The following sample essay on adultery deals with family relationships.
Adultery hurts, dividing families because it destroys trust, children feel they need to pick a side and it causes turmoil in the family. This is all shown in Fences by August Wilson. In the quote I don’t know how she stands you after what you did to her shows how Cory resents his father Troy after finding out about him cheating on his mother Rose. He is also appalled because he feels that his mother shouldn’t be treated this way and lied to.
The quote Why, Troy? Why? After all these years to come dragging this in to me now. It don’t make no sense at your age. I could of expected this ten or fifteen years ago, but not now. shows how Rose is in disbelief because of the news. She is also very frustrated with him for being disloyal to her with their marriage.
The quote I’ve been standing with you! I been right here with you, Troy.
I got a life too. I gave ighteen years of my life to stand in the same spot with you. Don’t you ever think I wanted other things? Don’t you think I had dreams and hopes? What about my life? What about me. Don’t you think it ever crossed my mind to want to know other men? That I wanted to lay up somewhere and forget about my responsibilities? Shows how she felt throughout the years of their now damaged marriage.
Adultery can diminish trust in a family and a marriage because when a spouse finds out their partner cheated it instantly demolishes the trust between each other. Then they learn about how the other was lying about their whereabouts and what they were doing at certain times. An example of this is the quote “I gave everything I had to try and erase the doubt that you wasn’t the finest man in the world from Fences.” It shows that Rose had to convince herself multiple times that Troy wasn’t doing anything bad behind her back. She tried everything to believe he was loyal at all times. Another source proving that adultery can rip apart trust is the article My husband had an affair, now I feel stuck in our marriage by Dr. Andrea Bonio. A quote from that article is ‘He had an affair I still feel like I can’t trust him’. A woman found out about her husband’s affair and tried everything to fix their dying marriage. She feels stuck with him and because of the affair she can’t trust her husband no matter what. The same thing happens with Rose and Troy and it gets worse when their son Cory finds out.
Adultery makes children feel like they need to pick a side because when a child finds out a parent was having an affair with someone else they feel the need to be against that parent. The child feels like the adultering parent is not good in the family or important anymore and they start to see them as a bad person. After Cory finds out about Troy cheating on Rose, he states I ain’t got to say excuse me to you. You don’t count around here no more.Which shows him picking sides and he immediately sees Troy as the bad guy. Cory gets very aggressive towards his father and ignores him constantly and it is clearly seen that Cory picks his mother’s side over his father’s side easily. More proof is from the academic journal Adultery by Claire Davis.
They were no good together. Fought blow for blow. Not physically, understand, but sniping,from the bedroom, over the kitchen table, outdoors, in company. And then, just when he’d given up, his mother left his father after thirty-five years, and Joe discovered, despite his brave urgings, his parents’ divorce hurt, though by that time he was himself married and had two children and now this–adultery. Especially with an ex-husband.
Shows Joe wanting his mother to get a divorce so they can get away from their father because of adultery. It gives more proof that affairs can make children choose sides which rips the family apart even more.
Adultery causes turmoil within the family because after everyone finds out about an affair they start picking sides, ignoring people and flat out being against someone. Troy states you say I take and don’t give I done give everything I got. Don’t you tell that lie on me and it shows how Troy is trying to blame Rose for lying about how she gives a lot to him and he does nothing but fool around. Which causes a big argument after telling Rose about his infidelity and even a bigger one when Cory comes into it. When Cory hears all of this going on from inside the house, he comes out and starts a fight with Troy. More proof of how turmoil is spawned by adultery is in the article My husband had an affair, now I feel stuck in our marriage by Dr. Andrea Bonio. The quote but I feel like it was he who chose to check out of this marriage and break our commitment. Being the one to initiate the divorce is bringing up all kinds of guilt in me, and the fear that I would look like the bad guy, which I don’t think he deserves. I didn’t leave him; he left me.
Shows how this woman feels the turmoil within her marriage. She feels her husband is checked out of their marriage and doesn’t care anymore. She’s stuck with her cheating husband but doesn’t want to divorce him because she thinks he should divorce her. This shows her internal struggle with the choices she needs to make.
Adultery's Impact on Family Trust and Relationships. (2019, Dec 08). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/adultery-best-essay/