Married to Be Alone?

Married To Be Alone?

Although marriage is the symbol of two livesÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦ union, in the real world many people experience it in the opposite way. Gloria Steinem says: Ð'ÐŽÐ'§The surest way to be alone is to get married.Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ё In Ð'ÐŽÐ'§The Story of an HourÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё by Kate Chopin, we can certainly realize how well the author describes the loneliness of a marriage. There is another short story that also reflects the same point of view in a relationship; it is William FaulknerÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s Ð'ÐŽÐ'§A Rose for Emily.Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ё Both works serve as strong evidence for Gloria SteinemÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s opinion.

In Ð'ÐŽÐ'§The Story of an HourÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё Chopin implies an idea of that Mrs. Mallard lives as a prisoner. Maybe it is because she grew up in a society in which women used to be properties of men, she has not noticed that fact until she receives her husbandÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s death news. Marriage did not really unify emotionally her life with her husbandÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s. This can be seen in the lines, Ð'ÐŽÐ'§And yet she had loved him Ð'ÐŽV sometimes. Often she had notÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё (8). She lived with this man, saw him everyday, slept by his side every night, but she did not even love him. Is that a how a relationship between a couple supposed to be? All those years she spent with her husband were as alone as being a prisoner; isnÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦t that sad? But everything is solved (she thought so), as Mr. Mallard is dead, at last she can be liberated from that prison, Ð'ÐŽÐ'§Free! Body and soul freeÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё (8). This is not a usual expression of a woman whose husband has just died; here we can understand how alone she has been. If we learn more about Kate ChopinÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s background, we can find out that she lived in the nineteen century, when womenÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s rights were limited. This story reflects the society in that age, then Mrs. Mallards represents the housewives in that time. Many of them get married with the man they donÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦t love, and they spend their lives living alone emotionally.

In the other side we have another nineteenth century author, William Faulkner, who also wrote a short story about being alone, even his work does not focus that much on marriage. His idea of Ð'ÐŽÐ'§getting married to be aloneÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё is very strong, too. In Ð'ÐŽÐ'§A Rose for EmilyÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё, Faulkner interprets loneliness by telling EmilyÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s life. This lady goes through several stages in which no word better than Ð'ÐŽÐ'§aloneÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё can describes, even though, she doesnÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦t want to accept the truth. After her fatherÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s death, she kept his body as if he were alive, Ð'ÐŽÐ'§She did that for three daysÐ'ÐŽK trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the bodyÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё. She denied his fatherÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s death because she was afraid to be alone, she depended a lot on her father. Then she dated Homer Barron, it was a good chance to extricate herself from the loneliness. Ð'ÐŽÐ'§[People of the town] learned that Miss Emily had been to the jewelerÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s and ordered a manÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s