Feminist Perspective and Subtle Critiques in Alice Munro’s “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” and “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.”
Alice Munro’s stories “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” and “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” both subtly expose her feminist perspective and critique societal norms of relationships between men and women. Both stories have been turned into films that remain true to Munro’s views concerning relationships and love, as well as expose the entitlement of the male gender role and its interconnection with class and age. In Robert McGill’s article “No Nation but Adaptation” he asserts that Sarah Polley, the director of “Away From Her," adapt’s Munro’s story into her own while …show more content…
Despite treating life as if it was a joke that she is above, in the end, she allows Grant to choose whether or not he will forsake her. Although he chooses not to, one of the many ironies throughout the story is that in order to maintain his wife’s visits with Aubrey, he commits to an extramarital affair with Aubrey’s wife, Marian. This is not the first, nor the worst affair that Grant has had, as he feels guilty for cheating on Fiona when he was a university professor. Despite this guilt, he fondly remembers his affair with another woman named Jacquie. He describes feeling a “gigantic increase in well-being” and a perceived expansion in his “wisdom” and “stature” during this particular affair (306, 307). The mandatory four weeks Grant has to wait before seeing Fiona “is the longest month of his life”; yet, this feeling of his love for her is paralleled through the illustratIon of the second worst month of his life: the month he had to spend away from Jacquie (285). Grant acknowledges that the worst consequence of his former cheating and deceptive ways is that it “might eventually have cost him Fiona” (291). He spends the next twenty years of his life loving Fiona while trying to assuage and make up for the womanizing behaviours of his past. Fiona proposes to Grant in an almost comical way by shouting over the wind “Do you think it would be …show more content…
The poem provides a parallel to their relationship, as Grant, like the cinnamon peeler, has had extramarital affairs in his past. The peelers wife is able to look past these as she solely aspires to be marked by his scent, and known as his wife, even if she is aware of being first in a line among many. In Grant’s case, he loves Fiona but fails to show the commitment that is necessary early in their marriage. Although his guilt is not the only motivating factor for his newfound commitment to Fiona, his dream of a “black ring” thickening around his windpipes shows that he does feel the guilt that naturally comes from cheating on a partner (289). As McGill indicates, the film is closely tied to the text; Canadian authors like Ondaatje and W. H. Auden, as well as musicians such as Neil Young, are not cut out for their American counterparts (109). McGill identifies that Marian and Grant’s relationship is a key difference between the text and film. The story leaves the question of whether they continue to see each other unanswered, whereas the film shows Marian moving out of the house she loved in order to stay with Grant, asking him to “at least pretend” for her, showing that she understands he is with her for Fiona’s
Alice Munro’s stories “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” and “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” both subtly expose her feminist perspective and critique societal norms of relationships between men and women. Both stories have been turned into films that remain true to Munro’s views concerning relationships and love, as well as expose the entitlement of the male gender role and its interconnection with class and age. In Robert McGill’s article “No Nation but Adaptation” he asserts that Sarah Polley, the director of “Away From Her," adapt’s Munro’s story into her own while …show more content…
Despite treating life as if it was a joke that she is above, in the end, she allows Grant to choose whether or not he will forsake her. Although he chooses not to, one of the many ironies throughout the story is that in order to maintain his wife’s visits with Aubrey, he commits to an extramarital affair with Aubrey’s wife, Marian. This is not the first, nor the worst affair that Grant has had, as he feels guilty for cheating on Fiona when he was a university professor. Despite this guilt, he fondly remembers his affair with another woman named Jacquie. He describes feeling a “gigantic increase in well-being” and a perceived expansion in his “wisdom” and “stature” during this particular affair (306, 307). The mandatory four weeks Grant has to wait before seeing Fiona “is the longest month of his life”; yet, this feeling of his love for her is paralleled through the illustratIon of the second worst month of his life: the month he had to spend away from Jacquie (285). Grant acknowledges that the worst consequence of his former cheating and deceptive ways is that it “might eventually have cost him Fiona” (291). He spends the next twenty years of his life loving Fiona while trying to assuage and make up for the womanizing behaviours of his past. Fiona proposes to Grant in an almost comical way by shouting over the wind “Do you think it would be …show more content…
The poem provides a parallel to their relationship, as Grant, like the cinnamon peeler, has had extramarital affairs in his past. The peelers wife is able to look past these as she solely aspires to be marked by his scent, and known as his wife, even if she is aware of being first in a line among many. In Grant’s case, he loves Fiona but fails to show the commitment that is necessary early in their marriage. Although his guilt is not the only motivating factor for his newfound commitment to Fiona, his dream of a “black ring” thickening around his windpipes shows that he does feel the guilt that naturally comes from cheating on a partner (289). As McGill indicates, the film is closely tied to the text; Canadian authors like Ondaatje and W. H. Auden, as well as musicians such as Neil Young, are not cut out for their American counterparts (109). McGill identifies that Marian and Grant’s relationship is a key difference between the text and film. The story leaves the question of whether they continue to see each other unanswered, whereas the film shows Marian moving out of the house she loved in order to stay with Grant, asking him to “at least pretend” for her, showing that she understands he is with her for Fiona’s