Detachment and passion in Janie's marriages
There's no doubt that all of Janie's relationships in Their Eyes Were Watching God have been at least somewhat toxic and unhealthy. 2 of the 3 have been physically abusive, and I have no doubt that her marriage with Logan Killicks would have turned out the same too if Janie hadn't left when she did - her last interaction with the man was him telling her he would kill her. However, something that has stood out a lot to me in Janie's marriages was the way she responded to the oppressive and abusive nature of her first two husbands compared to Tea Cake.
With both Logan and Jody, Janie's main reaction was a kind of hopeless apathy, and something near disassociation in the case of Jody. After her final fight with Logan, Janie thinks "She wasn't even angry. Logan was accusing her of her mamma, her grandmama and her feelings, and she couldn't do a thing about any of it." (Hurston 32). Janie proceeds to go through the actions of menial cooking tasks, ony to think "What was she losing so much time for? A feeling of newness and change came over her. Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good." (Hurston 32). It seems like the realization of the hopeless kind of acceptance Janie had let herself fall into was what ultimately shocked her out of that very state.
With Jody, Janie's state of mind is even worse - "The years took all the fight out of Janie's face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did, she said nothing." (Hurston 76). She even references having out-of-body experiences where she simply watched "the shadow of herself going about tending store and prostrating itself before Jody" (Hurston 77). Jody's treatment of Janie like she's just an object for him to order around, with seemingly no care for her as a person and all romantic ideals of him shattered, beat Janie down until her body was just going through the motions of what Jody wanted from her.
Janie seems to want springtime, a tree in bloom - she want passion in her relationships. In her first two, neither man held that kind of passion for their marriage, and Janie too ended up in a detached, almost uncaring state at times. While Tea Cake is physically abusive, and his and Janie's relationship is definitely toxic, he still brings passion into it, even if it's not always a good kind. To Janie, with the way her other two marriages drained all of the emotion out of her, even abusive and possessive "love" might seem appealing just because it still appears to be love.
This is a good analysis, Tea Cake and Janie's marriage is so complex - on one hand, she is clearly still enjoying life while there are toxic elements to their marriage. On the other, she may just be more blind to the negatives this time around. What is better, being happy and unaware or miserable but conscious? Still not sure what I think of Tea Cake and Janie's marriage.
ReplyDeleteNow having finished TEWWG, Janie's relationships feel like a pattern that progressively gets a bit better (or at least more hopeful) with each new one, rather than Janie's and Tea Cake's relationship being a stand-alone part of Janie's life. Janie doesn't like Logan and he treats her poorly, she likes Joe at first and then he becomes abusive, and then she actually falls in love with Tea Cake and he is abusive. These relationships each start on different terms, but ultimately all become less desirable as time goes on. I find the fact that Janie never falls out with Tea Cake a bit perplexing, but I agree with you that it probably seems like a better relationship to Janie in comparison to her other ones.
ReplyDeleteI think you make some great points about the nature of Janie's relationships. I have a slightly different take on the aspect Janie cares most about, but I think it still fits well with your analysis. To me, it seems like the most important thing in a relationship for Janie is feeling like she has some control in her situation. For both Logan and Joe this makes sense—She turns away from Logan because he wants to force her into work and she hates Joe because he keeps her locked away as a trophy wife. But with Tea Cake it's an odd circumstance. Tea Cake is constantly controlling everything that happens to them, it seems that Janie has very little agency. However, Janie agreed to follow Tea Cake in all of his ventures, which gives her some semblance of control? Perhaps that small amount of control even extends itself to Tea Cake beating her, as awful as that seems, in her mind. She still feels that she has a bit of control in the situation, so the relationship continues to fit her ideals.
ReplyDeleteI think your analysis is really accurate, and I agree with your reasoning. Tea Cake is Janie's first look at "love," and a part of me even thinks that she may have been slightly desperate-- at least enough to overlook some of the toxicity. She put up with a lot in her previous relationships, and her last one with Tea Cake is significantly happier for her. While she does not have as much to endure with Tea Cake, there are still things she let slide, such as his spending of her $200, where her main concern was her lack of party invitation.
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to work out how *good* or *bad* Janie and Tea Cake's relationship is because there's no objective party. Janie is obviously in love with Tea Cake, the narrator seems to move past the abuse too indifferently, and furthermore, we in 2021 are extremely opposed to physical violence in a relationship, so we're not even close to an objective standpoint. As hard as it is to do so, I want to trust Janie in the sense that I would like to consider Janie's and Tea Cake's relationship overall positively because Janie does. Of course, not to discount the glaring complications, but it satisfies my emotional mind.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely true. I think Janie has experienced so much trauma that her standards have decreased significantly. As you touched on, I think her desire to find true love sometimes outweighs the harm that certain men can do to her. She could also be influenced by Nanny in that she wants to find the perfect guy that Nanny won't disapprove of.
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