Marriage - The Awakening

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  • Marriage
    • Eternity
      • "She silently reached out to him." "The rings sparkled upon her fingers"
      • [the wedding ring] "she stamped her heel upon it striving to crush it" but "did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet"
      • TIMER - "gold survives the fire that's hot enough" "'eternity' inscribed...his surety that they'd be together 'later'"
        • Contrast in Harrison's "gold" as representative of marriage as valuable. Also contrast in casual tone, marriage as a powerful bond, defying death.
    • Lack of Love
      • "monotonous, insistent way" "instructed" etc
      • "The ladies... all declared that Mr Pontellier was the best husband in the whole world. Mrs Pontellier was forced to admit that she knew of none better"
      • Societal Requirement
        • "provided for her external existence"
        • "her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse"
        • "looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property"
        • TALKING IN BED - "an emblem"
          • Having a solid definition does not result in an ease in living,
    • Entrapment
      • Hypnotic Restraint
        • "domestic harmony... was not a condition of life which fitted her" "a pity of that colourless existence"
        • "the voices [of the sky and the stars above] were not soothing..they jeered and sounded mournful notes without promise, devoid of even hope"
        • "the deep tangle of the garden" "mystery and witchery amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers"
        • ONE FLESH - "a destination, For which their whole lives were a preparation"
          • "silence between them like a thread"
        • TALKING IN BED - "Dark towns heap up on the horizon"
          • Expectations of optimism from a horizon
      • Threatening, intimidating effects
        • "In a sweeping passion...She wanted to destroy something"
        • "Her face was flushed and her eyes flamed"
        • "little stinging, buzzing imps succeeded in dispelling a mood which might have held her there in the darkness"
        • ONE FLESH- "Chastity faces them"
      • Isolation of restrained individuality
        • "that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world"
        • "accustomed to harbour thoughts and emotions"
        • "The street...an alien world which had suddenly become antagonistic"
        • "a pity of that colourless existence
        • FOR MY LOVER - "like a monument...she is solid. As for me, I am a watercolour"
    • Freedom
      • "blowing out the candle which her husband had left burning"
      • "He was naked. His  attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him"
        • ONE FLESH - "Tossed up like flotsam from a former passion"
          • Sense of sadness - contrast from Edna's complete disregard of husband and emotionless description of his vulnerability
    • // TIMER // ONE FLESH // TALKING IN BED // FOR MY LOVER //

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