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“The Resplendent Quetzal” a short story from Margaret Atwood’s Dancing Girls, portrays a married couple, Sarah and Edward, whose marriage has become dysfunctional since their child’s death at birth. The death of a child can put extreme pressures on a couple. If neither parent is able to get over such a tragic incident then the unresolved feelings and issues can lead to a relationship that is bound to fail.

The first hint of trouble in this couple’s marriage is when Sarah talks about her husband’s many hobbies, or as she puts it, obsessions. You get the feeling that the wife resents the fact that her husband spends all of his time on his obsessions. “At first Edward’s obsessions had fascinated her…but now they merely made her tired…She herself, she thought, had once been of his obsessions” (154). After one reads this you might believe that the wife merely wants her husband to pay more attention to her or spend more time with her, however there is a feeling that there is much more to this issue and that Sarah’s resentment of her husband appears to run on a much deeper level. The death of their child has a deep emotional affect on Sarah, but the fact that Edward was not present when the baby

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That clearly does not happen with the characters in our story. He had left her alone with the corpse, a corpse for which there was no explanation” (167). If Edward knows that he is being lied to, why does he play along, instead of confronting his wife? In today’s relationships amongst people there are still those who are afraid to confront their partners or who are afraid to face issues that will reveal the truth about their relationship. In order for a couple to get through an event such as this, there has to be open communication of ones feelings and the couple has to be understanding and supportive of each other. He is angry about the fact that his wife lies to him, he resents it and it makes him angry. dies, has a longer lasting negative affect on the marriage.

Initially you feel sorry for the husband who is being manipulated by the wife, who also resents him for something that was not in his control. Some of us even want to control others. The negative feelings and behavior become the norm of the relationship and eventually that becomes the reality of the relationship. He states, “ He was afraid to confront her, that would be the end, all the pretences would come crashing down and they would be left standing in the rubble…There would be nothing left to say and Edward wasn’t ready for that” (156). Our characters illustrate what happens when emotions and feelings are kept bottled up for so long. These people may not be ready to face the truth and or live with the consequences.

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The death of a child can tear apart the strongest of marriages.

Approximate Word count = 971
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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