For some people love is a complete devotion and endless adoration, for others is a temporary feeling that will disappear in time. For some people it is a fairy-tale and for others it is a dream come true. Some people say love is once-in-a lifetime thing and others believe that after one love comes another. The more you try to find a universal definition of love – the more you get confused with all these words you get from different people around you. The more you think you get closer to the true meaning of this feeling- the more you realize that the definition of love is probably your own, unique and sincere truth about love. Throughout the history a lot of writers suggested their understanding of love to their readers. And it is important to say that books about love do influence a lot people’s mind, it especially concerns young people. These books show the way authors look upon marriage and love, betrayal and devotion. For instance, let us compare the visions of marriage we observe in three short stories: Raymond Carver's "What we talk about when we talk about love", Kate Chopin's story "The Storm" and Irwin Shaw's "The Girls in their Summer Dresses".
Raymond Carver’s “What we talk about when we talk about love" is a story about two couples who gather on a pre-dinner drinking meeting and one of them-Mel, starts talking about love. He cannot admit that his wife's abusive ex-husband, Ed, could possibly love her while he was dragging her around the room by her ankles. "That's not love, and you know it," Mel says. "I don't know what you'd call it, but I sure know you wouldn't call it love." His wife Terri does not stop trying to persuade him that it was love. Though she understands that her ex-husband may be called a sadist and even pathological she still explains his conduct basing on the feeling he had for her. Deep inside she believes that he just could not find another way to free his feelings other then by violence. His love erupted in violence and than he committed a suicide. Ed, though he is dead, is basically the main character of the story. Terri, Mel’s wife talks about Ed with some sort of nostalgia for the old times they had together. Some words she says point out that she thinks Mel will not ever love her like that. The group continues drinking. Mel notes that as much as they love each other, if they were all married to someone else, or their loved ones would have died it would make no difference in their lives. All of them look empty inside, pretending to love and hoping that no one will ever find out their play. Kate Chopin's "The Storm" main character is Calixta, a married woman that turns out to stay alone at home during a storm, while her husband and little son stay at the store to wait until the storm stops. A gentleman named Alcee appears, asking for shelter on Calixta’s porch. She lets him in and at the moment when she accidentally falls into his arms and they free out their passion for each other. It was a storm in the first place inside the house, a storm of a forbidden passion and only then an outside rainstorm. The fact
Calixta is able to continue her married life without guilt and without punishment after her one-shot affair seems extremely shocking. And even more that that – Calixta becomes enlivened and even a better woman than she was before. It seems so unreal and strange. It completely shows that the author has sexually-liberated vision of marriage. Irwin Shaw's "The Girls in their Summer Dresses" continues shocking the reader by view on marriage of different people. It is a story about a couple walking down the Fifth Avenue. Michael holds Frances's but keeps looking at every girl passing by with a look of a single man.
"You always look at other women," Frances said. "At every damn woman in the city of New York." They start discussing this problem in a bar and Frances seems very hurt. "I feel rotten inside, in my stomach, when we pass a woman and you look at her and I see that look in your eye and that's the way you looked at me the first time…”. Michael assures Frances that he has not touched another woman since their wedding. But some words he says completely shock: “ I can't help but look at them. I can't help but want them. I love you, but I also want them...". After these words Frances makes Michael admit that one day he is going to make a move. And when he does that the only favor she asks him for is at least to stop talking how pretty this or that woman is. And they just go on being together and decide to call their friends to spend the weekend. That completely amazes the reader. It is really hard to say which relationship offers the most realistic view of marriage, but Kate Chopin's story, "The
Storm" in the sense that a treason like that did not mean anything and the woman continues her married life with a new discovery of her sexuality. But honestly, this has nothing to do with love and is just the most realistic picture of a marriage. The violent type of marriage depicted in Raymond Carver's "What we talk about when we talk about love" is really frightening and fortunately not very frequent. What is described in this novel is not love at all and it is nothing but pathology. And love described in Irwin Shaw's "The Girls in their Summer Dresses" shows us that kind of “love” when you want other people and know that one day you are going to make a move towards it. It is very hard to make a division of this or that marriage being “good” or “bad”. Analyzing the marriages depicted in these works it is interesting to point out that the “ good” marriage would be the one in "The Storm", not with unrealized expectations like in “What we talk about when we talk about love”, not with pathological attraction to other women like in “Girls in their summer dresses”. It is individual for every person, and what one person may consider being a perfect marriage other will consider being his worst nightmare. Love is what people in these stories feel comfortable with it to be. Love comes and goes moving through these stories like a shadow. What about spiritual love?
