Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Will It Last?

My question for today is: Will Perdita and Florizel's relationship last beyond the play? When the play closes, they're happy and married and everyone is alive and everything is wonderful, but can it stay that way?

 OR 


I tend to think...probably not. Firstly, their entire courtship was based on a lie. Florizel spent the whole time pretending to be someone he wasn't. Regardless of how much he purported to care for her, Florizel still spent their entire relationship lying to Perdita about who he was. How legitimate a relationship can it be if one party doesn't feel the need to be truthful with the other? How long until they realize they don't trust each other?

Secondly, how is Perdita going to adjust to life as royalty? As far as she knew, she was just some country girl who had to shear sheep and make butter. Living as a princess probably entails a greater degree of socioeconomic comfort, but there are a huge number of other responsibilities. It's been speculated that that's what ultimately got to Princess Diana - she was a lovely, intelligent girl, but she hadn't been brought up to know how a princess and future Queen of England should act, and she was crushed by the pressure.

Thirdly, how much is their relationship based on physical attraction and idealization of one another's characters? I didn't spend a ton of time looking, but I didn't see anything about how much they enjoy each other's personalities. Florizel spends a decent amont of time calling Perdita "fair" and "queenly," but that doesn't mean that he'll want to hang out with her when she gets old and fat. Which she will. Or she'll get pregnant and have stretch marks and be too tired to want to have sex. Or he'll see her in the morning without her makeup and realize she's not as young as she was. Or she'll move in with him only to find that he leaves his dirty underwear on the floor and wet towels on the bed and he lets himself go because there's no one to impress.

Fun fact: My husband has gained about thirty pounds in the fourteen months we've been married. It happens. He was horribly underweight when we first got together, but still. He walks around in his underwear and flosses his teeth while we're watching TV, and it is kind of off-putting. If I had just married him because I thought he was attractive and I thought he was some fantasy man, we would probably be divorced by now. I know it's a cliche, but my husband really is my best friend. If we weren't married, we'd still hang out all the time. We like being around each other even when we're not at our best.

When you get married, you have to be able to make a life. A life is not a fantasy. Bad things happen. Your spouse, who you love regardless, does gross or annoying things. Work and school and life get stressful, and you are crabby sometimes. Sometimes you don't handle things well. You'll both be sick but have to go to work anyway. You'll have financial problems. Your spouse should be there to pick up the slack and creatively problem-solve and deal with your personal brand of crazy. I don't believe that Perdita and Florizel are prepared for what married life is really like.

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