I think Jim Burden's marriage is interesting. Not much is said about his wife, but she is described as a "restless, headstrong girl." And on the same page (page 2) we hear about Jim's quiet tastes. It is not a happy marriage. Had Jim married Antonia, would their marriage have been happy? Did Jim look for some of the same qualities in his wife that he respected in Antonia?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Jim Burden--Can this marriage be saved?
Chris Schellenberg opens up a whole other area for discussion with this:
I think Jim Burden's marriage is interesting. Not much is said about his wife, but she is described as a "restless, headstrong girl." And on the same page (page 2) we hear about Jim's quiet tastes. It is not a happy marriage. Had Jim married Antonia, would their marriage have been happy? Did Jim look for some of the same qualities in his wife that he respected in Antonia?
I think Jim Burden's marriage is interesting. Not much is said about his wife, but she is described as a "restless, headstrong girl." And on the same page (page 2) we hear about Jim's quiet tastes. It is not a happy marriage. Had Jim married Antonia, would their marriage have been happy? Did Jim look for some of the same qualities in his wife that he respected in Antonia?
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"Did Jim look for some of the same qualities in his wife that he respected in Antonia?"
ReplyDeleteInteresting to speculate on this. Restless and nostalgic for his reimagined, romanticized youth, Jim might have seen and desired Antonina as embodying what he left behind. But for how long? At the end of the novel, Antonia has turned into a fecund drudge, albeit a luminous fecund drudge. How long would this woman have held his interest? He can’t have it both ways. He could have had a life with the Antonia of his youthful innocence, growing old in Red Cloud as Jim Burden, grouchy country lawyer, or, the life he has chosen: silent and grouchy James Quayle Burden of a powerful New York law firm, a man who has left his “My” Antonia behind in the wake of his intellectual and experiential growth.
Personally, I think James Quayle Burden as described by Cather has become a one-dimensional man (“doing remarkable things in mines, timber and oil,” yeah, that has turned out just great for him and all of us today). On the other hand, his wife, Genevieve, is an interesting dynamo of activities (women’s suffrage, theater, worker’s rights). Jimmy/James is having the too normal male mid-life crisis which is about regretting paths not taken and resentment about the path chosen. As a very insightful woman once put it: These poor baby-men need to just get over it. Buy a motorcycle or take flying lessons or something.