Introduction
Like most marriages, things start off very strong but begin to falter a bit as time goes on. Most people manage to overcome these small hurdles with minimal effort, but for many, the once small hurdle can turn into a very large mountain. In the movie “Hope Spring,” we watch as one couple’s small hurdle turns into a mountain so large that they begin to lose sight of the importance of intimacy in their relationship. The film illustrates how marital status, communication, self-concept, and companionship are affected by growing older. All of these aspects work together to cause problems, or to minimize problems, in Arnold and Kay’s marriage. Marital Status in Older Age When you’ve been married to someone for an extended …show more content…
It has also been shown that if intimacy is strong in a relationship, often times there is also a higher quality of life reported. When taking into consideration this information, it’s very understandable why Kay felt the need to reach out to a marriage counselor, and why she was very upset about Arnold’s negative attitude surrounding the idea. More than likely, Kay was thinking of both of their long term happiness and outlooks on life, and not just missing physical intimacy like many might initially think. She may have seen Arnold’s negative reactions as a way of him expressing that he doesn’t value their relationship, instead of him just being satisfied with the way things already were. If Arnold and Kay had better communication skills, the transition into the idea of marriage counseling may have been much less drastic and …show more content…
When you’ve been with someone for many years, it’s almost as if your happiness and sadness levels fuse into one being, instead of just being from two separate people. This can possibly be attributed to having shared so many life experiences together; when you’ve shared so many happy times and sad times together, eventually most emotions will happen at the same time within one another (Bryner, 2010). However, when viewing Arnold’s and Kay’s marriage, they don’t appear to be on the same page about their emotions. This might be caused by the earlier mentioned idea of routine; it’s hard to share new experiences with each other if you’re stuck doing the same things you always have been. Not experiencing new things together often enough can cause the emotional dissonance that the couple has been suffering
Like most marriages, things start off very strong but begin to falter a bit as time goes on. Most people manage to overcome these small hurdles with minimal effort, but for many, the once small hurdle can turn into a very large mountain. In the movie “Hope Spring,” we watch as one couple’s small hurdle turns into a mountain so large that they begin to lose sight of the importance of intimacy in their relationship. The film illustrates how marital status, communication, self-concept, and companionship are affected by growing older. All of these aspects work together to cause problems, or to minimize problems, in Arnold and Kay’s marriage. Marital Status in Older Age When you’ve been married to someone for an extended …show more content…
It has also been shown that if intimacy is strong in a relationship, often times there is also a higher quality of life reported. When taking into consideration this information, it’s very understandable why Kay felt the need to reach out to a marriage counselor, and why she was very upset about Arnold’s negative attitude surrounding the idea. More than likely, Kay was thinking of both of their long term happiness and outlooks on life, and not just missing physical intimacy like many might initially think. She may have seen Arnold’s negative reactions as a way of him expressing that he doesn’t value their relationship, instead of him just being satisfied with the way things already were. If Arnold and Kay had better communication skills, the transition into the idea of marriage counseling may have been much less drastic and …show more content…
When you’ve been with someone for many years, it’s almost as if your happiness and sadness levels fuse into one being, instead of just being from two separate people. This can possibly be attributed to having shared so many life experiences together; when you’ve shared so many happy times and sad times together, eventually most emotions will happen at the same time within one another (Bryner, 2010). However, when viewing Arnold’s and Kay’s marriage, they don’t appear to be on the same page about their emotions. This might be caused by the earlier mentioned idea of routine; it’s hard to share new experiences with each other if you’re stuck doing the same things you always have been. Not experiencing new things together often enough can cause the emotional dissonance that the couple has been suffering