Love and Relationships Essay “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you’re not.” These insightful words spoken by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher illustrate a truth very applicable to relationships: whenever an individual loses control of his partner, he acts out in a megalomaniacal manner to compensate for his perceived powerlessness. This struggle, which occurs largely when the relationship is not consummate, results in volatile interactions. On occasion, these interactions result in dramatic displays of passion. But more often than not, they have a negative impact on the relationship, leading to heartbreak, termination of the relationship, or even more serious consequences, including death. Such …show more content…
Atwood creates 6 different scenarios after a pair of individuals named John and Mary meet. The events of the characters in story letter B demonstrate the catastrophic effects when love isn’t mutual. In this scenario, Mary pursues John because she is head over heels for him, but John isn’t interested in a relationship; rather, “ He uses her body for selfish pleasure and ego gratification of a tepid kind.”(43) John maintains all of this control in this relationship. Because Mary is so infatuated with John, she cannot help but remain subservient, as she doesn’t want to cut off their relationship. Looking to gain a higher standing with John, she cooks him dinner, cleans up after, and wakes up early to put on lipstick. None of this is enough to garner attention from John, but she still thinks that “Inside John, she thinks,is another John, who is kinder.”(43) As a result, she has to resort to even more drastic measures - attempting suicide - in hopes that “he’ll discover her, repent, and then they’ll get married” (44) , but instead her plot fails and she dies. Mary was so driven to gain power in the relationship, to have equal standing, that she took her own
The thought of even having to touch the aides disgust Mary because they are a physical representation of the reality she is denying. When she is told that she may have to kill her daughter, she reacts poorly, as most would expect a mother to, however she has gone to extremes. She accuses her husband of having never loved their daughter and that the only thing keeping them married was the daughter and that without Jennifer, Peter would have left Mary (156-158). This intense outburst from a woman who is usually so calm when tragedy affects those outside of her narcissistic bubble only goes to show further the indifferent attitude of denial. When made to recognize the oncoming death, she cannot fathom it, and tries to find other reasons for Peter trying to get her to come to terms with “murdering” her daughter.
Mary is still in deep love with John, conversely John only uses Mary for selfish pleasure. In here, Atwood breaks away from the telling of stories from third person to sentences of second. “He comes to her apartment twice a week and she cooks him dinner, you’ll notice that he doesn’t even consider her worth the price of a dinner out…” (96). This interruption is to revert back to the main idea of Atwood talking directly to the audience and informing them of how the character John treats and views Mary, which is complete turnaround from the previous Story A which went into no detail into either character’s thoughts or actions whatsoever. Another form of specific detail gets used through similes.
from John words that he is trying to please her, and make up to her
That man surely won't respect you. In the end Mary kills herself but she hoped John would find her and try to save her but obviously he didn't care and when she passed he lived happily ever after with a woman he was really in love with. It’s sad that Mary went through all of that and didn’t get what she expected but I guess now she doesn’t have to deal with John and the heartache he brought along with him.
Being practical, he is not predisposed to be an expert on the artistic temperament. She disagrees with her treatment, but remains silent on that issue, displaying appropriate wifely behaviours. To be appropriate, to exhibit “proper self-control” (p 676) is required as his wife in the nineteenth century. She is the property of her husband and must appear to submit to his will. John is, by modern standards, a control freak -- a well intentioned control freak.
night, shows her jealousy and lust for him which adds to the tension as John is doing his best to
He tells the narrator time and time again that she is sick. He can be viewed as a very controlling man in which everything must happen his way or not at all. John was a metaphor for the type of society in the 19th century. He is the image of a male-dominated culture where every woman and child had to follow the rules without complaint. The narrator is like a child taking orders from the male doctors in her life, even going on to say, “personally, I disagree with their ideas.”
Although the narrator feels desperate, John tells her that there is “no reason” for how she feels, she must dismiss those “silly fantasies”(166). In other words, John treats her like a child and gives her reason to doubt herself. “Of course it is only nervousness”(162). She decides. She tries to rest, to do as she is told, like a child, but suffers because John does not believe that she is ill. This makes her feel inadequate and unsure of her own sanity.
At the outset, Atwood gives the reader an exceedingly basic outline of a story with characters John and Mary in plotline A. As we move along to the subsequent plots she adds more detail and depth to the characters and their stories, although she refers back with “If you want a happy ending, try A” (p.327), while alluding that other endings may not be as happy, although possibly not as dull and foreseeable as they were in plot A. Each successive plot is a new telling of the same basic story line; labeled alphabetically A-F; the different plots describe how the character’s lives are lived with all stories ending as they did in A. The stories tell of love gained or of love lost; love given but not reciprocated. The characters experience heartache, suicide, sadness, humiliation, crimes of passion, even happiness; ultimately all ending in death regardless of “the stretch in between”. (p.329)
All sense of individuality and self worth is taken way from the narrator when her name is never revealed to the audience. Furthermore, John continues to belittle his wife by giving her the command to not walk around at night. Although the John thinks in his mind that he is looking out for the best interest of his wife, in actuality, he is taking away his wife’s abilities to make choices for herself. There is a possibility that John’s controlling personality is one of the factors that led to his wife’s psychosis. Such a controlling life style more than likely limited the narrator’s ability to live any life outside of the home.
However, the easily overlooked similarity is the concept of love. This emotion is merely overlooked. Through this similarity, it becomes evident that love not only is something yearned for by humanity, but also a temptation so strong it can blind us to reality. This blindness can cause the pain of death. Love can cause people to do crazy things, and if you are Lieutenant Cross, even make you treat a pebble as if it were a tongue. Frank’s love for Mary Ann, as innocent as it may seem, exists as a love for a married woman. Love and lust are dangerous beasts, ones that we as readers must be weary of, for if we are not, we may find ourselves sharing the same fate as Frank, death by
Death is inevitable; if you want happiness in life, try A. Margaret Atwood, the author of “Happy Endings,” uses six separate short stories to depict outcomes with different scenarios. The author practices the use of flash fiction which adds to the entirety of each version. Though this short story has portions of unusual context, the content can teach a reflection on life. As the reader analyzes all six versions, the gender roles are evident as the story progresses. Atwood starts the short story by introducing the two main characters, John and Mary, and then proceeds to tell a variety of options as to who they are and what happens to them. In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings,” the central theme of fiction provides several different
As the story begins, the narrator's compliance with her role as a submissive woman is easily seen. She states, "John laughs at me, but one expects that in marriage" (Gilman 577). These words clearly illustrate the male's position of power in a marriage t...
The narrator is trying to get better from her illness but her husband “He laughs at me so about this wallpaper” (515). He puts her down and her insecurities do not make it any better. She is treated like a child. John says to his wife “What is it little girl” (518)? Since he is taking care of her she must obey him “There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word”. The narrator thinks John is the reason why she cannot get better because he wants her to stay in a room instead of communicating with the world and working outside the house.
Margaret Atwood’s novel, Survival: a thematic guide to Canadian literature, discusses common themes throughout Canadian literature. Primarily, she discusses how victimhood and survival are an integral part of Canadian writings. Her ideas can also be applied to writings outside of Canada, such as my ISU novel, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. In Atwood's book , she brings forward the concept of four basic victim positions. The portrayal of the protagonist in Lolita, Humbert Humbert, fits Atwood’s 2nd basic victim position.