Analysis: “Of Mice and Marriages”

1 Am I imagining things – or are a terrifying number of marriages going on the

rocks at the moment? Hardly a week goes by without some poor wretched
friend ringing up, summoning me to lunch, arriving black under the eyes, shirt
buttons missing, rattling the tonic bottle against the glass, and finally admitting
after a lot of prompting that his wife has walked out.
2 And it is the ladies rather than the men who seem to be shoving off at the
moment. It’s hard to work out exactly why this is so. One woman in America left
home because her husband took her three goldfish and used them for bait
when he went fishing, but currently the main reason for marriage break-ups
seems to be the pressure of Women’s Lib.
3 On the one hand you have the career wives, far more independent and
financially secure than they used to be, who can afford to leave home and
support the children on their own.
4 But the women who really seem to be rocking the matrimonial boat today are
the wives who have been bogged down with children and domesticity for
several years, and made to feel boring and inadequate.
5 Marriages are biting the dust because we live in jittery times. Economic unrest
breeds emotional unrest. If a man’s having a rough time at work, he may either
boost his morale by pulling one of the typists, or more likely come home zonked
out and collapse in front of the television with a whisky bottle, far too obsessed
with problems of financial survival to notice his wife is unhappy.
6 Television kills family life anyway. It stops people thinking, and removes the
necessity to communicate. Instead of airing a grievance, you settle down to I
Claudius. *Another Band-aid is slapped on to the festering sore, until suddenly
the marriage moves into injury time, and it’s too late to save.
7 People deserve happiness in marriage TS, but I think they go about it in the
wrong way. Marriages break up because people are not prepared to work at
them, and give up too easily when things go wrong. Marriages may be made in
heaven, but they also have to be re-made and re-made day by day, week by
week, over a long period of years. It’s not just the private jokes and the
memories but the battles, the triumphs, the tears and reconciliations that
cement the relationship.
8 Every wife makes at least two marriages in her life, one described by herself,
and the other described by her husband, and often the versions are so different,
you can’t believe you’re talking about the same people. Rather like the Irish wife
complaining about her husband: ‘Was he faithful to me? Of course, he wasn’t,
he wasn’t even the father of my two children.’
9 I wonder how many people would walk out if they knew beforehand what a
nightmarish experience a broken marriage is and what a shattered, devastated
being they usually leave behind.
Jilly Cooper The Sunday Times July, 31, 1977

Title comparing the scientific study of mice in laboratories and the case of
marriages in 1977.
Alliteration
Summary
Marriages are no longer as stable as they used to be. The average number of
divorced families has grown in the past years. One reason for this is that
women ceased to depend financially on men. This resulted in a new movement
of free and independent women who sometimes prefer to live their lives without
fulfilling the expectations of a life lasting marriage. Another motive is that wives
have devoted their entire lives to their husband and their children and now they
begin to realize that they are exhausted by all the hard work. Finally, it is
common to see a lack of intention from both sides to fix the relationship or even
to talk about their problems. Television, for instance, serves as a distraction to
avoid having a conversation. This evasion eventually ends up in separation
because people do not have the will to stay during hard times, when actually
what makes a marriage good is patience and tolerance.
Textual patterns
Phenomenon reason
Embedded: Question answer
Textual segments
P3 – P4 contrasting relations and temp sequence: “3 On the one hand you have
the career wives, far more independent and financially secure than they used to
be…” (habit in the past) they used to be economically dependent.
4 But the women who really seem to be rocking the matrimonial boat today are
the wives who have been bogged down with children and domesticity for
several years, and made to feel boring and inadequate.”
Contrast between financially independent wives and money subjected ones,
reduced to being housewives and nothing else.
P2 Phenomenon example: “One woman in America left home because her
husband took her three goldfish and used them for bait when he went fishing.”
Macrofunction of language
Directive
Tenor of discourse
1. relative status: above the reader
2. social distance: near minimal (idioms)
3. personalization: underplayed (does not bring attention to herself)
4. standing: outer sources ?
Rhetorical devices
PERSONIFICATION:
P5 “jittery times” being anxious is a quality related to humans.
P6 “Television kills family life anyway.”
METAPHOR/PERSONIF?
P5 “Economic unrest breeds emotional unrest.”
HYPERBOLE
P5 “Financial survival”
EXTENDED METAPHOR
P6 “Another Band-aid is slapped on to the festering sore, until suddenly the
marriage moves into injury time, and it’s too late to save.”
P7 “but they also have to be re-made and re-made day by day, week by week,
over a long period of years. It’s not just the private jokes and the memories but
the battles, the triumphs, the tears and reconciliations that cement the
relationship.”
Syntactic devices
PARALELLISM P1: “ringing up, summoning me to lunch, arriving black under
the eyes, shirt buttons missing, rattling the tonic bottle against the glass, and
finally admitting after a lot of prompting that his wife has walked out.”
ALLUSION P6: “I Claudius.” A British tv series broadcasted by the BBC in the
1970’s.
DIACOPE: P7Day by day, week by week

Connotative or figurative language

P5 “typists” the choice of this lexical item is to diminish secretaries and it has
uncomplimentary associations.
P9 “nightmarish experience” uncomplimentary associations clustered around:
dread, horror, agony, torment, misery, torture…
P7 “It’s not just the private jokes and the memories but the battles, the triumphs,
the tears and reconciliations that cement the relationship.”
Primary meaning: to cover smth with cement.
Peripheral meaning: to build the foundations of a relationship.
Rock the boat: peripheral and primary
Function of sentences
(en la fotocopia)
Cooperative maxims
QUALITY: P4 “rocking the matrimonial boat”. “Marriages are biting the dust
because we live in jittery times.” P5
QUANTITY: 10 times she/he mentions the word marriage.
MANNER: “I, Claudius”
Politeness principles

 Make the receiver feel good:

P5 “typists”.
P2: “currently the main reason for marriage break-ups seems to be the pressure
of Women’s Lib.”
P8: “Rather like the Irish wife complaining about her husband: ‘Was he faithful
to me? Of course, he wasn’t, he wasn’t even the father of my two children.’”

 Do not impose:

P7 “Marriages break up because people are not prepared to work at them, and
give up too easily when things go wrong.”

Tone: critical and concerned.

“People give up too easily” “Am I imagining things or are a terrifying number of
marriages going on the rocks at the moment?”