It is fair to say that Joseph’s feeling of alienation from society is caused by both social prejudice against artists and the specific dangling condition. His estrangement from others is due to his own character. It is he who isolates his wife Iva. And his relationships with others both male and female are always uneasy.
Throughout the novel, apparently, Joseph considers himself an intellectual, for he has college education and is writing about eighteenth century figures. He seems to be an intellectual snob as well as a male chauvinist. Intellectual snobs look down upon people who are concerned with dressing nicely or having a pleasant house. The western tradition is that the husband should support the family. Today a man marries an equal in his own age group who is also a breadwinner, but he has not overcome the influence of the old tradition. The more equal his wife is, the more necessary it is to put her down, to find her inferiority to him. There is apparently no serious contradiction until their balanced relationship is disrupted by his “dangling” in a condition, where he cannot establish steady relationships with society and his wife becomes the only breadwinner. He has difficulty adjusting. Joseph’s feeling towards his wife is more complicated than simple male chauvinism.
Albeit that Iva is married to Joseph for six years, the reader never hears her speak in her own voice and think with her own mind. The reader has to judge her through the narrator’s — the protagonist’s mind and vision. As he is put in a position of dependence on his wife, Joseph tends to find faults with her to soothe his own pride. The reader has every reason to doubt the reliabilities of his portraits of his wife, though he is constantly shifting between his subjective view and objective view. Nevertheless, Bellow provides enough information for the reader to paint a clear picture of her type of personality and her situation as a woman. Iva is a librarian, young and energetic. Moreover, she is a gentle considerate and doting wife; ready to do anything for her husband. When Joseph is waiting for his induction, she shares his predicament and cheerfully moves into a rented room. And she cordially suggests that her husband take advantage of his temporary unemployment to complete his ambitious book project, instead of searching for new employment, and that they live on her salary alone.
Living on his wife’s salary is where all their troubles originate, for Joseph is incessantly obsessed with the disagreeable feeling that he is inferior to his wife. He wants her to be away, fearing any strength on her part and his being kept by her. Joseph longs to be a manipulative husband rather than a dominated better half. He constantly rejects any financial generosity offered by his relatives and friends, afraid that they will laugh at him for his being supported by his wife. His unemployment adds to the tensions accumulated between him and his wife in the past, and their marriage envisages a crisis. One of the major sources of their conflicts exists in the fact that Joseph, as an intellectual snob, tends to draw himself away from materialistic pursuit and preserves a contemptuous attitude towards Iva’s “shallowness” seem through her “superficial” taste. According to Joseph, his wife does not live in his world, but in her own small limited realm of “clothes, appearances, furniture, light entertainment, mystery stories, the attractions of fashion magazines, the radio, the enjoyable evening” (81). Such an attitude towards his wife is similar to his relation with his brother Amos, man of success. He cannot credit Amos’ good intentions and accept his money. Their relationship is ambiguous: it is never severed, but it is always uneasy and always hostile.
Throughout the novel, apparently, Joseph considers himself an intellectual, for he has college education and is writing about eighteenth century figures. He seems to be an intellectual snob as well as a male chauvinist. Intellectual snobs look down upon people who are concerned with dressing nicely or having a pleasant house. The western tradition is that the husband should support the family. Today a man marries an equal in his own age group who is also a breadwinner, but he has not overcome the influence of the old tradition. The more equal his wife is, the more necessary it is to put her down, to find her inferiority to him. There is apparently no serious contradiction until their balanced relationship is disrupted by his “dangling” in a condition, where he cannot establish steady relationships with society and his wife becomes the only breadwinner. He has difficulty adjusting. Joseph’s feeling towards his wife is more complicated than simple male chauvinism.
Albeit that Iva is married to Joseph for six years, the reader never hears her speak in her own voice and think with her own mind. The reader has to judge her through the narrator’s — the protagonist’s mind and vision. As he is put in a position of dependence on his wife, Joseph tends to find faults with her to soothe his own pride. The reader has every reason to doubt the reliabilities of his portraits of his wife, though he is constantly shifting between his subjective view and objective view. Nevertheless, Bellow provides enough information for the reader to paint a clear picture of her type of personality and her situation as a woman. Iva is a librarian, young and energetic. Moreover, she is a gentle considerate and doting wife; ready to do anything for her husband. When Joseph is waiting for his induction, she shares his predicament and cheerfully moves into a rented room. And she cordially suggests that her husband take advantage of his temporary unemployment to complete his ambitious book project, instead of searching for new employment, and that they live on her salary alone.
Living on his wife’s salary is where all their troubles originate, for Joseph is incessantly obsessed with the disagreeable feeling that he is inferior to his wife. He wants her to be away, fearing any strength on her part and his being kept by her. Joseph longs to be a manipulative husband rather than a dominated better half. He constantly rejects any financial generosity offered by his relatives and friends, afraid that they will laugh at him for his being supported by his wife. His unemployment adds to the tensions accumulated between him and his wife in the past, and their marriage envisages a crisis. One of the major sources of their conflicts exists in the fact that Joseph, as an intellectual snob, tends to draw himself away from materialistic pursuit and preserves a contemptuous attitude towards Iva’s “shallowness” seem through her “superficial” taste. According to Joseph, his wife does not live in his world, but in her own small limited realm of “clothes, appearances, furniture, light entertainment, mystery stories, the attractions of fashion magazines, the radio, the enjoyable evening” (81). Such an attitude towards his wife is similar to his relation with his brother Amos, man of success. He cannot credit Amos’ good intentions and accept his money. Their relationship is ambiguous: it is never severed, but it is always uneasy and always hostile.
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