In Elizabeth Phelps' story, "The Tenth of February," there are several symbols that represent the idea of imprisonment. The female characters in the story all, at one point or another, seem imprisoned by something. For Asenath, the symbol of imprisonment throughout the story is her disability. During this time period, it seems like marriage is a very important goal of life, especially for women; and Asenath's deformity keeps her from living a normal life and finding love. At one point, her pretty friend Del says, "'Who do you suppose would ever marry you?'" Asenath throughout her life is kept from believing that she could ever find love and marriage. Because of this, she mentions over and over throughout the story that she sees death as a way out. Asenath was not blessed with the good looks of her friends, and she sees no real way to be happy in life without achieving this goal of getting married.
For Del, the imprisoned feeling comes from having to work in the factory. Unlike Asenath, it seems like Del sees marriage not as something to strive and work for, but as something to wait for. After all, with her appearance, in the society she lives in, it would only be a matter of time before she was married off and could stop working. Throughout the story, it seems that both girls think of marriage as something that must happen in order for their lives to be complete. It shows the importance of marriage during this time period as a woman's way out of the work force. And it seems like many women wanted to get out of the work force because all of the work available to them was manual labor in factories.
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