Mapping Topics

Considering the topics dealt in the short story, marriage is the most important, as a consequence we decide to put it at the centre of the map.

Every other theme is correlated with marriage: impaired communication, taboos, relationship and gender.

Impaired communication concern to characters' difficulty to talk to others. 

Florence is the best example because she isn't able to entrust her problems, feelings and thoughts to nobody.

Every daughter use to talk to her mother: Florence doesn't because her mother isn't able to listen to her and to answer helping her to live better.

Florence doesn't talk with her father because he raped her so she is shocked. She doesn't talk with her friends because they live different experiences from hers.

She don't talk with Edward because she is embarrass.

Communication is more difficult when you haven't got the words to express your idea or your thought.

To communicate something is impossible when you have got Taboos. Taboos are things you are not able to tell or to speak about because you don't know the right vocabulary.

Florence's taboos are: what happens to her at twelve years old (she is raped by her father), sex, her problems with Edward, with her family, with herself.

Edward's taboos are: his mother illness, his sexual problems and generally sex.

They have both taboos speaking about why they decide to marry, how they feel and what they think about each other.

Taboos are the consequence of the society, there are social rules about what you are supposed to speak or not to speak, to be or not to be, to do or not to do or they are the result of personal traumas. When something shocked a person is difficult she/he is able to speak about it.

Marriage is also  a sort of container of different relationships: love-relationship, friendship, companionship, wife-husband and family relationship.

The short story contains an example of every type of relationship.

The love-relationship involves in particular Edward and Florence. The story is set in their honeymoon so their love relationship is at the centre of attention.

Friendship is a theme afford in particular in the second chapter where characters' biographies are described. For both friends are realy important: Florence best friend is music, the only instrument by which she is able to convey her feeling; Edward friends are important, in particular when he attended University.

In this case is better to use the word companionship than friendship. Edward's mates are they with whom he studies, and he goes to the meetings to protest against wars and social problem.

The relationship wife-husband is analyzed by the point of view of Edward and Florence families.

Florence parent's marriage seems perfect, It isn't. There is  no real relationship between wife and husband and there is no communication between them and between parents and daughters.  Even if the components of these family are unbalanced and  they had a lot of problems, they seem to be the perfect family.

Edward family's problem is his mother.  She is brain-damage and his husband takes care about her and their children. Lionel represents the perfect husband, because also in difficulties he performs the duties of father and husband. The components of these family are complex because their life is proved by the illness of their mother/wife but they are more balanced and calm than Florence family's component.

In the short story the reader notes the differences between male and female, between genders.

The narrator tells the story from the point of view of Edward and Florence. In particular when the reader knows the thoughts of Edward and also of Florence in front of the same thing, event or situation, the differences between male and female are clear.