Mental Deterioration of a Female Protagonist

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Mental Deterioration of the Female Protagonist “There is an ache in my heart for the imagined beauty of a life I haven’t had from which I had been locked out, and it never goes away.” Most individuals refer to abuse as the physical acts of punching, beating, striking, and slapping. However what utmost people do not know is that there are many other types of abusive behavior, which can affect the victim even more then physical abuse. The novel, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, is a telling of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife Hadley Richardson, and her forthcomings during their marriage. The cycle of abuse is shown throughout the novel, and can be used to gain insight and understanding of Hadley Richardson’s emotional, and mental deterioration throughout The Paris Wife. Abusive relationships have the same cycle; they begin to explore the possibilities of their relationship. The individuals in the relationship are genuinely happy and most of the time something happens to make this change. In The Paris Wife, Ernest Hemingway’s work was not going as well as he was hoping. The families financial situation was not as relaxed as they would have anticipated for, Grasser 2 they went into a financial crisis. He was then forced into taking jobs for a newspaper, The Toronto Star. He was sent away on frequent journalist trips, this took a toll on their relationship, as well as Hadley’s emotional and mental state. What predictably happens in abusive relationships is something corrupt happens, for example a huge fight, but then something is done to make the situation better. This is the continuous cycle. The women more often then not stay around because the men are typically flawless at the beginning; they treat the women the way they need and want to be treated. They fall in love and they think things could only continue to get better. When things begin to change, all

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