Living in sin
Relationships are a part of life; everywhere a person looks, there are relationships and sometimes people are pressured into relationships at the urging of their significant other. Some people say they have that perfect relationship, and others say that they had the perfect relationship, but it has faded overtime. "Living in Sin," by Adrienne Rich, is a poem that serves as a perfect example of how relationships can grow old and leave one wanting something better. The first two lines of Rich's poem help to set the tone. When the speaker says, "She had thought the studio would keep itself;/ no dust upon the furniture of love" (1-2). We can see that the character is obviously in a regretful or remorseful mood. She had thought that the initial love would last forever, but now "dust" has fallen upon their relationship. When the character's boyfriend asked her to marry him, she viewed this as a step toward the great American dream. She saw the piano, the shawls, and the other items and wanted that life, but now she is regretting it. The love has faded and there is now a coat of "dust" on her relationship that she cannot remove. The reader understands that the character is wondering why she puts up with this relation
Every evening, however, the character falls back in love with her husband. She goes all day doing little things to keep her mind off the demons and the sin of wanting someone or something better, just to fall back in love when her husband comes home. This is the only time the main character is truly happy because everything seems perfect for that short period. The character starts to feel bad about her relationship and is "jeered by minor demons" (19). She finds herself waking up just so that she can hear the footsteps of the milkman. This deeply upsets the wife because at night, their passion for one another erupts, but when morning comes, the love is gone. He wakes up in the morning and goes about his business without even saying a word to his wife. shrugged at the mirror,/ rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes" (15-18). The speaker of the poem makes it clear that the character's relationship has grown old and that she wants something better. Still the demons come back to haunt her while she is cleaning the house, and she lets the "coffee-pot boil over on the stove"(22). The character cannot stand to go another day without the attention of her husband. This statement gives us the impression that the character is so lost in thought, that she forgets what is going on around her.
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