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Mrs. Mann
10 September 2017
workforce post World War II, this period was vital to the growing defiance of such
discriminatory norms. While pop culture and major media supported the ideal that
women would return to the comfort of family life and domestic duties, womens
opinions and actions often did not reflect these ideologies and thus marked the start of a
long-coming change in Americans views regarding gender roles in the aging 20th
century. In her short story, The Other Paris, Marvis Gallant, one such women influenced
emphasize the necessity of marriage not as a product of love, but rather a dictation of
gender normalcy.
Gallant voices the irony in the fact that society claims marriage to be a product of
love yet illustrates a world where marriage is rationalized by ulterior motivation. She
paints the vivid picture that a proposal was not an affair to be had over lunch or on the
spur of a moment, but, a scene that involved all at once the Seine, moonlight, barrows of
violets, acacias in flower, and confused misty background of the Eiffel tower. Soon
however, her romantic imagery and majestic scenes are discredited as Gallant takes on a
far more powerful and omniscient voice in her introduction of the all too common 1950s
couple, Carol and Howard. With such she reveals that the two had known each other a
mere 3 weeks and until the proposal their relationship had been strictly professional, in
fact, Howard had proposed at lunch, over a tuna fish salad. Not only is Gallant drawing
attention to the non-existent, or at best, highly undeveloped rationale for marriage of the
time, but societys blindness towards their superficial reality of marriage. Carol did not
love Howard and Howard did not love Carol. This point is made blatantly clear as Gallant
writes, The fact that Carol was not in love with Howard Mitchell did not dismay her in
the least. Nonetheless, anyone who had seen the couple or attended the wedding would
have been under the illusion that the two were in love, an illusion so vast that even Carol
herself began to fall under its spell. Gallant further mocks people's reasoning for marriage
in her direct characterization of Carols relationships, both past and present. From
deeming a past proposal, a prospective medical student unsuitable out of his current
financial lack to her small-minded view that a common interest is the true basis of
increasingly shallow. Gallant further criticizes Carol in her relationship with Howard by
personifying the concept of love. Love is humorously compared to a plant which given
the right conditions will undoubtedly sprout and grow. People tend to consider love an
element of an almost magical reality, but when it comes to their societal practices, true
love, in this sense, is lost to marriage, the sad business of falling in love.u
In comparing the proportion of time spent analyzing Carol and time spent on
Howard, as well as the various reasons and opinions surrounding their impending
marriage, gender roles during this critical era, specifically a woman's necessity to marry
becomes a striking theme. While a good three quarters of the passage concerns Carol, a
conscious decision is reflective of how essential marriage was to woman in 1950s. The
Gallants given reasoning for eachs support of their union. Carol frets that her age will
soon make it too late to find a husband. In Gallants words, Carol is under the illusion
that in a short time she would be so old nobody would ask her again. This
rationalization, while seemingly unvalidated and false at first glance, begins to gain a
level of concern as Carol worries about her future financial stability without a husband.
Employment for women in the 1950s was rapidly declining and for those who remained
in the workforce, pay was far from equal to that of male coworkers. Thus, for Carol,
Howard meant a deserved sense of stability as He was an economist who has sense
enough to attract himself to a corporation that continued to pay his salary. Her concerns
are legitimate and thus readers are lead to find some understanding in Carol's reasons for
marriage. Howard on the other hand is prompted to marry by a comment made by his
sister that without a wife he would soon become just a person who fills in at dinner. In
his response, Gallant mocks Howards serious concern over such trivial justification for
marriage in the final line, Howard saw the picture and was deeply moved by it.
Loneliness and societal embarrassment are Howard's primary motives for marriage and
when compared to Carols concerns towards financial and economic stability, Gallant
suggests that during this time, the brunt of the pressure to marry, at least for valid
family life is for them. Women go to college, vote, they are compensated equal pay for
equal work, but this was not always the case. It took years of protest and discontent both
active and in the form of literature before change was instituted. Thus, from undermining
her 1950s societies ironic and false understanding of love as a concept of marriage and
mocking her characters superficial justification for marriage to identifying the underlying
problems, Carols age and financial instability without a husband, which led Carol and
Howard to the conclusion that a loveless marriage is best, Marvis Gallant successfully
addresses the injustice of 1950s freedom of marriage for women, an element of a greater