Character biography of Wintertime by Charles L. Mee - Essay Example

Although she is married, Maria is happy to stay in an illicit relationship with her lover Frank. She invents her own views on love in order to justify the complex relationships that define her social life. Maria emphasizes on the value of her freedom on matters of love, family and the discourse of sex. For instance, she reinvents the aspect of womanhood by projecting views that appear abnormal to the larger society. Her philosophies on matters of sex appear to be idiosyncratic and even rebellious.

She tells her husband about the desire of a woman to engage in some form of wild sexual engagements and deliberate deviation from the order and tranquility of the domestic space without a free conscience that operates on the sidelines of the acceptable. Although she admits her love deep love for Francois, he shocks him by admitting that she reserves every Friday night for a routine sexual relationship with Frank (Mee 6). This sense of strange freedom and order unsettles Francois whose concept of love appears to be bound in philosophies that are more conventional than Maria’s is.

A clear understanding of Maria’s peculiar approach to life could gbe drawn from a comparative assessment between her views on love and those projected by Ariel. The two women have exactly opposite views about then discourse of love. While Ariel indulges her mind in the innocence of youth by upholding the sublime and real element of love, Maria takes an opposite view by establishing categories of love. For instance, she views love in two broad perspectives. One of the perspectives is about romantic love.

Maria believes that romantic love should be separate from the other kind of love that attaches couples in a marriage. She reminds Frank, her husband, that she never intended to love him in a romantic kind of love. She only loves him as some kind of duty that a wife ordinarily owes to her husband. Maria’s personality has a redemptive effect to the social disadvantages that women have to endure because of traditions, values, and expectations. She presents life in terms of a sum total of her own views and the practical things of life.

Maria lives in a conservative society. This society demands women to live in accordance with specific laws and specifications. There is a patriarchal undertone in the dominant philosophies that undergird perspectives and reactions. As a result, she rebels and creates a world that would accommodate the feelings and opinions of a liberal woman (Case and Elaine 56). Her defiance could be understood as a rebellion against the domestic space. She affirms ownership of the Winterhouse and does not regard Frank in any terms larger than a companion.

She comes to the defense of fellow women whenever situations demand. In this manner, Maria could be considered as an influential matriarch of women liberation with a deep desire to create an alternative frame of reference for the conquered women in the society. On this score, it makes sense to consider her attitude in terms of the multiple challenges that are systematically created to stifle the course of women empowerment. Normally, the society would want to convert Maria into an ideal woman who dutifully plays the role of wife and mother in total submission.

Instead, Maria appears to be untamed and subscribing to strange philosophies that define her relationship to both Francois and Frank. She is a strong defender of women freedom