What I know now that I wish I knew then

Chelsea Rathburn’s “After Filing for Divorce” compares the emotions that the speaker feels after filing for a divorce to the morning after a wild party and all the mess someone might find after waking up and realizing all the destruction that is left in the aftermath. Rathburn’s speaker recalls how she felt in the beginning of the marriage and now how she feels after filing for the divorce. She sees the wreckage that is her life, the dread of the cleanup, and how her happiness has strayed so far from where it began.

When both involved do not effectively communicate with each other, a distant marriage may lead to discontent for all. Sinclair Ross’s short story, “The Painted Door”, deals with the growing dissatisfaction and loneliness of a farmer’s wife, Ann, who feels alone as her husband deals with the harsh conditions of the environment. This story demonstrates how deeply communication can affect a marriage, be it bad or good. One of the most fundamental elements of a healthy relationship is communication. Lack of communication in a relationship can result to severe consequences. Irrespective of the kind of relationship, lack of communication magnifies issues in a relationship undermining the very foundation of the relationship. The success of any relationship relies on one's ability to communicate well. Communication is important in relationships as it allows us to share our interest, concerns, support each other. John is a simple farmer who thinks the only way he can please his wife, is by working all day to earn money for her. However, Ann would prefer he spend more time with her. Their relationship is stressed even further when Ann is left at home alone with nothing to think about but their relationship because John has to go to his father’s house. The terrible snow storm accentuates Ann’s feelings of loneliness and despair. These feelings lead Ann to seek comfort and companionship from Steven, the attractive friend of her husband, John, thus leading to John's suicide.

When two people are tied together by their vows, it is each of their responsibility to fulfill the happiness of one another, and if one cannot then they should not expect the same in return. Sinclair Ross’s short story, “The Painted Door”, reveals the growing unhappiness of a farmer’s wife, Ann, who feels alone as her husband John leaves home to help his father in the harsh conditions of the storm. Ann seeks comfort and companionship with another man after 7 years of feeling neglected and unhappy with her husband. The responsibility for Ann’s infidelity, lays not only on Anne but John himself.

The good author will leave the reader with a powerful message without straight out telling them while at the same time using very little words in portraying this message. Molly Giles’ author of “The Poets Husband” and Pamela Painter author of “The New Year” have done a wonderful job of providing a strong micro-short story. The authors use a lot of symbolism and strong short sentences that lead to an understanding of an unhappy relationship due to mistreatment. Although both stories end differently they both leave the reader to connect with the characters about feeling forgotten. Whether they have ever been in a relationship where they stayed even though they were unhappy or the reader has ever been in a relationship where they themselves have cheated and have been broken up with but continues to feel for what they could have had and through away for a quick fling. It is important to keep in mind both angles of a failing relationship and when reading both of these micro-short stories the reader will feel surprisingly more sympathetic and educated in that

Published in 1937 by author Zora Neale Hurston, the novel ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ chronicles an African American woman's journey to find true love in the Deep South. On one hand, an equal balance of power in a relationship leads to equality, fulfilment, and happiness for both partners - as observed in Janie’s relationship with Vergible Woods (Tea Cake). On the other hand, an unequal distribution of power in a marriage with a dominant partner leads to an overall sense of discontent and unhappiness in the relationship, as observed in Janie’s first two marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks respectively. Thus, an equal balance of power in a relationship built on mutual respect and desire is a vital to a stable and healthy relationship.

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.

Yellin begins by examining war brides and wives of those who had been sent off to war. As a result of the war, many women had been pressured to marry, after which these young brides had to endure a new loneliness and longing for their loved one. Yellin recounted emotional stories such as that of Genevieve Eppens who “had no idea how painful fulfilling [a] simple wish” of just being together with her husband would be. (p. 7) Similarly, war wives also experienced a new challenge of providing for their children while also trying to help the war effort—many had to move in with other family members or double up with other women.(14)

Love is different for each and every person. For some, it comes easy and happens early in life. For others, such as Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, it happened much later in life after two unsuccessful marriages. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny raised Janie to be attracted to financial security and physical protection instead of seeking love. Nanny continually emphasized that love was something that was bound to happen after those needs were met; even though Nanny never married. Janie formulates her ideal of love while sitting under a pear tree as a teenager; one that fulfilled her intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically. She was then informed that she was to have an arranged marriage to an older

We live in a society that has increasingly stomped on love, depicting it as cruel, superficial and full of complications. Nowadays it is easy for people to claim that they are in love, even when their actions say otherwise, and it is just as easy to claim that they are not when they really are. Real love is difficult to find and keeping it alive is even harder, especially when one must overcome their own anxieties and uncertainties. This is the main theme present in Russell Banks’ short story “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” as well as in “The Fireman’s Wife,” written by Richard Bausch. These narratives, although similar in some aspects, are completely different types of love stories.

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

Another hardship of the war was the strain it placed on married life. Men and women alike faced troubles with their significant others during wartimes because of the lack of intimacy, heavy turmoil, and a burdening depression overlaying the nation. Consequently, however, the expression of emotions previously overlooked before the outbreak of conflict between spouses was encouraged through martial separations caused by the war. Husbands and wives faced loneliness on a daily basis, which in effect led them to display compassion and caring towards each other as they witnessed the dreadfulness of war. This separation also caused a growth in feminine education and style, further forging the foundations for a new, individual American woman.

The stark divide between love and marriage shown right the way through cannot be comprehended fully by the twenty-first century reader: in today’s society marriage and love are mutually exclusive - you very rarely get one

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.

The theme of the two stories revolves around the feminist issue of marriage. A common notion between the two short stories is that love is a failure and a mere comic when there is the failure to recognize the beloved as a person and not a mere convenience. The stories also deal with the 18th and the 19th century American life?declining in their spiritual and emotional lives.

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.