The Character of Wife in Sunday in the park - Essay Example

Sunday in the park Humans are perhaps the most complex among all beings on earth. This complexity is not only manifested in their behavior, but the whole social setup of different communities and the accepted and unaccepted values of every society depict a level of complexity which is not seen in other living beings. Different roles are played by different members of our societies based on class differences as well as gender differences. Another important aspect is our behavior, which keeps on molding itself under different conditions. The character of wife in ‘Sunday in the park’ depicts the character of such a person who is not stable about what she feels or thinks, and she is at constant conflict between her needs and values. At the onset of story, the wife is calm and happy about spending some quality time with her husband and child. She seem content with what she has got and is affectionate towards her husband and she displays this affectionate feeling too (she squeezed his arm affectionately). Moreover, she seems to be a wiser woman when she decides not to interfere when the other boy (Joe) throws sand on her son (she wanted Larry to learn to fight his own battles). At the same time, we can see that the wife in this story has the belief that the male members of the society should be physically strong and protective not only for themselves but also for their women. Later on, when the situation starts to get out of control, at first she tries to control the situation herself by strongly objecting the other boy (Don’t do that , little boy, she said sharply, leaning forward on the bench). This is the moment, when she starts to question the masculinity of her husband as well as child. Firstly, she expects the child to fight his own battle. Perhaps, for the reason that her child is too young or weak as compared to the other child, she is willing to forgive her son. But, at the same moment she is not willing to forgive her husband, who starts to give logical reasons to offset the effects of the pending use of physical force by the other male. At the same time, the wife displays a very confusing emotion. She loves her husband and she is well aware that he not the type of person who will like to get into a physical fight. She senses that her husband who is rarely angry is getting angry (she noticed the muscle in Morton’s jaw tighten). All of a sudden her heart is filled with tenderness for her husband, as if she is happy to know that her husband hates to fight, and this is a habit of civilized people. The anger she has for her husband’s opponent is due to the reason that her husband is being forced to do something that he hates to do. The conflict between needs and values reaches its peak, when the other person walks towards her husband and she sees that he is a giant willing to fight with her husband and there is a high likelihood that her husband will be beaten, but, she does not stop her husband (she wanted to put her hand on her husband’s sleeve, to pull him down, but for some reason she didn’t). Here we can clearly see that although the wife in the story is aware that her husband hates to fight and she knows it clearly that violence is not the answer to this problem, yet, deep down, somewhere in her heart there is a desire that she must be protected by her husband, even if he has to go through the pain of being beaten up. Perhaps the ancient belief that, ‘man is the protector of woman’ is lying deep inside her. The wife in the story is well aware that violence is not a good choice to solve problems. When the family starts to walk out of the park towards their home, she walks with pride, assuming this was the best possible choice available. She chooses to ignore that fat guy intentionally (She was careful not to look at him). Perhaps, she thinks that this act of her might make that man feel ignored, and she and her family have high moral values as compared to the family of that man. Moreover, she feels satisfied at the immediate thought that comes to her mind as she gets out of the park that no one was harmed. A dispute that might have cost them several injuries and unwanted pain has been avoided. This is one aspect of how she feels and how she wants her husband to behave in matters of violence. On the other hand, the wife starts to feel awkward and strange before she hears her husband giving reasons to defend his position. She has a feeling that she is dissatisfied at what has happened. She wants a sudden change in the situation for which she gives short replies in response to his husband’s comments and at the same time hasten her steps towards home (She quickened her step. She wanted only to get home and to busy herself with her familiar tasks). She tries to make herself understand that, what has happened is the best for herself and her family. She always knew that her son was weak and before this day she had always tried to help her son (Always before she had felt a tender pity for his defenseless little body). But, on the day of this happening her belief that male members of the society should protect their females, shouts from within her “Stop crying, I’m ashamed of you!” She says this in response to her child’s crying. We can clearly see that she was expecting her son to be able to fight too. She was expecting him to fight his own battles. Moreover, she might not be willing to say this to her husband directly, so, since both her son and husband failed to demonstrate masculinity, the ‘you’ in “I’m ashamed of you” might be directed to both the son and husband. Despite her efforts to forgive her husband on what he did, she fails to forgive him. In the end of the story she realizes that her husband failed to fight for her just because he was afraid of being beaten up. Even if this was not the case in reality, she interprets the situation in that way. She thinks that her husband was not violent where his opponent was strong, but now when he is angry at his own son, he is more than willing to get violent, because his son is weaker than himself. So she bitterly criticizes him by repeating the words of the bully in the park saying “You, and who else?” Conclusion We can see that the wife in the story has complicated emotions. She loves her husband, but at the same time expects her husband to be protective for her. She is content with her life but at this point in life, she feels that her husband has not met her expectations. A part of her favors the idea of non-violence but another part of her personality denies this explanation for non-violence. In my view, incidents like this may cause her trust on her husband to shatter and with ongoing life, the end may be very dissatisfying. But again, if she follows the idea of non-violence as a requirement of being ‘civilized’, her only ideal will be her husband. Again a matter of conflicting needs emotions, values and beliefs! Read More