Discussion Set 1

The reading this week was interesting, that’s for sure! With that said, I’ll get straight to my answers…..
For question 1, about the concept of how romantic love is treated, I chose to use “The Story of an Hour”. It was the last one I read and was disappointed at how short it was! AGH! The agony at the end! Anyway, in this story, the concept of romantic love I think is thrown to the wind. Mrs. Mallard, upon receiving the news that her husband died in a train wreck, acts as society would expect her to. Flailing around, sobbing, locking herself in her room etc. In her mind is obviously a different story, she doesn’t want to admit that she feels free BEFORE deciding to poison herself. With before as the key word there, I was lead to believe that she didn’t marry for romantic or true love, but rather for security and filling her call of duty. Her free feelings came from being bound in a relationship she wasn’t happy in? Free from the “duty” to which a married woman is call to? That’s what women did in the time this story appeared to take place. Romantic love in this instance treated as a chore, something that is thought to be trivial and unnecessary after one marries…..a rite of passage if you will. I wonder though, imagine how Mrs. Mallard must have felt after she saw her husband. I wonder if she was thinking selfishly of her own tragedy, losing her life or if she was wishing she could take back her decision and give “duty” another chance? I guess we’ll never know.
The second question I chose to answer was number four, comparing and contrasting “True Love”. Those were also interesting to read, as the two women had such a different take on what true love was all about. To start, the poem by Wislawa Szymborska, was one in which the author seemed irritated. I couldn’t help but think that she was unhappy and had experiences with relationships that were unfavorable. She must have been surrounded by a bunch of newlyweds! Her poem had tunnel vision in my opinion; she didn’t seem to consider that true love may exist beyond what she was seeing when she gazed at couples in their own world. The structure of the poem I liked better that the one by Sharon Olds, because it posed a question, then answered it right away. It was easier to read! Also, I didn’t feel as though Szymborska’s tone was gleeful (obviously). Sharon Olds had a much more lighthearted approach to her version of True Love. The structure was not as defined but its desired effect of True Love as reality sees fit, was more in tune with the relationship beyond the newlywed stage. She made true love as a way of being happy with her entire situation, as though true love was a cohesive concept. I like the line “I know where you are with my eyes closed”. What could be better than that? What a fabulous sense of security!