Tension and Violence Between Men and Women in Three Short Stories in The Secret Self.
The purpose of this essay is to study various kinds of tension and violence existing between men and women in short stories Her Table Spread by Elizabeth Bowen, Rope by Katherine Anne Porter and The Time of Death by Alice Munro. In my essay I will view the character features of the principal characters seen mainly from the point of view of the opposite sex. It's my intention to show that the author's sex influences the contents of the short stories. I,m also going to find out whether the violence is physical or mental. .
Her Table spread by Elizabeth Bowen will be discussed in chapter one. I will prove that there is one very dominating woman who, perhaps unknowingly and unintentionally, uses violence against the principal male character of the story. I'm also going to show that the man, who creates most tension between a man and a woman and who in fact may have the leading role, is only mentioned by name, he is not in the story itself. The essay will also show that a romantic tension between the principal characters can only be experienced once in the whole story.
In chapter two Katharine Anne Porter's short story Rope will be discussed and the fact will be proved that an insignificant incident can lead to very serious violence and various kinds of tensions between a married couple. In addition the tension comes into being through what is not said that is through repressed feelings. I will also speak about the fact how persons through mental violence come back to the 'original' situation between two lovers. To a situation where tension must be explained as love tension but where there are many things not spoken about and not settled.
Alice Munro's story The Time of Death tells about very strong feelings of women and how men are perfectly disregarded. In this story men are underestimated and the violence is not pointed at an individual but men as a whole, as a sex.