how would you describe K.Chopin's vision of marriage in this short story? & do you think this story is a piece of pesimist writing?
2007-01-11 05:56:58 · 4 answers · asked by x&r 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
No, it's not pessimistic; it's extremely hopeful. It's the story where she's sitting at home and finds out her husband died, right?
The story suggests not only that traditional marriage is oppressive to women (not so much to men - a man would essentially _own_ his wife's whole person after the exchange of vows), but that women in marriages such as the one in the story play their roles of submission and passivity and polite lady-like behavior for so long that they forget any other way of being. They forget how to recognize and express their own personal desires and forget that they, because they are human, should have the power to set their own agendas based on what they (not someone else) want. When a woman is dictated to by a husband and society - told what to do and how to act - for so long and given few or no choices, it's hard for her to remember whether, at one time, she had ever even wanted something different. And accepting suddenly new, liberated power over and responsibility for one's own future is overwhelming.
This is demonstrated in the woman's great ambivalence over the news of the death, which compels her eventually to lock herself in her room. While she cries, she has twitches of joy that, of course, would not be proper to express in public. The marriage was not unhappy; as I understand, her husband was a good man who treated her well and provided for her. But society teaches that it isn't right to rejoice (even if only partially) at any death, and it also teaches that women are over-emotional and melancholy and easily unsettled. So she plays these roles. Yet her husband - not even only her husband in particular, but every husband - represents such a prison in marriage that she must rejoice to herself (while still feeling guilty and rather sad because he was a kind man) for the sudden opportunity to make plans for herself and acknowledge and act on her own personal desires and have control over her life.
2007-01-11 07:00:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Her perspective on marriage in this story is that it is repressive to a woman's identity and freedom. Particularly at the time it was written, the wife was the property of the husband. She couldn't vote. She--most everywhere--had no rights to own her own property. She was frowned upon if she worked outside the home--there were very few jobs that were acceptable in society's eyes. If the husband was abusing her, she most often could do nothing about it. And if she was to seek a divorce, she would lose custody of her children. So it's no wonder that marriage is seen as restrictive. In this case, I feel it is probably because the narrator is in an unhappy marriage. My guess is that there were happy and unhappy marriages, but divorce was not really an option at that time. So people had to stay unhappy for life.
2007-01-11 06:30:42 · answer #2 · answered by laney_po 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it is not pessimistic...the view of marriage is that it, as an institution, is restrictive and repressive...it does not allow women to live their lives the way they want to
2007-01-11 06:03:24 · answer #3 · answered by jcresnick 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Might you consider doing your own homework?
2007-01-11 07:01:22 · answer #4 · answered by ckmclements 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