In Irving's short story, I was upset a little bit by the way he talks about women in the beginning. His writing suggested that marriage really wasn't about the woman, but that its purpose was so that a man could have someone to comfort him. I think that is still a very important part of marriage today, but there is so much more to it. When I think of a marriage, I think of a partnership, but this piece of writing especially hwne they talk about money, shows that marriage was almost completely about the man. When Irving said that Leslie didn't want to break the news about their economic situation to Mary, he said that he didn't want to "overwhelm her with the news" (527). It was like he thought she couldn't handle hearing about the trials of the real world; like she was so fragile that it would ruin her spirit.
The other part of the story that made me question it was when Leslie was talking about how he wanted to spoil Mary with gifts and make her life into a fairytale. At first, I really didn't see any love in the story; it seemed more like the adoring husband put his wife on a pedastal. He felt like she was too helpless to get what she wanted on her own, and maybe she was at that time because women socially didn't stand a chance in the work force.
However, in the end of the story, when Mary welcomes her new lifestyle with open arms, I really felt the love between her and her husband. At first, I thought marriage in this time period was shallow, but the end of the story showed that marriage was pretty similar to what it is now. There was real love in marriage that kept people together, and the wives played a very important role supporting their husbands so that they could accomplish what they did at the time.
You raise some interesting points that will be good for class discussion -- how have American ideals and values of marriage changed? And what did Irving's story "argue" about marriage in the New American Republic?
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