Intimidated Wives in Literature - Assignment Example

Question 4 The literary works under discussion have a common theme of the wives living under the fear of their husbands, one way or another. The beautiful bond of marriage is estranged as the different circumstances weave the stories of the lives of these different women. Robert Frost’s poem ‘Home Burial’ beautifully attempts to describe how the death of the child results in the death of marriage. The husband’s and the wife’s incapacity to understand how both of them cope with the tragedy in a different manner leaves their marriage in shambles (Lee n.d.). In this poem, Amy who is the wife lives in the fear of her husband. The fear that her husband does not even remotely feel what she feels about the death of their child. Her fears that her husband does not care about what she must be going through. Her husband questions as to what was wrong when Amy descends down the stairs she looks at the family cemetery. The lines “she turned and sank upon her skirts at that,/And her face changed from terrified to dull” and “Mounting until she cowered under him.” Tell us how broken she was to find out that her husband is insensitive to the tragedy that wrecked turbulence in her life. Her fears to some extent are justified because she, being the mother of the child who naturally has more attachment and affection for her kid, carrying him in her womb for nine months and laboring him to existence expects a more sensitive attitude from her husband during this tough time in her life. The lines “Advancing toward her: "What is it you see,/From up there always—for I want to know” tells us about her husband’s inconsiderate attitude towards her feelings following their child’s death. Although he is not completely ignoring her wife who is in a devastated state descending the staircase, but his question leaves the reader with the feeling that he does want to enquire, but is particularly insensitive. He asks what she “always” sees which implies that it does not naturally occur to his compassionless heart that his wife is obviously eyeing the grave over his shoulder, yearning for his child’s glimpse. “For I want to know” indicates his assertiveness; that he is not addressing her wife out of solicitude, but merely out of his desire that he just wanted to know. It also gives us an impression that their marriage is not one of those marriages where there is a good communication between the spouses. So with this unsympathetic attitude from her husband, her fears are justified to an extent. She expresses how dumbfounded she was as she did not get any support from him after his husband buried his child with his both hands. This is seen in the lines “You could sit there with the stains on your shoes,/ Of the fresh earth from your own baby’s grave,/ And talk about your everyday concerns.” She is obviously greatly devastated; her husband’s actions in this time of need will make it more difficult for her to live because all she requires is a little support. On the other hand if we look at her husband’s line: “let me into your grief”, it tells us that he does attempt to console her from which we conclude that to another extent, her fears are cannot be wholly justified because she should understand that his husband is trying to bear the emotional trauma in a different manner than her all along (Frost 1915). In the short story ‘Death in the woods’ by Sherwood Anderson, Mrs. Grimes continues to bear a loveless marriage with her husband Mr. Jake Grimes until her death. Throughout the story we see Mrs. Grimes being subjected to a harsh life. The narrator describing her as a “young thing and then scared to death” reveal to us that it was never an easy ride for her since she was young. The fact that what she experienced as a young girl left indelible marks on her mind; events like living as an orphan being legally contracted to serve as a slave, being sexually harassed in her early years by a German and threatening to be killed if she leaked out anything, her only escape being marrying someone who was eventually going to make her life more dreadful for her, makes her fears of her husband which she lived in, completely justified. With such a scarred past she could found no comfort in him (Anderson 1986). Her fears are justified because all that she got her life was a pitiless attitude from everyone. She would be treated with utmost cruelty by her husband contributing to her harrowing life. His misconduct is described in the story at one instance included that when there was nothing to eat the “old man gave his old woman a cut over the head”. How feared she was from her husband is reflected by the fact that she used to cut all her hens to serve him food and in the end she had no eggs to sell. Mrs. Grimes continuously being a victim of this abnegation developed a “habit of silence”. It is also described in the story that “Whatever happened she never said anything. That was her way of getting along.” This reflects that her experiences left her not to expect anything from anyone. Her disposition is completely justified because if someone who has never felt the warmth of human love is bound to feel worthless and valueless never expecting anything from everyone, as in the case of Mrs. Grime (“Character analysis of Mrs. Jake Grime”, 2006). While Nancy, the protagonist of the story “That Evening Sun”, is pregnant with a white child whom his husband Jesus assumes is not his, she lives in a constant fear of him that he is going to murder her. In one way, her fears which stem from the fact she is nothing but helpless being a black person are justified as she has no control over white people violating her life. Her distress can be seen in her line: "I aint nothing but a nigger", which she keeps on repeating. It may imply that her pregnancy may have not resulted from her own choice, but she may have been another victim of white men’s violation. Given that, Nancy may have also accepted that white people will continue to rule over the lives of black people forever and thus she attempts to keep Mr. Compson’s children at her house. She feels greater security lies with white people and black people will continue to remain insecure. In her line “And so this here Queen come walking up to the ditch and say, if I can just past this here ditch was what she say” while she tells children a story, she refers to herself as Queen who does not want to be in the ditch, but she aims for being part of the “white wealth” (Trobaugh 2010). On the other hand, Nancy’s character has been shown to have a bad reputation. Mr. Compson’s dialogue, "If youd just let white men alone... if youd behave yourself, youd have kept out of this.”, also reinforces this idea. She has been a drug addict, as told by the jailor after she was seen to attempt suicide that her behavior is influenced by cocaine. She is also described as an occasional prostitute. She has been assumed to be pregnant with Mr. Stovall, who is a bank cashier and deacon at Baptist church. After Nancy asks him for payment for her ‘services’, he knocks her teeth of after she publicly embarrasses him and she is taken to the jail. If she did prostitute herself to Mr. Stovall, which can be possible given her bad character, then her fears of her husband stemming from the immeasurable guilt are also justified (Fargnoli et al 2008). She should be feared given that what she has done. She should not have been unfaithful to him as we can see in the story that Jesus has never been entirely bad. Nancy herself testifies this in her dialogue, “Jesus has always been good to me . . . whenever he had two dollars one was mine”. So her fierce terror because of her guilt has a legitimate reason at which Jesus has all the right to be angry, if not kill her (Trobaugh 2010). Mrs. Compson in a sense lives in the fear of her husband that he could cheat on her with other women. When Mr. Compson decides to walk Nancy to her home, Mrs. Compson expresses her fears and apprehensions by saying "Is her safety more precious to you than mine?" (Faulkner 1931). But her fears are not justified because Mr. Compson has not shown any acts of unfaithfulness towards her. Mr. Compson is shown to be a self absorbed woman; she is disagreeable at many instances as well as very impatient. Unlike Mrs. Compson, Mr Compson does show concern towards Nancy’s issue but is not able to persuade her to live with Aunt Rachel (Fargnoli et al 2008). Works Cited Trobaugh, Jonathan. "Jesus of Jefferson." 26 Apr. 2010. Web. 5 Dec. 2014. . Lee, Rachel. "Ways of Grieving." Web. 5 Dec. 2014. . Frost, Robert. "Home Burial." 6. Home Burial. Frost, Robert. 1915. North of Boston. 1915. Web. 5 Dec. 2014. . Anderson, Sherwood. Death in the Woods and Other Stories. New York, N.Y.: Shoreline, 1986. Print. "A Character Analysis of Mrs. Jake Grimes in Sherwood Anderson’s “Death in the Woods.”." 28 Dec. 2006. Web. 5 Dec. 2014. . Faulkner, William. That Evening Sun. 1931. Print. Fargnoli, A. Nicholas, and Michael Golay.Critical Companion to William Faulkner: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 2008. 307, 309. Print. Read More