SSRJ #2: Colette
Initial Personal Reaction:
Before reading this story I wasn't expecting it to be about a man's hand going crazy in his sleep. It completely put me in a loop when the wife was shocked at the reaction she was witnessing and how it changed her attitude about him...just by him sleeping. I felt sorry for her because she was now living in fear. She probably was in fear already for getting married to someone she barely knew but know she is unsure about what kind of person he really is. It made me think about how my husband sometimes jolts in his sleep and I watch him to make sure he is okay or just incase I need to wake him up from a nightmare but it doesn't make me afraid of him though.
Literary Element/Thematic Analysis:
Colette uses symbolism to magnitize domestic violence in her short story "The Hand." Alot of the time, marriages back in the 1920's were seen as a business and the husband was the boss. The wives were taught and raised to be submissive to their husbands. So much, in fact, that standing up to their husbands could result in a physical beating. Husbands always had the upper hand and they made sure to constantly remind their wives of that. Even though Colette didn't mention that the young bride had been a victim of physical abuse by her husband, she hid the idea behind the hand of the husband and how violently he reacted in his sleep. A wife knows the power of her husband if she has ever been hit by him. So as the woman in the story sees his hand jolt in a strange way she becomes afraid of him and that to me shows how Colette symbolizes how women were afraid of being struck by their husbands. Colette brillently describes how the husband's hand looks scary and vile to portray the reality of a marriage behind close doors.
Questions/Comments:
I think since the husband was a widow he was dreaming about his wife that he either killed or she just passed away. What do you think his nightmare was about?
Interesting interpretation! Personally, I didn't read that the husband was abusive because they were so newly wed, and he seemed pretty affectionate. I feel like it's very reasonable to think that he was dreaming about killing his ex-wife because her death is not described, and his hand is so scary. But I felt like the fear the wife felt at watching the hand was a reflection of her paranoia of marrying a man she doesn't know personally or what he's capable of.
ReplyDeleteI personally didn't get the feeling that she was in actual physical fear of her husband but more scared that she may have made a wrong decision by rushing into this based on solely superficial desires. But you made an interesting point about how marriage is perceived and changes over time. Not sure what the husband was dreaming about...maybe he was having a nightmare about somebody stealing his car, LOL.
ReplyDeleteYes!!! finally someone agrees with me on this! Colette emphasis the husbands hands as red, red symbioses blood or even a warning sign so yes! I do believe he killed his ex-wife because when the hand twitches while the husband is sleeping, his hand made faint jerks "that resembled agony," maybe its the agony he feels for killing his ex wife.
ReplyDeleteAlso great research on your history! well done.
I also believe he killed his ex. Reread the sections describing the hands motions and mimic them with your own. Total strangler. It even says “squeezed with the methodical pleasure of a strangler.” How much clearer can it get?
ReplyDeleteExactly! That stuck out to me too. Also the fact that he was still young and he was a widow.
DeleteThe "nightmare" was not a nightmare at all, in my opinion. If you look at the timing of the dream, it happens right we she is having an epiphony of her situation. She was afraid of what the future held and everything was beginning to come into the light. So she began noticing things she hadn't before.
ReplyDelete