Mrs.+Benjamin+Pantier

"Mrs. Benjamin Pantier" Read by Anuar Photo by your illusion

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The poems in The Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

are about all the people who passed away in the town, Spoon River, and

what they have to say from the perspective of the dead. One character,

"Mrs. Benjamin Pantier," seems like a very aggravated, delicate, and

brave person.

Because Mrs. Benjamin Pantier is very delicate, she hates the little

details in her husband. She describes herself as "a real lady with delicate

tastes"(line 5). When she refers to herself as a "real lady," she implies

that she deserves better than her husband. When she says "delicate

tastes," it evokes a picture of a lady picking at her salad. She hates her

husband's breath, which she describes as having "the smell of whiskey

and onions" (line 6). Because of her delicate tastes, she is filled with

disgust for what he eats and who he is.

Mrs. Benjamin Pantier is very aggravated because she was forced

to marry her husband because he was the only man in her social class in

the town. "And the only man with whom the law and morality permit you to

have the marital relation" (lines 12 and 13). When she says "and with

whom the law and morality permit you to have" Makes me think that in

those times, lower class people were not allowed to marry higher class

people.

Brave Mrs. Benjamin Pantier is because she "drove away [her]

husband." This quote shows a sign of bravery because even though he is

the man, she kicked him out of her house. "To live with his dog in a dingy

room" (line 18). When she says "To live with his dog," I think she refers

to his friends as "dogs" and she refers to "in a dingy room" as the bar in

which he drinks and spends most of the time with his friends. So she

kicked him out of the house to go live with his friends at the bar in which

he always drinks in.

These characteristics of Mrs. Benjamin Pantier relates to each

other because before she married her husband, she already had these

characteristics. I think her husband had nothing to do with her being

aggravated, delicate, and brave.

Work Cited

Masters, Edgar Lee. "Mrs. Benjamin Pantier." //The Spoon River Anthology.// New York: Macmillan, 1946.19.