Question Set #1

3. Does the selection you chose challenge the definition/beliefs you have about romantic love? How so? Does it correspond to your definition/beliefs? How so?

I enjoyed Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour". I think that individuals in most relationships, if people are honest with themselves and others, have at some point felt that they have lost their individuality and/or freedom to be who they are, and have instead been swallowed up by their partners presence. This feeling of constrains within a relationship is normal, as relationships are basically built around compromise, sacrifice, and putting the other person first. In doing so, there will be moments of wishing that all you had to think about was yourself and not another. What I find so ironic about the human race is that once a person has gotten out of an relationship, they are soon earnestly searching to be in another. Usually never satisfied with either being in a relationship or being out of one.
I found the ending of the story to be amusing when Louise, who for a very brief moment found herself free from such a relationship with her husband Brently Mallard, was confronted with the reality that she had not left at all, and thus died from the shock of being back where she was.


5. Compare “To His Importunate Mistress” to Andrew Marvell’s famed “To His Coy Mistress”. What kind of statement do you think De Vries is making about Marvell’s classic?

In Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress", he is presenting the argument to his soon to be mistress, that while he would like to take the slow route of courting her, now is the time to indulge in love with all its sexual pleasures, as life goes by quickly and once you have died you have lost the moment forever.
Peter De Vries on the other hand in writing "To His Importunate Mistress", speaks of the other side of having a lover by the title itself. A Mistress can be persistent in demands, notably on the financial side. While Marvell is persauding a woman to be his lover, De Vries is couseling men to think twice about taking on a lover if you have a wife. Both women will want your time, attention and money, leaving the man with the short end of the stick. It's a "tongue in cheek" approach to the reality side of trying to please two women at once.