Literary Analysis of Adrienne Rich’s Living in Sin

Relationships reach its boundaries for a variety of reasons, the most common being that many people are searching for things that they will not find in that specific person, and when things begin to fall downhill, it leads to the ending of the relationship. When comparing, or distinguishing what is real and inauthentic, you consume many different perceptions from the relationship. In her poem, “Living in Sin,” Adrienne Rich observes how a woman’s awareness of her physical environment, the tone of her relationship, and the difficult timing. Throughout her poem, she metamorphically compares her relationship to a studio. She then realizes what is factual and bogus in her relationship by day and night, but she still finds it hard to admit.

In her uncompromising relationship, she began to pick up a lot of unwanted and unwilling responsibilities. She believes that she doesn't have to clean up around the studio or dust the furniture because in her eyes, and he believes she believes that the studio would keep itself. She ignores the pate of pairs, the piano with the Persian shawl, and the cat stalking the picturesque while fantasizing that all these are good things. However, the furniture needs dusting, she has food laying all around, and mice chasing the bugs that are kept in her studio, she is lost in her dream world and forgetting what’s ahead of her. Usually, we expect the night to be a disaster of a life, and the light of the day to brighten us, but in her poem, the night covers up all of her battles, while the day makes them continuously obvious.

The narrator’s purpose in the relationship was desired for her to live a perfect life with the man whom she loves, but it tends to be otherwise when she realizes that everything is not what it seems to be. The title describes sin, which ties into her religious beliefs. She’s living in sin, and not obtaining the normal well beings for herself, which may be a difference coming from herself, or from society. Everything she wants or dreams of is not the same, it becomes a dream that is hard to wake up from. At five o'clock each morning, the stairs are shaking, and the milkman arrives. Everyone sees the obvious that she's incapable of taking care of herself, and the studio. Rich is battling with nature and herself, and society and herself.

She also uses tone to differentiate the effects that are taking place. In the beginning, it starts with a perfect but not so perfect relationship. The plate of pairs and the piano with a Persian shawl dictates a good relationship. Every line shows the light of day, every day is bad, but every night for her it feels like she’s in love again. But when she mentions that the piano was glared out of tune, and he shrugged in the mirror, rubbed his beard, and went out for cigarettes the tone is shifted. It shows the discreet side that's happening in her life. Her boyfriend actions iterate the way she visualizes the relationship. She seeks boredom, and a life she does not want to live, but when the night comes, she proceeds to try to love him. During the night she dreads realizing how relentless the next day will be. In addition, by using simile she believes the daylight would feel like a relentless milkman coming up the stairs. Her world is upside down, and with her walking over all the things in her studio that are dirty she is losing herself as well. She’s expecting everything in her relationship to go the way that she wants it, but when being realistic her world is slowly falling apart.

As mentioned, relationships can be difficult, but one must differentiate between what is real, and what is inauthentic. Fairytales are not real, but there are people who make them out to be real. When comparing dreams to reality, one must know that one may or may not ever happen, but because they dream or feel like they have lived it, it seems to be real to them. Life or things in life are not what they seem to be. Those perceptions are seen and can change when one is obvious to all the things that are really taking place. Not only are things being changed, but growth is being made if not in one person, but also in both. Knowing the right, and wrongdoings in a relationship cause the relationship to better, not only beneficial for one but those amongst that person.

Work Cited

1. Rich’s, Adrienne. “Living in Sin.” Expanding the Arc: From Argument to Analysis. By Robert Miller, Bryan Kyser, and Steve Sansom. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead, 2016. 282-23. Print.