Five short stories—“The Lady or the Tiger,” by Frank R. Stockton, “A Haunted House,”b by Virginia Woolf, “The Chrysanthemums,” by John Steinbeck, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” by Katherine Anne Porter, and “The Chaser,” by John Collier—all present different male/female relationships in different lights: happy, loving, devoted, dysfunctional, and skewed. We will dive into the relationships in these stories and examine their fundamental natures.

    In the course of our lives, perhaps the most influential and life-shaping relationship between a male and female is that of a father and a daughter. In “The Lady or The Tiger,” by Frank R. Stockton, it is stated that a father, the King, loved his daughter, the Princess, “above all humanity,” and that she “was the apple of his eye.” However, the events in the story suggest otherwise. In the story, when the Princess is discovered to have a lover, the lover is immediately cast into prison. The prisoner loved the Princess, and she him, and “neither he, she, nor anyone else, thought of denying the fact.” It seems to me that a loving father would recognize that his daughter was happy with this young man, and would let them be married. But, the King “would not think of allowing any fact of this kind to interfere with the workings of the tribunal” because he “took such delight and satisfaction” in his court—more, perhaps, than he would in seeing his daughter happy. So, the father in this story was way more concerned with his work than the happiness of his daughter, and he loved his tribunal more than his own flesh and blood. Perhaps this is where the Princess learned how to love. (If you have read “The Lady or the Tiger” you should know what I’m talking about).

      A different kind of love, and probably the most satisfying, is between a husband and a wife. In Virginia Woolf’s “A Haunted House,” it speaks of a ghostly couple with a tender and reminiscent love. In the very beginning of the story it is stated that the ghostly couple walked “from room to room…hand in hand.” To me, this suggests right off the bat that this eerie pair is not eerie at all, but a tender, loving couple that show their devotion to each other. In fact, they were so devoted that after the woman had died, “he left [the house], left her, went North, went East, saw the stars turned in the Southern sky” because he could not bear to live in that house without her. But, after he died, he “sought the house and found it,” and found her—his wife. (“Again you found me. Here.”) This couple could not live one without the other, but once they were reunited in death, they would live forever with their joy and treasure—“the light in the heart.”

      “The Chrysanthemums,” by John Steinbeck shows Henry and Elisa Allen who also have a loving marriage. Henry is very in-tune with his wife, and Elisa still goes through the trouble to impress her husband after many years. There are several examples in the story that show how aware of Elisa and her talents, thoughts, moods, likes, and dislikes Henry is. After Elisa’s experience with the tinker, she feels stronger than she did before and Henry noticed that. He could sense that she was a bit out of character.”…you look different, strong and happy.” And then later, when she goes back to normal, he says, “Now you’re changed again.” And then somehow, to show her that he likes her that way, “he took one hand from the wheel and patted her knee.” Elisa “put on her newest underclothing and her nicest stockings and the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness” to show her husband her love for him. “She worked carefully on her hair, penciled her eyebrows and rouged her lips” just to look nice for him. One thing I thought was interesting was when she “went to the porch” after Henry came in and “sat primly down.” I thought this was of significance because we learn earlier in the story that she wears men’s clothing, clodhopper shoes, and heavy leather gloves most of the time, and she works in the garden all day and gets dirty, but for her husband, she will “sit primly” like a lady. In the end, Henry and Elisa may not have the most exciting marriage, but it is firm and caring.

    “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter speaks of a relationship of devotion and endurance between Ellen and John. Although Ellen (Granny) was bitter about her jilting from George, she loved her husband, John, very much. As Granny lay in her death bed, she decides she wants to see George again so she can tell him that she had “a good husband that [she] loved.” She also states, in reference to the jilting, that she “found another a whole world better [than George],” and that “[She] wouldn’t have exchanged [her] husband for anybody except St. Michael himself…” And after many years without John, she still refers to herself as a “married woman.” But what I liked most was when she talked about John’s picture on her dresser: “John’s picture… [shows] John’s eyes very black when they should have been blue.” What was fascinating was that with Granny being senile, and not even being able to remember that her youngest child died, she does remember that her true love had blue eyes. With Granny being a woman so hardened by hardship, one can tell that she always had a soft spot in her heart for John.

     In John Collier’s, “The Chaser,” Alan Austen believes that women should be so obsessed with their men that they have no time for anything else in life and that the woman he likes should be like this, even if it requires permanent alterations. The old man in the story who is selling Alan his love potion says that “[Diana] will want to be everything to you,” and that “she will care intensely. You will be her sole interest in life.” To this, Alan replies with, “wonderful!”  And when the old man warns Alan that “she will want to know all you do, all that has happened during the day. Every word of it,” and that she “will want to know what you are thinking about, why you smile suddenly, why you are looking sad,” Alan cried, “That is love!” The old man knew that that was not love, and so do we, but Alan is too naïve, and too excited that the potion only costs a dollar to realize the potential unhappiness there. But, what most bothers me is when the old man says, “However gay and giddy she is, she will change altogether. She will want nothing but solitude, and you,” that Alan thinks that it’s okay to completely alter a woman’s personality if it makes her want him more or if it will make him happier. In conclusion, I would hate to be Diana.

    After examining these five short stories, I have learned that these five relationships are, in many ways, similar, but at the same time, they all tell their own, individual stories with their own thoughts, and feelings. Each couple has their own ways to display their love or disinterest—just like real relationships. Each relationship, although similar in that they’re between a husband and wife or father and daughter, etc…, is unique because the only thing that can ultimately define a relationship are the people who are in it.