The Tete A La Mode: Existentialism

Marriage has been a heated controversy for the past few years because people often marry for the wrong reasons. Anyone who thinks of an ideal marriage would think of two people loving each other and sharing a personal bond or goals together. Marriage is regularly defined as the legally or formally recognized union of two lovers as partners in a personal relationship. This definition remarks there is an actual connection between two people in marriage, but do people actually consider this when committing to “love” and “support” their partners forever? As research and studies have shown, people ultimately get married for many reasons, except love. This philosophy can be easily applied to the short poem, “Marriage” by Gregory Corso. In this emotional poem, the author argues marriage is more effectively understood or known for culture and convenience rather than through the abstract considerations of love. Here, we can identify people generally decide to marry for the incorrect reasons, for instance the story of the author himself. Corso finds himself confused multiple times, wondering if he should marry to not be lonely, for tradition and for his physical and mental health. He disregards love, a relationship or a connection with his future wife. General ways of convenience like loneliness, health and economic status between cultural stereotypes and religion are usually the true reasons of why people chose to have the commitment of marriage with another person.

Marriage is the union of two people who want to spend the rest of their lives together.In order to get married, either the man or woman in the relationship must propose to their partner. In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Collins proposes to his partner in a self-centered and detached manner, whereas Mr. Headstone, in Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, proposes in a romantic and touching way.

Marriage is one of the most revered institutions in most societies. Often a momentous event, most couples who choose to get married look forward to their wedding day and spending the rest of their lives together. However, the honeymoon phase of marriage may have the tendency to fade over time, and relationships that were once strong and loving may become strained. In the short story Birthday Party by Katharine Brush, a particular instance of such a weakened relationship is highlighted as the observer in the story witnesses a married man and woman celebrating a birthday in a restaurant. Through the use of vivid description and powerful word choice, Brush effectively comments on the concept of marriage and relationships and emphasizes their romantic impermanence and sometimes inevitable deterioration.

Yesterday, I enrolled for class. Now this decision was definite as I couldn’t go back and not enrol. However, the actual action of me actually attending was completely my choice; a conscious decision. Although it was compulsory to attend, nothing given could determine the outcome. John Paul Sartre an eminent existentialist, would argue that just because I made a commitment didn't necessarily mean I needed to follow through with it. Enrolling was part of the facticity of the in-itself. I had only made the decision, I had to follow through with an action. Sartre would contend that by forcing myself to attend if I didn’t want to would be trying to escape from my freedom. Sartre, stated that the basic principle of existentialism was existence precedes essence for human beings. In his essay, Existentialism is Humanism, Sartre attempts to answer the accusations. Essentially, he rejects the notion of any innate human nature; implying that because our essence comes to be after our existence, we are free to choose and live our lives accordingly. This essay will discuss Sartre’s explanation of the expression and the related implications.

Alain De Botton has a strong title but doesn’t make the point of his article clear in the first couple paragraphs. By the end of the article he finally gets to the idea but he isn’t very explicit on what he is trying to say or what he wants the audience to hear. One of his reasons he talks about is how the world that is lived in tends to have an unrealistic ideal of what marriage might be. He leans towards saying that everyone thinks that they can take the good feelings they have or have had and bottle it up and feel that way forever. From what I can assume he believes that it is

Relationships and marriages aren’t always easy. They could easily be one of the most complicated interactions around. A really in love relationship cannot proceed if the individuals chose just themselves as a priority. They have to take the other person into consideration or else it’s not a relationship in a sense. The happiness and feelings of a spouse or girl/boyfriend, should not be forgotten. Men and women fight on a regular basis: they fight for more independence or fight to prove that they are right and wrong. What most relationships don’t realize is that love is not a fight but an “alliance for mutual support”, or someone to lean on in some cases. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” both show the complications through relationships between men and women and marriages.

In “From Some Reflections upon Marriage”, written by Mary Astell, the idea of everlasting love is discredited. She speaks of ultimatums and how people marry for this reason or the other. She gives the realistic view on love, and on the world. She allows the reader to see the institution of marriage that is male-dominated. The main purpose of Mary Astell’s essay according to critic J. Williams is to put emphasis on “how the institution of marriage is male-dominated and women are given less of an opportunity to choose their partner.”

    In the opening sequence of the film, the viewer is immediately presented with an image of marriage as entirely contractual: "Today he married me to a man I've not yet met." The protagonist, although she has already been established as strong-willed and non-conforming, is accepting but not altogether optimistic about the arrangement. The viewer also learns that she

In his play, No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre examines basic themes of existentialism through three characters. The first subject, Garcin, embraces existentialist ideas somewhat. The second character, Inez, seems to fully understand ideas deemed existential. Estelle is the third person, and does not seem to understand these ideas well, nor does she accept them when they are first presented to her. One similarity amongst the three is that they all at some point seem to accept that they are in Hell for a reason.

Jean Paul Sartre is considered the father of Existentialist philosophy. Following the Second World War, Jean Paul’s writings set the tone for an intellectual life. Sartre was born in Paris and he spent most of his life there. Having attended various prestigious Parisian schools with traditional philosophical education, he was introduced to the history of Western philosophy with a bias toward Cartesianism and neo Kantianism.

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.

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Thanks to the characters described by Adichie, there are important questions to be raised concerning love and marriage: If today’s man or woman wants to get married, for what reason will he or she walk down that aisle? Is it just a means to an end? Is it the mere fulfilment of societal demands?

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Imagine living through the two World Wars as they played out in your front yard; the battle for global power & influence destroying the landscape you walk day-to-day as Capitalism battles Socialism over ideology, over freedom of the individual, over the freedom of the collective and over freedom of thought and expression. This was the world that Simone Ernestine Lucie Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was born into on the morning of January 9th in Paris, France the year of 1908. She would come to develop her unique existentialist perspective through one of the most decisive periods in our world’s history and through close personal contact with some tremendously insightful intellectuals formed in the same crucible.