Hesitation Waltz

Question One

Parker’s female character doesn’t stop waltzing as society would deem it improper and rude to refuse. Throughout the text, Parker’s narrator continually acts against her own desires in order to conform to expectations put upon her by social rules. This is conveyed as the woman states, “I don’t want to dance with him. I don’t want to dance with anybody,” (pg.490), yet she dances continually throughout the passage. The writer employs the female character to demonstrate a lack of control women had upon their lives, as the narrator is “waltzed” through life, not stopping to fulfill her own desires, but merely being whisked along by a man, existing for his purposes and doing as he wishes, simply because she is expected to. Despite the narrator’s wish not to dance, she cannot refuse, stating that is she was to say no, she’d “see you in hell first,” (pg.491). In accepting the man’s invitation, she became “trapped” in the waltz, a waltz that Parker uses to symbolize the narrators “thirty-five years,” (pg.493) of marriage. Parker describes the “obscene travesty” of being “chained” to a creature she hates (pg.493), unable to escape as the “music is never going to stop playing,” (pg.493). The continuity of the waltz and notion of the unhappy female trapped in a desperate situation sees Parker make a strong statement regarding women’s limited role within a male dominated society.

Question Two (Parker)

Parker’s text is riddled with humor as the narrator invites the reader to act as her mind’s companion. Parker use of a double-voice allows the reader to see the situation from two perspectives: a public perspective in which the reader sees what the narrator outwardly says and does; and a private perspective, where the character shares her intimate thoughts and feelings with the audience. This relates to Ong’s theory in which the “reader has to play the role in which the author has cast him,” (Ong, pg.12). In Parker’s text, the reader plays two roles, one of an observer, and the other as the narrator’s ‘confident.’ As the private ears to the narrator’s thoughts, Parker has created an intimate role for the audience to play, allowing the writer to draw the reader in, and empathize with the narrator’s situation and feelings. Parker’s employs a conversational and comic tone throughout the text which enables her to somewhat disguise the seriousness of her argument- portraying women’s social injustice in a more subtle manner. Through this the writer creates a more likable character in the narrator, as the reader isn’t put off, or made to feel uncomfortable by an overbearing statement against society.