"A Life of Her Own"
From "A Life of Her Own" by Emilie Carles
I chose to write about 3 quotes from the excerpt which describes the marriage between Emilie and Jean.
"I did not have the slightest doubt that we would marry. I was twenty eight and I was determined to take full responsibility for myself, but for many reasons why fathers consent was important to me." (Carles, 88)
"I defended myself with all the passion I could summon, I was ready to do anything except give in: my happiness and my life at stake. The idea of anyone else making my decisions for me was revolting, and I was not at a loss for arguments." (Carles, 89)
"Jean was authentic wealth, the only kind I had always wanted and never had. A head full of dreams, a smile laden with promises, a heart heavy with all the goodness on earth, such as the wealth offered and given me. Material wealth cannot compare. That is why I was opposed to marriage contracts. When you love someone you share everything, and if you part, the contract will not cure the pain. It is nothing but a matter of sous, and for me there is not a shadow of doubt that money soils whatever it touches." (Carles, 92)
The first quote describes how Emilie wants to take responsibility for herself and for her future, but also wanted her fathers opinion. She mentioned earlier that her mother had died. It makes sense that she wants her fathers permission to marry Jean, because her father is the only part of her family that she has left.
The second quote relates to a lot of the other stories we have read from. In this Emilie describes how she wants to be able to make decisions for herself. She mentions that her life and her happiness are at stake if she does not start doing what she wants rather than what other people want.
The third quote describes Emilie's views on marriage and wealth. She says that Jean has "authentic wealth" and it is something that she has always wanted. Emilie says that she has more "material wealth" and that money has the power to ruin things, including relationships. She does not want to sign a marriage contract because she believes that her and Jean should share everything, both "authentic wealth" and "material wealth."
Word Count: 392
For your first quote, I interpreted her relationship with her father differently. Especially because toward the end of the story and how he was treating Emilie. I agree that in the beginning she wanted her father's approval but as the story went on they became more and more distant emotionally. He said very hateful things to her. The second quote I mostly agree with, I felt as though it is not that she wanted to make her own decision because she could, but he father's reasonings as to why she should not marry Jean and her uncle's lies that they were telling Emilie did not settle well with her. I think if they had made an actual argument with factual evidence she may have believed them. The this quote, I agree with, she wanted someone with a kind heart and a good soul, not a drunk wealthy man.
ReplyDeleteThe last quote that you selected really demonstrated Emilie's true love for Jean. He was not a wealthy man by any means, but he had a heart of gold. I believe that money and wealth can have strong influences on people, and not necessarily for the right reasons. In today's society, you can still see individuals marrying for material wealth instead of "true love". "It is nothing but a matter of sous, and for me there is not a shadow of doubt that money soils whatever it touches." (Carles, 92). Emilie makes it seem that their love would have been as authentic, with or without the money. On the other hand, I can see why Emilie's father may have been hesitant to let his daughter marry Jean. Typically, the man has more wealth than the woman and is able to provide for her. That is not the case for Emilie and Jean though. Emilie is the "breadwinner" of the family and is providing for not only Jean and their children, but her father, Jean's mother, and her sister's four children.
ReplyDeleteThe first quote you selected I viewed as her mind set at the beginning of this passage, which ultimately changed towards the end. Emilie began with the mind set that she needed her father's approval for every decision she made, but once she grew older and started having differences of opinion with him over her marriage with Jean her mindset shifted. She no longer desired her father's approval as she did not agree with his opinion on Jean. This moves into the last quote as that was the biggest disagreement her and her father had. Emilie saw Jean as who he was, not as someone who lacked wealth in material goods. To her, wealth was within the personality not determined by how much one owns. This is the opposite as her father's opinion, and your interpretation of this last quote really sums up that whole idea.
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