Unit Three:
Duty
The word duty means a moral or legal obligation, a responsibility, an expectation, or a task or action that someone is required to perform. The word duty is not always a positive one in the sense that duty can bring on deep sadness, frustration, anger and loneliness. Duty can be a burden. Although, titles of duty are not necessarily different now than they were in the early 1900s-duty to your husband, family, boss-the social expectations have changed. For instance, a family might feel it is their duty to put a grandfather in a nursing home because he will have better care in a facility than at home. Perhaps, in the early 1900s however, if a man were to get sick, it would be his wife or family's moral duty (obligation) to care for him. Standards have changed. Duty has become easier. We ultimately make a decision but there is a slew of things to buy and people to hire to make these decisions easier for us to make. The duty of a wife, teacher and fiancee in the early 1900s were faced with the same hardships as we are faced with today, however, the social standards of a wife, teacher and fiancee in the early 1900s were much tougher.
The theme of duty is present in Unit Three's short stories:
"The March of Progress" By Charles W. Chesnutt
"Editha" By William Dean Howells
"A Journey" By Edith Wharton
September 25th, 2014