The Brooch

The relationship between Amy and Howard is strange in this story. At first they seem to love each other, and cannot wait to be married, but then Howard becomes jealous and gets violent, and spanks her. It seems as though she was almost forced into marrying him because after his display of aggression she gives in and marries him, when before she had had complaints. Control is a major issue in this story. Clearly the mother is controling. Her son has absolutely no ability to make his own decisions, or even leave the house, even though he is an adult. He sacrifices his own happiness with Amy in order to keep his mother happy. The ironic part is she cannot even get out of bed. It is hard to see what he is afraid of, when she is basically powerless. It may be the guilt of her simply being his mother, as several times he says he just cannot leave her and he will not. I do not know if I could leave my mother either.
Although she clearly is the controling one, he ends up exercising control in his own way too. He decides that Amy must live in the house with his mother, even though she begs not to. In the end he basically decides the relationship is over by having her leave to the hotel. He makes her live a certain way in order to keep his mother happy. In the end he cannot bear it and ends up alone. In this story nobody wins, the mom ends up without her son, the very thing she was trying to control the entire time, Howard cannot live at all, and Amy ends up alone in a hotel. It is true in life and relationships that when one tries to control everything it never turns out well.