The style is very interesting. The story starts from the middle. It begins with Ms. Mrs. Marroner’s cry and sobbing. The scene was so tragic. Until the secret bursts with wrongly addressed letters, you may not imagine the reasons for the uneasy situation in the home. Even in the second part of the story until the ending the reader will be anxious to know what happened to those two women. The ending was shocking to readers. Mrs. Marroner’s decision was challenging the traditional wife and husband relationships. It is new a thought and new act of a new type of woman.
“To Please His Wife” is in a small town setting where traditions where given the highest importance. The role of women in the society was that they were confined to the house, expected to be polite, gentle and are not independent, in the story. The story revolves around Joanna who was over ambitions, dominant and an independent character. Her husband Shadrach had no great desires or ambitions unlike his wife. He was satisfied with his family and family life. As author said, ‘‘Shadrach was a good and honest man, and he had been faithful to her in heart and in deed’'. To satisfy his wife’s desires and for children’s future, he was ready to take risks. Joanna’s troubles started with comparing with others particularly with her close friend Emily. Joanna did not satisfy with the earnings of her husband’s first sea voyage. She replied to her husband that ‘’Well you see, Shadrach…’me count by hundreds; they count by thousands’. They mean Emily’s family. She further continued ‘’my dear Shadrach, you do not know how the world moves. ….. But they are rich and we are poor still’’. One day her husband told her that he was ready to go for second voyage to earn more, if she sends children with him. Initially she was afraid and reluctant to send them on sea. She did not agree for a long-time. Finally she gave her acceptance. She did not care to think about the risks involved in the voyage. Other way round she logically satisfied that ‘the young men might accompany their father. Writer compared Joanna’s character with Emily throughout the story. Emily became rich due to her unexpected marriage with a rich business man in the same town which she never expected. Shadrach supposed to marry Emily in the beginning. Due to Joanna’s play it did not taken place. Emily’s character was depicted as a traditional role model for women who has to bind to the family. In the beginning of the story the author introduced them ‘one was a slight and gentle creature, the other a tall, large-framed, deliberative girl’ for Emily and Joanna’ respectively. Before Joanna’s marriage Shadrach expressed his feeling about Joanna to Emily that ‘ It is only you I love as a man ought to love the woman he is going to marry; and I know this from what Joanna has said, that she will willingly let me off! She wants to marry higher I know, and only said ‘’Yes’’ to me out of kindness. A fine, tall girl like her is not the sort for a plain sailor’s wife: you be the best suited for that’. She was kind towards Joanna from the beginning. She started enquiring about welfare of Joanna and information about Shadrach and children’s second voyage. Once Emily asked Joanna ''Then why did you let them go?'' You were doing fairly well’. Joanna replied that ‘I made them go…And I will tell you why I could not bear that we should be only muddling on, and you so rich and thriving! Now I have told you, and you may hate me if you will’’. Emily assured to Joanna that ‘‘I shall never hate you, Joanna’’. But Joanna was reluctant to reciprocate with Emily in the beginning. Finally, due to her poverty Joanna accepted Emily’s offer to stay at Emily’s house.
The story starts with Shadrach’s escape from death during sea voyage and his prayers at the church with dull and sorrowful setting. The story ends with Mr. Shadrach’s and his children’s death with an unknown accident on sea. The name of the ship for second voyage was ‘Joanna’. ‘Joanna’ was lost on sea. The wife Mrs. Joanna was lost everything in life. This is an excellent comparison in the story. The story has an interesting beginning. Until the end the reader will go along with the story. The writer effectively focussed a message that over ambition was dangerous. Author compared two women very effectively. The message was that women should be traditional and only follow her husbands and fulfil the needs of the family.
“An Alpine Divorce” is in a dramatic setting. It is set in a deserted area, on mountain tops and steep cliffs. Mr and Mrs. Bodman relationship was bitter. It reached highest point to break. They wanted to get rid of from each other. But they could not, due to impractical traditions and values of that time. Mr Bodman decides to kill his wife without any doubt to the society. To implement his plan he told her that he is going for Switzerland for one month. He knew that she will follow him. “They stayed in a hotel near the mountain tops”. The place was well known to him. Mr. Bodman plans to kill his wife from a steep hill named Hanging Outlook in a deserted place. But Mrs. Bodman frames her husband by committing suicide instead, for a murder he does not commit. The writer focussed on the unhappy marriage bondages. Apparently the writer took the balanced view on men and women. The writer effectively focussed that due to social and legal laws the men and women were suffering in the name of status, prestige and traditions. Unless either wife or husband became criminal to obtaining a divorce in England was almost impossible.
