Her Table spread by Elizabeth Bowen will be discussed in chapter one. I will prove that there is one very dominating woman who, perhaps unknowingly and unintentionally, uses violence against the principal male character of the story. I'm also going to show that the man, who creates most tension between a man and a woman and who in fact may have the leading role, is only mentioned by name, he is not in the story itself. The essay will also show that a romantic tension between the principal characters can only be experienced once in the whole story.

In chapter two Katharine Anne Porter's short story Rope will be discussed and the fact will be proved that an insignificant incident can lead to very

Alice Munro's story The Time of Death tells about very strong feelings of women and how men are perfectly disregarded. In this story men are underestimated and the violence is not pointed at an individual but men as a whole, as a sex.

The most erotic feelings are found in Rope, which in places has very erotic scenes. In this story the characters go from love and tenderness through even physical violence back to erotic and finally tender tension between man and wife. However, the truth is that the tension is relaxed after many accusations and the hostile feelings don't disappear, they are only set to the background.

Father's words "...Yeah, that won't do Benny any good, they can bawl their eyes out" (p. 237) reflects that also the men have a hostile but resigned attitude towards the overemotional reactions of the women. I think that the word "bawl" even contains contempt for the women's behaviour. This story suggests that the men as a whole are weak. In a shop Mrs McGee speaks about the owner not by name but only as "...the man who owned it" (p. 241); the fact that the owner is not mentioned by name, though he must be a well known person, is a manifestation of very negative attitudes. The man is so depreciated that he won't even be given a chance to mourn with his own family. "Their father had got sick from so much beer in the back shed after the funeral and he stayed away from the house" (p. 242). Not even the father is appreciated enough to let him show his feelings.

The Time of Death is a story where men are set aside almost perfectly. There are only a few mentions about men i a couple of scenes. Nevertheless, the story is strongly about negative attitudes towards men and refusing them to feel and share the feelings that the women feel so strongly. Men are hardly mentioned by name at all but only as men, something that just has to exist. "When the men came in...they were at once aware of something that shut them out, that reproved them." (p. 237) Women think that men are not capable of experiencing and feeling the sorrow as deeply as women.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Rossiter Alban, Death Death, Table Spread, Mars Mercury, Miss Cuffe, Anne Porter's, Elizabeth Bowen, Alice Munro, Despite Alban's, Alban Viennese, table spread, physical violence, miss cuffe, short stories, various kinds, mentioned name, erotic tension, spread elizabeth bowen, story tension, kinds tensions, short story, table spread elizabeth, various kinds tensions,
Approximate Word count = 1889
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)