“Every couple faces things they’d prefer to avoid —job losses, severe illnesses, financial reversals, deaths of close family members and many other such events. We call them crises, roadblocks, setbacks or tragedies, and none of these are terms of endearment. That’s because these storms of life place immense stress on us —and they also test our marriages” as Donald R Harvey once said. In other words, the ups and downs that occur in a relationship may sometimes push marriages to their breaking point. The idea of tragic situations hurting relationships behind Donalds quote is also true in the fictional story, A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri and the article Life Events That Can Lead to Divorce by Amanda Macmillan. The theme of tragedy is exploited through both of these sources when they express the concept of life’s hardships …show more content…
In the short story A Temporary Matter a quote that exemplifies the idea of tragedy through trauma is, “The baby had been born dead...Her placenta had weakened and she had a cesarean, though not quickly enough” (Lahiri 2). This quote demonstrates the idea of trauma by the couple and how they went through the tragic event of their baby dying. In the same light, research shows that, couples who go through traumatic events together, may grow closer. However, the events may also push them away. To put this in a more realistic view, the article Life Events That Can Lead to Divorce by Amanda Macmillan says, “In order to heal, sometimes people need to let go of that painful experience and anything that reminds them of it,” says Ochoa (Macmillan 2015). This can also be true for the tragedy like the death of the child in the short story. This fact supports the idea that couples may or may not grow stronger from the tragic events they face