Spoon River Anthology Poem Analysis

Marriage in Spoon River Anthology
Fairy tales often depict marriage as the answer to one’s problems. Hollywood’s portrayal of marriage is that it’s full of love and consists of a happily ever after. The knight in shining armor saves the princess, and they ride off into the sunset, instantly in love. This unrealistic idea about marriage is disproved by Edgar Lee Masters; his book of poems, Spoon River Anthology, proves marriage to be quite the opposite. Spoon River Anthology tells the tale of broken marriages and the scarcity of true love; however, when true love occurs, it is perfect and permanent. The characters in Spoon River Anthology show that they would rather stay unhappy in their marriages than go through divorces. Divorce was rare in the 1900s, and the characters in the poems prove this statistic to be true. Statistics show that in the 1900s 10 out of every 1,000 marriages ended in divorce (Futureofchildren.org). An example of a couple who would rather bring each other pain and sorrow, instead of being part of the divorce rate, is the McGees. They both tell the tale of a broken marriage in their poems. Fletcher McGee shares a dark secret that he does not want the outside world to know about. He abuses his wife by making her into something she is not. In Ollie McGee’s poem she states, “The face of what I was, the face of …show more content…
Many characters in Spoon River would rather stay miserable than go through a divorce. Emotional abuse and adultery play a key role in the reasons for the broken marriages. Love is scarce in Spoon River, but it occasionally occurs. The Matlocks are an inspiration for the unhappily married couples through their confidence in life and love. Unhappiness is a common theme in the poems, but the key factor to a happy marriage is never losing the love that one has for the other even when life is