The story begins with logical and interesting explanations about suitable combinations of pairs, i.e. wife and husband. This is a thought provoking beginning. The style is simple and interesting. It is a beautiful setting. The place is mountain ranges and barren lands. It hints the no hope situation. The relationship between the characters reached to its peak. Climax setting was in the mountain peak. It is a dramatic scene. The reader will feel the hot of their antagonistic relations with the conversations. Before reaching the Hanging Outlook, Mr. Bodman looked at her through the narrow slits of his veiled eyes, and wondered again if she had any suspicion about his plan to kill her.
He asked her ‘’ Are you tired?’’. She was calling him first time by his Christian name ‘’John, don’t you think that if you had been kinder to me at first things might have been different?’’ Mr. Bodman replied ‘’ It seems to me, that it is rather late in the day for discussing that question.’’ With shock she asked to him ‘’I have much to regret. Have you nothing.’’ He answered ‘’No’’. His wife replied ‘’Very well. … I was merely giving you a chance. Remember.’’ ‘’What do you mean?’’ he asked, ‘’giving me a chance? I want no chance nor anything else from you. A man accepts nothing from one he hates…’’. She replied ‘’ ….You spoke a moment ago of your hatred of me; but you are a man, and your hatred is nothing to mine. ….I know there is no thought of murder in your heart, but there is in mine. I will show you, John Bodman, how much I hate you.’’ She continued, ‘’I have told all my friends in England that I believed you intended to murder me in Switzerland.’’ She informed even the hotel proprietor about this. Before she commits suicide to frame her husband she spoke to him ‘’ I say it to show how much I hate you – how much I am prepared to give for revenge. I have warned the people at the hotel, and when we left two men followed us. … In few moments those two men will come in sight of the Outlook. Tell them, if you think they will believe you, that it was accident.’’ Mr. Bodman had no fixed plan for her murder. He will execute base on circumstances. But Mrs. Bodman had clear idea about her suicide. The story ends with unexpected and dramatic twist.
These three short stories have some common characteristics. They are tragedies. The themes are mainly focussed on wife and husband relationships in different ways. The time setting is almost same. The places were Europe and America. Almost same social conditions were prevailing in these areas.
But these stories are not common in many angles. ‘Turned’ was the 1911 story by Charlotte Perkins Gillman who was a woman and also a feminist. ‘Turned’ had given a message that woman have to think independently and have to stand on their own feet like men. Mrs. Marroner was a representative of a new generation of women. It is a challenge and rebellion against the stagnated and problematic traditions and moral values of the male dominated society. Mrs. Marroner’s decision was a shock treatment for the male dominant society. Through this story the writer proposed new and progressive moral values and traditions. For this purpose the writer created a new type of character like Mrs. Marroner. The writer succeeded in her purpose.
Where as Thomas Hardy (To Please His Wife) and Robert Barr (An Alpine Divorce) were male writers.
The content of ‘To Please His Wife’ is quite contrast to the ‘Turned’. Through Joanna is a non-traditional woman character and Emily is a traditional women character. To support the traditions of the society the writer used Joanna’s over ambitious character. The message is very clear. The role of women was not like Joanna, they should be like Emily. They should be gentle and good housewives. The message is clear that if they wanted to be independent, they will ruin their lives like Joanna. If we keep aside this analysis and think in other way like the moral of the story might be ‘not to be over ambitious’. The writer so effectively presented the story. We feel sympathetic towards Joanna’s bad luck though she was focussed as over ambitious.
Robert Barr’s ‘An Alpine Divorce’ presented a reality of wife and husband relationships of that time. The writer maintained balance while commenting on relationships. He did not blame either the wife or the husband. The writer described the situation of the society and legal laws of the time. The story suggested for the changes to be taken place in the society.
The messages of these stories are different in nature. ‘Turned’ and ‘An Alpine Divorce’ are similar in one way. They wanted some changes in the society. But ‘To Please His Wife’ was not for any change.