (78); the “magic flower,” the “withered daffodil” (115) Offred steals from Serena’s Parlor; the “starry canopy of silver flowers” (233) adorning the Commander’s bed. The flowers serve as hidden, almost subconscious reminders of the handmaids’ sole purpose of fertility; they are usually mentioned offhandedly, as miniscule, unimportant, yet ever-present details. However, they are sometimes more directly noted and compared to ideas of fertility, as in the case of Serena Joy’s

Sarty's mother expresses her emotions towards the actions of her husband, but at the same time she respects him. She is against the violence and destruction that he creates, but doesn't

When he states a bad comment of her flowers, she quickly reacts and had the potential to deal with him. Elisa states ‘“It’s a good bitter smell,” she retorted, “not nasty at all”’ (Steinbeck 5). After all he tried to solve the problem that he had with Elisa and told her of a woman he knew on the road who likes chrysanthemums too. He began to explain that she had a flower garden; but she didn’t know how to grow chrysanthemum flowers. Then he convinced her to give some chrysanthemum flowers to him.

The chrysanthemums tell the readers what Elisa struggle is like in her life. Such as her trying to find and fulfill herself as a woman. The author uses the flowers in the story to represent Elisa Allen’s thought and ideas. Elisa relates herself to her flowers a few times and by doing so you can tell in the begging of the story how frustrated, lonely, and broken of a woman she is. Her husband is always too busy for her and he doesn’t pay attention her or her needs as a woman. Elisa Allen finds a breach for her dissatisfied life, in her garden where she grows her beautiful chrysanthemums. She takes pride in her chrysanthemums, which is a symbol of herself. The author uses these flowers as a symbol to represent the soft spirit of Elisa. They also symbolize the limitations and restrictions in her life as a woman. It is clear as day that she is in a failing relationship with a man who doesn’t even admire her as woman. But still she stands tall as an emotionally strong woman. "Elisa stiffened and her face grew tight. Henry stopped short and looked at her. "Why-why, Elisa. You look so nice!" "Nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by nice'?" Henry blundered on "I don't know. I mean you look different strong and happy." "I am strong? Yes, strong." (Steinbeck 243) That quote there shows Elisa strength of mind. Elisa took good care of her flowers just like she did her house, both were neat and ordered very carefully. As

Marriage is a commitment of spending the rest of one’s life with someone he or she cherishes deeply. It is the joining of two people in a bond that lasts until death, but in practice is increasingly cut short by divorce/ separation. Most people claim that they want their marriage to last a lifetime, and who wouldn’t? However, over half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. In 2010, Paul Amato published a statement on divorce in the prestigious Journal of Marriage and Family. He states, “At the end of the 20th century, 43% - 46% of marriages were predicted to end in dissolution.” In the short poem written by Washington Irving “Rip Van Winkle”, Rips relationship with his wife was horrible because of the point of view, characters, and symbolism.

It is almost impossible to have a successful relationship when beginning with hardship. “She [has] refused him as himself. – And this [has] been her life, and his life.” With the short amount of time humans have to live, there is no time to live in pity and regret. Elizabeth has the idea that her husband is staying out at bars while she is home taking care of the kids miserable and worried. This is not how a healthy marriage works. Elizabeth realizes she never even loved her husband and was only attracted to the lust when D.H. Lawrence says, “There had been nothing between them, and yet they had come together, exchanging their nakedness repeatedly.” She comes to the realization that the only reason she has stuck around is for her family and social acceptance.

There is a noticeable difference between marriage in fiction and marriage in reality. No matter how hard we try to embellish the latter, the former is always more alluring. Indulging in clichéd romance storybook and movie endings—where both the heroic female and male leads swear eternal love to each other—bring undeniable pleasure to us. Marriage (at least for the main characters) is often utilized in fictional mediums (such as storybooks and movies) as the ultimate “happy ending.” It is one of the best indicators that peace is restored, the heroes are rewarded, and it leaves the audience or reader in a feel-good state. Those endings reinforce the hope that such marriages can also be achieved in our own lives, but we often fail to account for one thing: what happens to the marriage after the credits roll? What happens to the marriage once the last page is turned? Desperation Passes by Phil Hutcheon and A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby reveal that marriage is not a “happy ending”—it is an arduous journey. It can be ugly, revolting, and a tiresome. Utilizing instances of struggling marriages from Desperation Passes (Allenby’s divorce), A Long Way Down (Martin’s divorce and affair), and my own life, I will expound upon the idea that life after holy matrimony can be rigorous.

