I found this short story to be interesting in the use of the word creature and the idea of control. When the word creature was first used on page 199 I instantly thought of an animal; not human but it was continually used throughout the story to describe people. The one thing I found weird about the use of creature is that it could be good or bad, when Marion talked about Lady Tal being in this big house, "Any house would be nice enough with such a splendid creature inside it," (Lee, pg. 203) and this seemed odd because I feel like the word creature is not a good thing.
Also I found it to be interesting that this idea of marriage holding women down from doing what they please often comes up in our discussion but how even after death of a husband one can still be bound by marriage. I personally don't think marriage holds you down but at that time I can definitely see why it held women back. I think it was very depressing that even in his grave Lady Tal was held down by marriage because she could not provide for herself, " But she can't marry again, for all that because if she marries all his money goes elsewhere, and she's not a penny to bless herself with," (Lee, pg. 202) but then how she gets criticized because she could just settle for having less money. I just found that aspect of the story to be interesting.
I also found the description of the woman to be peculiar. She was described not only in an animal- like manner but also called masculine. The idea of women being held down by their husband is definitely portrayed in this story different than our other literary texts. The man is not physically there, however, he is able to be superior to her. She had her husband that gave her the financial support and she had to accept the absence of emotional support.
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