Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Myra Meets His Family



This short story imparts one dominant lesson: Lies and Treachery Do Not Pay.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Myra in his short story titled: Myra meets his family, is a typical woman who wants to find a wealthy man to marry.

Myra wanted financial security and her mistake was thinking that she found that in the person of Knowleton Whitney.

The truth bared in the final lines of this story was painful for Myra. She did not find a lover but an enemy.

That was her discovery when Myra visited Knowleton in his home upon the request of the latter. Little did Myra know that she would instead discover a monster inside the palace owned by the Knowletons and not the man who promised to marry her.

Expecting that she would get a royal treatment, Myra arrived at Knowleton's home with excitement but only to succumb to desperation as days passed by during her stay in her man's abode.

Myra was instead greeted with so much perplexity that caught her in surprise.

Terrified by the "weirdness" of Knowleton's father and his grouchy sick mother, Myra wanted to flee from them but she had no choice but to stay, for her desire to marry the money and not the man.

Until she discovered one terrible truth that drove her to act vindictively against Knowleton.

It was one unhappy morning for Myra when she woke up hearing voices from the corridor. The voices belonged to Knowleton and his parents.

She found the truth that cut her deep inside, perhaps not out of love for Knowleton but out of her scarred ego. Those "weird" parents of Knowleton were not real after all. They were hired by Knowleton to act as his parents to measure Myra's sincerity.

Myra's eyes saw the glaring treachery before her orchestrated by the man who promised to marry her. She realized the reason why she was not seemed welcomed since the day she arrived in the castle.

Not even the so-called "castle" was Knowleton's. It was rented along with the house helpers.

Everything was planned by Knowleton to make Myra's stay in the castle miserable so that she would voluntarily withdraw from the nuptial agreement.

Myra, thought of vengeance the following day. She pretended not knowing any lies and acted calmly in front of Knowleton who begged for her forgiveness after admitting all his misdeeds. When he proposed marriage, Myra readily accepted it and asked the former to conduct the ceremony at the soonest possible time.

Thinking that Myra was the right woman for him after discovering that she "truly" loves him, for her forgiving spirit, arranged the marriage at once. But Myra did what she had in mind--vengeance. After the wedding, she excused herself momentarily from Knowleton only to disappear from his life forever.

The story was impressively written, climatic, mysterious and really a good read.


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