Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier show signs of having a bad
marriage from the beginning of the novel. Mrs. Pontellier arrives home from the
beach with Robert Lebrun and it makes me wonder if she is having an affair with
Robert. Mr. Pontellier regards the two of them together with disinterest. If I saw
my wife with another man I would be angry and would question, why they were
together. “…looking at his wife as one who looks at a valuable piece of
personal property which has suffered some damage,” (Chopin 3). There is not one
woman who wants to be looked at as personal property. Mr. Pontellier thinks he
owns Mrs. Pontellier. He knows, even though she will do whatever she pleases,
she will still come home and act like the perfect wife. “She did not sit there
inwardly upbraiding her husband, lamenting at Fate, which had directed her
footsteps to the path which they had taken,” (Chopin 8). Mrs. Pontellier claims
that was not the reason why she was crying, but we can infer that she has
thoughts about how she ended up with Mr. Pontellier. At the end of Chapter 3,
Mrs. Pontellier forces herself to agree with the ladies that Mr. Pontellier is
the best husband in the world. This shows their marriage is not based on love
and trust.
I agree with this, I also used the quote about Mr. Pontellier viewing Mrs. Pontellier as personal property. You can tell when she agrees that he is the best husband that she is putting on a different face for the rest of the world, despite what she is actually feeling.
ReplyDeleteI also agree because while reading you can definitely tell that she's acting different than what her emotions actually show. I also think that Mrs. Pontellier was having an affair with Robert. At the same time I was confused because Mr. Pontellier doesn't seem one bit concerned about what she was doing.
ReplyDeleteI would have to disagree with one point you brought up. You said " If I saw my wife with another man I would be angry..." I feel as though Mr. Pontellier was not angered because of the respect they have for each other. If there is one thing in this horrible relationship that they have right it is respect. Mrs. Pontellier respects Mr. Pontellier enough to not cheat on him, and Mr. Pontellier realizes that. Thus, this is why he does not display anger, he knows his wife wouldn't cheat.
ReplyDeleteI am going to have to agree with what Brandon said about having respect for one another. I feel as if Mr & Mrs. Pontellier have an understanding with each other and that they are both just making the best out of a bad situation.
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