/lit/ - Literature

>It seems that marriage in literature is almost always presented as stagnant, unequal or quarrelsome.
As it often is in life. A long happy marriage is probably somewhere in literature, I just don't know where. It's probably not center-stage though.

Probably not as a main theme.

Harold Bloom says the Macbeths have the only happy marriage in Shakespeare.

The classical topos for a happy marriage is usually Baucis and Philemon, who were rewarded by the gods for their devotion to each other. Ovid tells the story in Metamorphoses Book 8. Jonathan Swift has an English version.

it might just be because conflict is more narratalogically interesting

although there are plenty of healthy conflicts within marriages that could be explored, i suppose. hey, what about chris kraus or anais nin?

>>1787343

i mean, "good" relationship doesn't mean "conflict free" relationship; often it means just the opposite.

>>1787324
If by listing "quarrelsome" you don't mean that this long-lasting happy marriage is conflict free I think you can probably find what you're looking for in Christian/inspirational literature. At least that's probably the only place to find it as the center of the novel, as long as you're allowing healthy conflict and temporary unhappiness in this long-lasting happy marriage you can probably find it all over. Usually in side characters or as a background detail on a character whose primary conflict is found elsewhere.

I think 100 years of solitude does it. Can't remember how long it lasts in Love in the Time of Cholera when they finally get together, but that's pretty happy.

Nick and Nora Charles

>>1787358

oh yeah, i forgot about marquez. there's TONS in there

August Strindberg wrote some good story's about terrible marriages.

Alistair MacLeod: No Great Mischief If They Fall

MacLeaod's depiction marriage of the narrator's grandparents always makes me feel peaceful. Very good book, by the way.

OP, why are you asking?

ULYSSES. James Joyce. A novel about marriage. Is it happy? you tell me.

>>1787404
>ULYSSES
>A novel about marriage

>Are there any portrayals of long-lasting happy marriages in literature?
You mean boring, airy fairy, pretend marriages don't you OP. Be honest. Marriage isn't about being happy.

>>1787414
Problem? Read more than the first third of Ulysses and you'll find Stephen isn't the hero of the book. It's based on the Odyssey, also a famous story about a marriage. Finish it and you will meet Bloom's wife. The entire book is a memorial to the first day Joyce and his own wife went on a dirty date.

Happy marriages are all alike. Unhappy marriages are so for different reasons. No tension = no story.

>>1787340
>Macbeths
>happy marriage

Huh?

>>1787493

YOU ARE A SIMPLETON.

Levin and Kitty in Anna Karenina.

Well, by the book's end they hadn't been married for long, but it was implied the marriage would probably last for quite a while.

though ulysses is about the leopold and molly bloom's marriage, it isn't really a happy one. she's fucking her vocal coach all day and all bloom ever wants to do it fuck her in the ass. at the end there is kind of a hint towards reconciliation, but it's vague.