Spoon River Anthology · Chapter
Mrs. Benjamin Pantier explained
Mrs.
What happens
Mrs. Benjamin Pantier defends her decision to drive her husband away, explaining that she was a refined woman repulsed by his coarse habits and that the forced intimacy of marriage made her life unbearable.
Themes in this chapter
Gender and Social Roles
Mrs. Pantier's monologue reveals the trap of marriage for a woman with 'delicate tastes' forced by law and morality into intimacy with a man she loathes.
Unfulfilled Lives and Repression
Both partners are unfulfilled: he seeks companionship elsewhere, while she is repulsed by the very man she is bound to.
Characters to notice
- Benjamin Pantier
The husband whose soul she claims to have snared; he lived with his dog in a dingy room back of his office after she drove him away.
Key passages
“I know that he told that I snared his soul With a snare which bled him to death.”
I am aware he claimed I trapped his soul in a way that destroyed him.
Mrs. Pantier acknowledges her husband's accusation that she ruined him.
“But suppose you are really a lady, and have delicate tastes, And loathe the smell of whiskey and onions.”
Imagine you are a refined woman who is disgusted by the smell of whiskey and onions.
She contrasts her refined sensibilities with her husband's coarse habits.
“And the only man with whom the law and morality Permit you to have the marital relation Is the very man that fills you with disgust Every time you think of it—while you think of it Every time you see him?”
The only man you are allowed to be intimate with is the one who disgusts you every time you see him.
She highlights the cruel irony of being legally and morally bound to a man she finds repulsive.
“That’s why I drove him away from home To live with his dog in a dingy room Back of his office.”
That is why I forced him to leave and live with his dog in a shabby room behind his office.
She justifies her actions as a necessary escape from an unbearable situation.