Literary Analysis of The Poem Living in Sin by Adrienne Rich

How does one, as an individual, cope with one’s life being completely different from what one, at one point, imagined? Especially when there is a pronounced yearning for more than what they can currently satisfy themselves with? This is the nature of the poem, “Living in Sin” by Adrienne Rich, whose narrator’s reality is far from what she had envisioned for herself. Architecturally, the poem captures the parallel between the realistic and idealistic dynamics of romance, and as a result, is charged with anguish and despair, and leaves the narrator diametrically to the title, coveting a life that starkly contrasts her own. This poem is a vehicle for the author to communicate her woes over grappling with what she fantasized her life would be, and what it is. Through the animation of the vivid language that contrasts against the dull and dissatisfaction of her life, the narrator strengthens the recurring motif of dolefulness, as it relates to a diluted perception of romance in living practically, and gradually arrives at the realization that this love may not be able to fulfill and sustain her desires as she imagined.

The narrator gracefully hints at her routine dissatisfaction with her life in her mundane surroundings, and is consistent throughout the poem. Her opening line employs the past perfect verbal tense, “she had thought the studio would keep itself;” (Rich 1). The past perfect tense, according to guidetogrammar.org, “indicates that an action was completed at some point in the past before something else happened” (Guidetogrammar.com 1). Through her word choice, the narrator is able to communicate her expectations for what her life would be like in the future, and what it has actually translated to in reality. She “had thought” implies that in her perfect reality, she would not have to, for example, clean their apartment. This is an ideal romantic concept. In her world, she would not have to live and do like most people do. Daily tasks would take care of themselves.This idea itself highlights the idealized form of her reality, which is then contrasted by how her actual, more practical reality turned out to be; a theme that is continuously referenced throughout the poem. She further, for example, she also embellishes her poem with plenty of vivid imagery to further illustrate this difference in her life. The narrator describes her idea of a perfect apartment as being, “A plate of pears, a piano with a Persian shawl / a cat stalking a picturesque amusing mouse…”. In an ideal state, the narrator’s apartment would have a variety of luxurious things that would effortlessly grace where she lives. This idea is further illustrative of her strong desire for what is not hers, and is further amplified through how amorous she is in her description of the items. There is a lust after these beautiful things that she wants, and therefore a lust after a different, more luxurious life. She details the things she wished she had in a more passionate way than she describes the man that she is with, who, to her, for example, does not “play a piano”, but “sound[s] a dozen notes upon the keyboard” (Rich 16-17). This description epitomizes the very heart and significance of this poem. She is illustrating a moment of palpable discrepancy between her idealistic and realistic visions of her life and romance. What she romanticizes are the things she does not have, and they are, quite literally, things. What she seems to disdain is the man that she is romantically with, and who, ordinarily, should be the object of her romantic fantasies rather than seemingly vapid things. Through her imagery and word choice, the narrator is able to efficiently communicate her dissatisfaction with her current lifestyle, as it contradicts what she wanted for herself. This underscores the persistence of the narrator’s unhappiness due to the difference between her romantic expectations and her given reality.

Additionally, as the poem continues, the narrator gradually arrives at a more solidified understanding that the love that she has may not be what she needs. One technique she employed to reveal this realization was symbolism. Two concepts that were used symbolically were lightness and darkness. She would use light to illuminate the imperfections of her life, rather than darkness to conceal them. The narrator declares that, “the morning light so coldly would delineate the scraps of last night’s cheese and three sepulchral bottles;” (Rich 9-11). She states that the sunlight in the morning would highlight the mess that was left around. This is significant because the narrator is drawing attention to the imperfections in her life, rather than hiding them. She lambasts the flaws of her life by choosing words such as “coldly” to describe them. This is indicative of a harsh reality where the light falls. She also likens the mess around the sink to “sepulchures”, a motif, where lifeless souls rest indefinitely- a direct comparison to her unanimated, limp romance. She chooses to draw attention to these blemishes in her life with light, rather than pretend they do not exist with darkness. She is very aware, rather than oblivious to these issues, which is integral to her process of realization. The narrator also uses darkness in a similar way. She states, “By evening she was back in love again” (Rich 23), which illustrates the use of darkness being used to distract the narrator from the unhappiness she experiences more actively during the day when there is light. In this way, darkness is sort of welcoming because it seemingly casts a shadow over the imperfections that the narrator is more conscious of in the light, making it easier for her to be “back in love again”, even though she still at times, “woke… to feel the daylight coming”, indicating that she comes back to her reality when there is light, which emphasizes her anguish, and escapes it when it is dark, which minimizes it. The lightness and darkness serve as part of the progression into the realization of her reality because they heighten her awareness through casting both light and shadows on her life. This leads to an eventual state of awareness, one that jolts the narrator awake from her sleep. The moment when she “woke… to feel the daylight coming”, is when she thrust into her own reality, an imperfect state that she had previously not acknowledged. Therefore, this moment is all the more intense. By waking up to her reality, the narrator realized that this life may not be what she wants because she is more invested in her own fantasy instead of what her life is in actuality. This process that leads to an eventual realization is therefore used as a climax to demonstrate the intensity and significance of that moment, and how it shaped a gradual build up from an idealistic fantasy, to a realistic actuality.

The way this poem was written in the form of a confessional. The narrator feels as though she is living in sin because she wants more than what she has. It is a common phrase to express something as being “a sin” if something has been wasted or pitiful. In this case, it seems as though it is a sin to waste time on people and things that are insignificant, essentially, being unhappy with one’s own partner, lifestyle, and means of living. On the other hand, it could be considered “a sin” that the narrator fell out of love with her partner she was presumably in love with at some point, and it is “a sin” that the mundane, routine ways of living robbed the narrator of her love for her partner, and that she no longer feels the love that she once did for him. It is a shame to live without love- without loving the life one lives, without loving the job one has, and without loving the partner that one is supposed to share it all with. To live without integrity in a romantic relationship, and shy away from reality to escape it through fantasy, is undoubtedly living in sin.