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I am completely shocked by interpretations of this book. I am really extremely confused and would love any clarity. As far as I understand fr my reading, in this book, Stoner rapes his wife repeatedly for the first year of their marriage, and later she hates him and wants to keep their daughter away from him. In most reviews I've read, his wife's behavior is pointed to as irrational and cruel. How?? What am I missing?
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Pascale Hall
CW: Sexual Assault/ Rape
...
I'm so glad to see this acknowledged. I felt so confused about exactly how to feel about this novel after reading it, some parts are so beautiful and humane and yet his treatment of Edith is so cruel and so flat. I've watched and read dozens of reviews of this online, and barely anywhere is the marital rape mentioned or acknowledged. I've even seen people justify it because she's 'frigid' or 'sexless' (rather than deeply traumatized) and say it's not really assault, when Stoner clearly states he knows he's violating her, she's unconscious etcetera. It really disturbed me how the book dealt with it and then how I've seen people discuss this online without describing those scenes as what they are which is sexual assault.
I know this was the reality for so many women even in recent history but seeing modern readers brush over it is really worrisome. Those paragraphs completely unnerved me and I couldn't read the rest of the novel for quite a while afterwards.
...
I'm so glad to see this acknowledged. I felt so confused about exactly how to feel about this novel after reading it, some parts are so beautiful and humane and yet his treatment of Edith is so cruel and so flat. I've watched and read dozens of reviews of this online, and barely anywhere is the marital rape mentioned or acknowledged. I've even seen people justify it because she's 'frigid' or 'sexless' (rather than deeply traumatized) and say it's not really assault, when Stoner clearly states he knows he's violating her, she's unconscious etcetera. It really disturbed me how the book dealt with it and then how I've seen people discuss this online without describing those scenes as what they are which is sexual assault.
I know this was the reality for so many women even in recent history but seeing modern readers brush over it is really worrisome. Those paragraphs completely unnerved me and I couldn't read the rest of the novel for quite a while afterwards.
Francie
I think it is clear that his wife was sexually abused by her father as a child. I did not see the first year of the marriage as a rape situation. I will go back and re read that part with this interpretation in mind.
Maureen Henderson
I think it's honestly reflective of the times in which Stoner and Edith were married. At the beginning of the 20th century, most women came to the marital bed completely ignorant of how things would proceed, and were frankly told that they most assuredly would not enjoy it. It was their duty, however, for procreative purposes, to "submit" to their husband's desires. Men were told they had a right to this woman's body as part of the marriage contract and for the purpose of propagation. I completely bought this sad relationship; it wasn't at all uncommon for the times.
Jonathan Jonsson
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Lois Matelan
You are bringing your own 21st century sensibility to the marriage of Stoner. Your should note that it was not until the 1970's that the concept of marital rape was accepted at all in U.S. law, and not until the 1990's that all U.S. states acknowledged it. Neither Stoner nor Edith had any significant education regarding sexuality, although Stoner, having grown up on a farm, at least probably had more knowledge than his wife did.
PS
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