This play seems deceitful. I think it is one that requires exceptionally close reading. Things seem okay and possible rather cheery on the outside, but are rather glum on the inside. The bride says she knows what she is getting herself into when the mother says "do you know what being married is, child?" However, the stage direction points out that she "gravely" says that she knows. She claims to be happy and to be voluntarily be married, but she knows the unhappiness it will bring. Possibly she does not have hope for a better situation. She call marring "my duty." She feels obliged to marry, and it is possibly societal pressure that is drawing her into this.
The idea of marriage is seen in all three texts we have been studying in class. And so far in the two we have finished, the marriages are all to some degree dysfunctional. Oedipus unknowingly marries his mother, and when he finds this out she commits suicide and he gouges his eyes out. Hjalmar finds out his wife had a relationship with a man he despises and refuses to forgive her, and this leads to his daughters suicide.
At this point, if this trend continues, I can only imagine what tragedy can come of the marriage in this play.
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