Marriage & Love

May 9, 2012

[Willa Cather’s A Garden Lodge]

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

America's 1920s reminds me of two different images. The first one is a free, vigorous atmosphere followed by (rather successful) World War 1. Thousands of men returned from battlefield to their hometowns. Huge companies employed millions of people. The nation was under booming economy. Contrarily, the second image is more unsettled, profligate, and shady. Labor strikes took place everywhere. The nation grew more exclusive with the second KKK and quota act. A group of Western women called ‘flappers’ appeared with indecent dressings and flouted social and sexual norms. Prohibition banned any liquors containing alcohol. Overpowered desire was expressed in inappropriate ways such as gangsters. So, how could families back then be similar to those nowadays?

There are three main grounds of marriage; financial state, labor, and romance.

Back in feudalistic society, people dominantly expected to get financial benefits from marriage. Parents of a man strongly willed their son to marry a rich lady, so that their family could get financially supported. They also expected a mutual complementary in laboring for their family. While men were out farming, hunting, fishing, lumbering, and sometimes guarding earls, women oftentimes stayed in their house, reproduced their breeds, took care of their children, and did household works. Apart, man and woman couldn’t live a stable life, but together, they could. It’s only recently that people started to take consideration of love in marriage. They make dramas and movies about romantic love overcoming all the difficulties. Cinderella is no more a fairy tale. People dream of a runaway flight with their lover. Then, how about in 1920s? As briefly mentioned above, American society was somewhat stiff. The nation was very exclusive. They opposed all immigrants. Job was strictly available to white men dominantly. Women were back in houses taking care of children again. Blacks’ opportunity for workplace drastically dropped from WW1. Even more, there were clashes of interests of different groups continuously. Was ‘marriage’ to be a relationship of lovers? Fathers were all at work, and mothers were all back at home. These ‘Victorian women’ appeared, breaking sexual norms. Surely all these phenomena could bring slight of love, as love was an abstract and uncertain thing. The nation had just gone through a huge world-wide war; nobody could assure that there wouldn’t be any war the day after. What people needed back then was certainty and stability.

Caroline, the protagonist in [The Garden Lodge], has her own family story. Her father was a music teacher full of ‘vindictiveness’ and ‘puerile self-commiseration’. Her mom simply idolized Caroline’s father. Her brother, after drawing newspaper sketches for years, shot. Affected by this typical (as for then) childhood, Caroline grows hatred toward uncertain existence and absurdity. But she faces the reality. There are two men; one staying in her garden lodge, Raymond, and her husband, asking to tear the garden lodge down for a summer house, Howard. Conflicting between two, she finally sets her mind to follow her husband.

For me, Caroline’s family story and marriage all seems peculiar and uncommon. But considering the time period the story was written, Caroline’s marriage with a forty-year old business man wasn’t too extraordinary. Nowadays it is rational to consider emotion, or love, as the number one factor in the marriage, but back then, material benefit and stable future could also be one. Caroline’s decision, there, could be seen as ‘overcoming’ her situation. Throw what marriage could have meant back then, and consider what the relation ‘marriage’ can possibility mean in any cases. It could be a relationship between two lovers, it could be a relationship for breeding, or it could be a simple legal contract. As we’ve seen in thousands of other stories how one’s decision can lead him/her to destruction (as one example, The Cut Glass Bowl by F. Scott Fitzgerald), we sometimes need to resolutely throw away the absurdity. Frankly, how can anyone assure that Caroline’s feeling toward Raymond is not a simple longing for departure from her reality? Is her uncertain feeling toward Ray worth taking risk of her life? Caroline could attain both economic stability and social normalcy by choosing Howard, what could have she done better?








{Comments}

Yoonju Chung: I definitely agree on your point that although it is rational to marry with a person he/she loves nowadays, back then material benefit and stable future are worth considering as well (but i guess these factors are considered pretty significantly as well these days). Caroline's decision to follow her husband instead of Raymond was maybe the best resolution she could have done during the period after WW1, influenza, Great depression, and Russian revolution. All these terrible events loosened the ties of family like what you mentioned. It would be better if you had connected your ideas with background information in that time period in your 3rd paragraph and this essay gives me a lot to think! Especially the last sentence!

Jeong YunJo: he checked grammar issues! and that the story was published in 1905 but the post WW1 period is after 1939 (which wiki tells me that the book was actually published in 1920, after WW1)