Marriage

Marriage

        For my Short Story Essay I decided to use the common theme of marriage. I chose it because it is a topic that is usually talked about positively or negatively, never in between. In media it is often times ridiculed and cheapened, and I believe after many years of this, it is starting to show in real life relationships. There are so many views and different versions based on so many different experiences, the media cannot be the only one to blame. I enjoyed this topic because we don’t always get this kind of in depth insight into marriages, the realness in writing cannot even be compared to what we see on television and movies.

In my opinion the difference between all people and artists is in the difference in which their view of the world differs. Different surroundings and experiences in life can create a unique way in which the world is perceived. We develop this perception through our family, friends, and influences. Based on these experiences artists develop a need to express feelings, thoughts, and ideas that are not easily expressible in conventional ways. Some ways that these ideas are expressed is through painting, writing, music, thus creating art. Artists use characters and symbols as tools in order to express a lot of the deeper meaning in their work.

 In The Widow of Ephesus by Petronius we find what seems to be the perfect wife, only to later find out that real love can be fleeting. In the Astronomers wife by Kay Boyle there is the common occurrence of marrying someone who is not what you thought or wanted, and continuing in an unhappy life. My favorite of the three was Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood in which she gives many different scenarios and views and ultimately declares marriage is anything but a happy ending.

In The Widow of Ephesus by Petronius we have “a certain married woman in the city of Ephesus whose fidelity to her husband was so famous that the women from all the neighboring towns and villages used to troop into Ephesus merely to stare at this prodigy”,(Petronus). Not only men, but women also, admired this woman. She was admired for what she stood for, by setting the example and being “the one true example of conjugal fidelity and love”,(Petronus).  When her husband dies she follows the body into the tomb and cannot even bring herself to eat for days. Almost instantly, and while still mourning her husband and still in his tomb, she falls for the advances of a soldier.

In a time when a lot of marriages were arranged for convenience I can see why fidelity and love may have been seen as a rarity. Love existed in very few marriages. Women looked up to her most likely because she seemed happy to be in love and married to her husband, a lot of women at the time probably were not. Equally, men were also probably intrigued by the idea of having such a doting wife.

When her husband dies, her actions are still that of a loyal and loving wife. Following the corpse into the tomb and denying herself food is the ultimate sign of devotion. When a soldier mistakenly stumbles into the tomb and persuades her to break her fast, she immediately gives in to his persuasion. “That very night their marriage was consummated, and they slept together the second and the third night too…”,(Petronus).   How deep and loyal is a love truly, that can so swiftly be given to someone else. Her husband’s body lay next to her while she consummated her relationship to another man. It seems as though the perfect wife was just an illusion, and she was just as weak and feeble as the rest, the only difference was she knew how to play the role better.

In the Astronomers Wife by Kay Boyle, we have a woman who is unhappy in her marriage. Everything about her description is depressing and boring, giving an idea of what loveless marriage is like, and how it can drain the life out of you. It becomes almost immediately evident that she does not love her husband. Her fidelity and loyalty is tested when she sees the plumber come into the house and she softly reminds herself “Ah, I am Mrs. Ames”,(Boyle). Through her interaction with this plumber we see that depth of disillusion with her husband. She compares them in their mannerisms and even in the way they talk. “Her husband was the mind; this other man was the meat, of all mankind,(Boyle).