After the while she realized that Charles was boring and her marriage life was not like she expected before. Charles did not felling to his wife, and he was busy because his job as a doctor, so it hurt their relationships, and made to them far away from each other. She never succeeded like a wife because he did not love her husband. On the other hand, she did not successful as a mother. She had a little girl, but she never took care about him because at first she wanted to have a boy. She thought that the boy will be grow up more freely and makes his dreams to become true. She failed with

She holds tight to beautiful memories of past lovers as she gazes upon her lovely and fragile flowers. The man steals a flower from the woman's vase and looks at it intermittently throughout the play, his eyes filled with rapture because the flower reminds him of the woman. Her death is foretold by the death and decay of this flower. The fact of the flower's death also indicates that this relationship is doomed from the very beginning to death and decay.

Love is the greatest gift God could give to mankind. Its’ sole intention is to bring people together to a time called forever. However, love is the reason behind Daisy Buchanan and Clarissa Dalloway’s unhappiness in life. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is married to a man named Tom, but her heart belongs to a man named Gatsby. Similarly, in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway is in love with a man named Peter, however is married to a man named Richard. Both women give up their true love in order to marry a wealthy man, and subsequently live a life full of doubt.

Anne and Ted have been married for 25 years, dated for 10 and have 3 kids together. On the outside it looks like have the picture-perfect marriage. One day he packed up his things and left their home and relationship of over 30 years with no explanation whatsoever. Couples will think the world of their spouse and build their lives around them only to be disregarded when it suits them. Spouses are left wondering what had happened that made their partners walked out on them after all they have been through and the sacrifices both may have made. This is the time they realized they do not know their partners as they thought they did and all the sacrifices made was not enough to keep them. This is exhibited in the story “The Storm by Kate Chopin where a couple seems to have a perfect marriage, but the wife then she cheats on her husband with her ex-lover. Then they returned to their normal lives not telling neither of their partner about the adultery they committed. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants a couple is having a heated argument about the woman going for an abortion and how that would ease the tension in their relationship that the pregnancy had brought. Calixta’s cheating in “The Storm” sheds light on Hemingway's “Hills Like White Elephants” helping me understand people’s willingness to take risks to sustain relationships, how difficult humans are to please and how unknowingly people live in lies.

The commitment of marriage is one of the most important decisions two people will make in their lives. The vow of marriage is a pledge of your everlasting love uniting you in holy marriage. Whereby you commit to share all that life has to offer. The good times and the bad times, with patience and understanding. For marriage to remain strong, your faith must never waiver due to circumstances of everyday life. Remember, that the power of faith can conquer all obstacles. Marriage is a spiritual contract. When words of faith are spoken, and actual miracle takes place as God honors your faith and brings you into union together. Love is a commitment, not just and emotion or a feeling. These words were spoken fourteen years ago, on August sixteenth, two thousand two. I was a young, twenty-one year old girl who was committing her life to the only boyfriend she had ever had. We already had three kids, and I just figured that it was the next step in life that we were supposed to do. Everyone did it, so I had to too. As the years progressed, I wondered if I had made the right decision and, and was finding myself wanting out of the marriage. Because I have also experienced unhappiness in marriage, I can relate to Louise Mallard’s reactions and behavior following the news of her husband’s death.

Marriage is a form of unison that allows two people to come together and be as one.  In spite of this, Elizabeth Bennett is proposed to by Collins and declines to be part of the blessed unison.  Mrs. Bennett threatens to disown her daughter because of her fear of Elizabeth becoming an old maid.  Elizabeth's best friend, Charlotte Lucus, then accepts Collins.  Though it may seem that Charlotte settled in her marriage to Collins, she handles it very well.  Charlotte, "knows it is her last chance, and she takes it deliberately, weighing her future husband's intolerable character against the security and social position he offers," (Daiches 752).  Rather than face life with no economic security and no social prospect in an age when few means of earning an independent livelihood were opened to daughters of gentlemen, Charlotte married the grotesque Mr. Collins.