Subject: Seymour
From: James Rowlandson (james.rowlandson@utoronto.ca)
Date: Sun Feb 09 1997 - 19:57:58 GMT
I like this statement because it shows a really scary human side of marriage ideology:
>...but when one marries one is symbolically joining society and I always kinda wondered if that was
>something which Seymour just could not/would not put up with.....
Some people are able to resist this kind of honest feeling by using other mechanisms to keep
their "heads above the water". A few popular ways would be : religious marriage values, pride, spite,
patience, or even distance. These are all legitimate ways to redirect ideas, and people can easily attach
gradients like "goals" to these to provide levels of success for themselves throughout their entire lives. But
to be married (or to be in any relationship, be it with your god, your boy/girlfriend, your dog) essentially
does break down to mean to be fettered to another person, and to the institution that that the two people
involved represent. I do not think that Seymour could have killed himself for the simple reason of being
binded to Muriel; in the romantic way that I envision his character, it would be too petty and singular of him
to do so because of that. But the whole series of reminders of being human that a man gets in his early
thirties (and again, around an event like a wedding) can be overwhelming at the very least; a kind of
incessant pecking reminder that his "ride" might end without any kind of enlightening realization. This is
where most men choose to start their mid-life crisis, and it is a selfish, and completely human thing to do.
If you consider the type of man that Buddy Glass chooses to tell you that Seymour is -- anywhere from the
empathic wonder-child to the angelic wise-man of the mountains -- it seems inevitable that a man of
unstoppable certainty will stumble when he even only sees a spiritual speed-bump. More blatantly, a man
who has great empathy, and is loved by a story-teller brother like Seymour is, will be very bad a being a
human once he recognizes that he is one.
Incidentally, great post (quoted at the beginning). Comments are nice.....
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