Elizabeth refuses to marry Calvin. What did you think of her decision here? How would her life have been different if they’d married?
Different, yes. It would have been the acceptable thing to do. But, it would not have given her the professional life that she wanted.
I think Elizabeth’s decision not to marry Calvin was based on fear her life would change and her goals and career success would be eclipsed by his career. As she says, she did not know him long enough. Also, I am not sure if her view on marriage might have changed if she had envisioned a future as a single parent.
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Yes it would have changed her life if she had married Calvin. Elizabeth was a woman who envisioned herself as a scientist with goals and ideas for the future. She wanted that to be her career. Marriage would have hindered that goal, especially in that time frame.
I agree that it would have affected her professional life. In that era, many people would have seen her first as a wife and then as a scientist. As a woman, I think she was already fighting being seen as secondary because of working with Calvin and it would have just made it worse.
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I understand why she didn’t want to marry Calvin; she was already worried about her work being undervalued, and it certainly would have put a damper on her career. But I have mixed feelings about it; his death left her without any security. Of course, when you’re that young, perhaps you don’t think as much about how suddenly someone can be taken from you. Under most circumstances they would have had many years together.
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Her life would have been different because she would have to stay home with her kid(s). She would not have been happy in her career
I gave Elizabeth a lot of credit for refusing to marry Calvin in a time when living together was frowned upon and not the norm. This decision was congruent with her beliefs and her life’s plans. If she’d married Calvin, I think she would have struggled with society’s expectation that she be subservient (at least somewhat) and that she give up on or delay her professional goals, which would have frustrated her to no end. At the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder whether she a few “oh no” moments when she realized some of the challenges that came after his death in which she tried to retrieve his personal an professional belongings from work but had to explain she was not married to Calvin. I understood the legal implications of releasing something to someone who was not next of kin, but at the same time, being unmarried made it more difficult for her legally.
I understood her desire to be independent, especially because she wanted to be known professionally and not be in anyone’s shadow. But…as a reader, I wanted her to realize Calvin loved her so much he would have been supportive. I think her life would have been easier in some ways (not having to deal with other’s disapproval) but harder in others ( dealing with people thinking any of her work was really because of Calvi).