The significance of the lady in Black and her two Lovers Essay

The significance of the lady in Black and her two Lovers - Essay Example What Walker is also suggesting is that the feminist strivings are not exclusive of broader political seeking of equality. Indeed, the two causes are intricately connected and partly explain why Vyry and her two lovers are showcased in same scenes in the novel. (Graham 96) Apart from this symbolic display of solidarity, another reason why these characters appear together is to contrast their different mindsets and attitudes. In other words, there seem to be diversity of personality and character within the larger common objective of freedom. To illustrate, in one passage Innis Brown responding to his wife Vyry states â€Å"Just like you can make candles and soap and feather beds, rag rugs, and quilts, and spin and weave and sew, and cooking was your main job, I learned to do a lot, of things sides working in the fields." (Walker as quoted in Cash 78) The message here is one of establishing the dichotomy between the masculine and the feminine. The other dichotomies that these pairings bring out are those of â€Å"black versus white, rich versus poor, empowered versus disempowered, enslaved versus free†. (Beaulieu 15) Margaret Walker, writing in the middle of the twentieth century, factors an additional pair into the list, namely, legally enslaved versus legally free. One crucial way in which the genre of slave narrative is revised in Jubilee is the attention paid to the personal (especially the romantic) facets of Vyry’s difficult life. This is accomplished by showcasing the relationship between Vyry and her two lovers at several points in the work. Vyry’s loyalties are thoroughly tested as she is made to choose between â€Å"her loyalty to her first husband and her white family and loyalty to her second husband and her children. She is guided by her Christian ethics in arriving at a practical rather than radical resolution of the conflict.† (Bell 289) Her great virtues are best illustrated as she