Raymond Carver’s “What we talk about when we talk about love" is a story about two couples who gather on a pre-dinner drinking meeting and one of them-Mel, starts talking about love. He cannot admit that his wife's abusive ex-husband, Ed, could possibly love her while he was dragging her around the room by her ankles. "That's not love, and you know it," Mel says. "I don't know what you'd call it, but I sure know you wouldn't call it love." His wife Terri does not stop trying to persuade him that it was love. Though she understands that her ex-husband may be called a sadist and even pathological she still explains his conduct basing on the feeling he had for her. Deep inside she believes that he just could not find another way to free his feelings other then by violence. His love erupted in violence and than he committed a suicide. Ed, though he is dead, is basically the main character of the story. Terri, Mel’s wife talks about Ed with some sort of nostalgia for the old times they had together. Some words she says point out that she thinks Mel will not ever love her like that. The group continues drinking. Mel notes that as much as they love each other, if they were all married to someone else, or their loved ones would have died it would make no difference in their lives. All of them look empty inside, pretending to love and hoping that no one will ever find out their play. Kate Chopin's "The Storm" main character is Calixta, a married woman that turns out to stay alone at home during a storm, while her husband and little son stay at the store to wait until the storm stops. A gentleman named Alcee appears, asking for shelter on Calixta’s porch. She lets him in and at the moment when she accidentally falls into his arms and they free out their passion for each other. It was a storm in the first place inside the house, a storm of a forbidden passion and only then an outside rainstorm. The fact
Calixta is able to continue her married life without guilt and without punishment after her one-shot affair seems extremely shocking. And even more that that – Calixta becomes enlivened and even a better woman than she was before. It seems so unreal and strange. It completely shows that the author has sexually-liberated vision of marriage. Irwin Shaw's "The Girls in their Summer Dresses" continues shocking the reader by view on marriage of different people. It is a story about a couple walking down the Fifth Avenue. Michael holds Frances's but keeps looking at every girl passing by with a look of a single man.
"You always look at other women," Frances said. "At every damn woman in the city of New York." They start discussing this problem in a bar and Frances seems very hurt. "I feel rotten inside, in my stomach, when we pass a woman and you look at her and I see that look in your eye and that's the way you looked at me the first time…”. Michael assures Frances that he has not touched another woman since their wedding. But some words he says completely shock: “ I can't help but look at them. I can't help but want them. I love you, but I also want them...". After these words Frances makes Michael admit that one day he is going to make a move. And when he does that the only favor she asks him for is at least to stop talking how pretty this or that woman is. And they just go on being together and decide to call their friends to spend the weekend. That completely amazes the reader. It is really hard to say which relationship offers the most realistic view of marriage, but Kate Chopin's story, "The
Storm" in the sense that a treason like that did not mean anything and the woman continues her married life with a new discovery of her sexuality. But honestly, this has nothing to do with love and is just the most realistic picture of a marriage. The violent type of marriage depicted in Raymond Carver's "What we talk about when we talk about love" is really frightening and fortunately not very frequent. What is described in this novel is not love at all and it is nothing but pathology. And love described in Irwin Shaw's "The Girls in their Summer Dresses" shows us that kind of “love” when you want other people and know that one day you are going to make a move towards it. It is very hard to make a division of this or that marriage being “good” or “bad”. Analyzing the marriages depicted in these works it is interesting to point out that the “ good” marriage would be the one in "The Storm", not with unrealized expectations like in “What we talk about when we talk about love”, not with pathological attraction to other women like in “Girls in their summer dresses”. It is individual for every person, and what one person may consider being a perfect marriage other will consider being his worst nightmare. Love is what people in these stories feel comfortable with it to be. Love comes and goes moving through these stories like a shadow. What about spiritual love?
No comments:
Post a Comment