Valencia portrays the average housewife and the general unhappiness of married couples. Edgar Derby shows how wars bring out the worst in people, and Bertram Rumfoord is symbolic of the apatheticness of officials who hold power. They are indifferent to how the consequences of their actions affect helpless citizens, and do not view the masses as ‘human’. Vonnegut’s intent in adding these symbolic roles is to deepen the meaning of the novel and to further carry the message of the theme to the reader. Valencia, who epitomizes the average housewife, also represents the unexpressed discontentment of many married couples.
The woman gives up trying to convince her husband that she is sick giving in to his authority and sense of superiority entwining her further into the social norms and gender roles dictated by society. In fact, there are instances throughout The Yellow Wallpaper where the woman gives up her rights and wants to the authority of her husband because both think that, since he is a man, he is right “I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened onto the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it” (Gilman 549). The woman in The Yellow Wallpaper gave up trying to convince her husband that she did not want to stay in the room with the yellow wallpaper further giving into the social ideology of the
Estella is cold to Pip for one reason, her mother raised her like that, Miss Havisham is using Estella to ruin the lives of other men. As the story ends and Pip gives his goodbye speech, both Miss Havisham and Estella realize what is happening. The speech changed their mindsets and Miss Havisham realizes what she has done was completely immoral. The speech did not impact Estella as much, what broke her was how she missed out on Pip. A Biddy says, “I had heard of her as leading a most unhappy life, and as being separated from her husband, who had used her with great cruelty, and who had become quite renowned as a compound of pride, avarice, brutality, and meanness” (Dickens, Chapter fifty-nine).
Newland Archer, the novel’s protagonist, ends up loving the woman who breaks social norms while losing his love for May who has grown into the shape “into which tradition and training had moulded her”. The leisure-class is put under the magnifying glass by Wharton and she discusses the virtues and vices of each. Most notably, the flaws of their social norms that constricted Archer from showing his love towards Ellen are emphasised as he instead settles for May. Wharton provokes pity from the reader regarding the fact that Archer did not end up with his real love due to these constraints. Once meeting with a different set of norms and not being mechanically implied to fall in love, Archer finds his love in another person who does not follow the norms and is more free as a
Timothy Walsh Mrs. Merrill Adaptations Yellow 9 December 2014 Paul Newman Biography Paul Newman was a man of many hats; the great actor could be found on the silver screen, on the racetrack, and in the boardroom of several charitable organizations. Newman had appeared in sixty-five films over his fifty year career and accrued ten Academy Award nominations (Harmetz). He was humble, yet passionate for his craft, which is how he was able to maintain his stardom later in life, a feat seldom achieved by actors (“Paul Newman.” Newsmakers). Looking back on his life, Paul Newman said, “I’d like to be remembered as a guy who tried – tried to be part of his times…tried to extend himself as a human being. Someone who isn’t complacent, who doesn’t
Zeena’s character in the story seems as if she has no value in Ethan’s life and continuously described by Ethan as a very negative person. “She appears to be a mean, grumpy woman who browbeats her husband, holds him back from all his hopes and dreams, separates him from the woman he loves, and abuses...her relative, Mattie Silver.”(Shmoop). With the reader assuming that Ethan’s depression derives because of what he says and the descriptions he gives about his life, the idea of Mattie and Ethan wanting to become a couple together becomes acceptable because Mattie gave Ethan the only shred of happiness in his life. The villagers knew very little of what scandal went on between Ethan and Mattie, therefore the only source of information available comes straight from Ethan. Without outside opinions regarding the scandal, the readers do not hear the entire story and form their own
In this book, Gerald gets abused by his drunk father. He wants to get rid of him, but Monique, the mother is very loyal to Jordan and defends him. This makes Gerald’s life miserable, and the only thing that brings a smile to his face is his step-sister, Angel, whom he possessively cares for. Therefore, referring to some parts, and experience as a person, I can state that loyalty doesn’t always go both ways. Many people do not care if loyalty doesn’t return to them.
Aylmer’s potion doomed him by take away her breath. Aspiration for perfect wife not only kills Georgiana, it also spoils her husband because his longing to fabricate the ideal woman made him to overlook her true love and the beauty. Eventually, petty imperfection is all he could see when he romance with his wife. Georgian’s admirers are wise enough to understand that perfection is not a goal worth pursuing. Although these characters are invisible throughout the story they appreciate Georgina more than her husband does.
This sexual frustration leads to her intellectual alienation from her husband. She takes refuge in “furious pillow-beating, kicking, everything but crying.” (P.9)Sexual act which is a revitalizing force lacks in her life and makes her sterile. Gautama callously remains immune to the demands of her soul and body despite his practical wisdom and experience. Maya’s honest appraisal of herself that her face lacks the charm to capture the entire attention of Gautama brings in more pain. She gets depressed eventually giving up the efforts to enchant him and force him to share her troubled mind.
INFLUENCE OF SPOUSAL COMMUNICATION ON MARITAL STABILITY IN NAYANTARA SAHGAL’S MAJOR NOVELS Sahgal has shown her male characters mostly a narrow-minded, ruthless, careless husband’s who make their sensitive wives experience acute sense of loneliness, emptiness and boredom in life. However, exceptionally though, her male characters equally suffer in a wrong marriage, due to isolation or lack of communication. They may not undergo the same kind of agony because man is not dependent in the same way as his wife is on him, but a wrong marriage gives him a lot of torture too. A similar discord can be seen in the married life of Usman and Nadira in A SITUATION IN NEW DELHI (1977). Usman, a vice-chancellor, is over-burdened with the troubles of unrest and violence in the University campus.