Marriage is an important event in the life of a significant percentage of people, and it is no wonder that a considerable amount of literature is devoted to portraying the married life. This paper discusses three literary works on this topic: A. Bradstreet’s To My Dear and Loving Husband, the short play Post-Its (Notes on a Marriage) by P. Dooley, and W. Holzman, and P. Larkin’s Talking in Bed comparing the manner in which they display the married life.
On the whole, the three texts show marriage from different perspectives. The poem by A. Bradstreet (n.d.) portrays marriage as a union of two individuals who feel strong love towards each other, and permit one another to enjoy a strong sense of happiness over a long period of time, which, in the imagination of the author, stretches infinitely into the future; even death does not appear to end such love and joy.
On the other hand, the poem by P. Larkin (as cited in Mazid, 2002) shows another side of marriage, namely, that while marriage tends to start with mutual truthfulness and kindness, these tend to wither away with the passage of time. The author portrays a situation in which, it seems, the spouses ought, to be honest with one another and feel at ease, yet their time together instead turns into unrest, an awkward silence.
Finally, the short play by Dooley and Holzman (n.d.). provides a broad picture of a married couple, who appear to have a strong love towards one another, but, due to the lack of time, communicate very little (in the play, the only communication taking place is via notes). As the years pass, the spouses deeply regret that the time they spend together is so limited; however, they still share each other’s burdens and joys and help one another with a variety of issues. Although this play demonstrates the problem of the lack of time together, it still displays the numerous joys related to married life.
All in all, the three texts portray different aspects of marriage. While Bradstreet (n.d.), as well as Dooley and Holzman (n.d.) devote a considerable amount of attention to the benefits that being married may bring, Larkin (as cited in Mazid, 2002) depicts a profoundly adverse aspect of marriage related to the depleted feelings of spouses towards one another.
References
Bradstreet, A. (n.d.). To my dear and loving husband. Web.
Dooley, P., & Holzman, W. (n.d.). Post-its (notes on a marriage). Web.
Mazid, B.-E. M. (2002). “…This unique distance from isolation”: A stylistic analysis of Larkin’s Talking in Bed. Web.