The Economy of Love: Why Young Love Fails in Hemingway’s “the End of Something”
James Keil
Dr. Love
Sophomore Seminar I
15 October 2012
The Economy of Love: Why Young Love Fails in Hemingway’s “The End of Something”
There is a lot of speculation about what causes the end of the relationship between Nick Adams and Marjorie in Hemingway’s early story of young love, “The End of Something.” Indeed, there does seem to be some vagueness in the narrative as to the reason for the breakup: Nick says when Marjorie asks what the trouble is: “’I don’t know.’” Even the title suggests this vagueness. Freudian theories abound, however: some suspect impotence; homoeroticism, Nick’s love for Bill, is another theory. However, these speculations ignore too often the reasons proposed by the text, indeed, at one point, by Nick himself. Nick’s explanation, too often ignored, is abetted by the story’s beginning; here Hemingway describes the mill town that once stood near the site of the story and the mill ruins that are all that remain and where we learn why the love relationship failed.
Throughout the story we get hints as to why the relationship will fail. Nick and Marjorie are on an evening date near the old mill and along the lake shore at Horton’s Bay. Marjorie is aware as they prepare to eat that Nick is irritated about something and she asks him what’s wrong, but Nick doesn’t want to talk about why he is irritable. Nick is about to break up with Marjorie, something that he apparently isn’t prepared to announce just yet. This is the “end” to which the title refers, the end of the relationship. Just what kind of romantic relationship is ended or why it is ended remains quite vague, especially in Nick’s mind, but we know from the title that it was “something.” When pressed by Marjorie near the end of the story to explain what is bothering him, Nick finally tells her that “It,” their romance, “isn’t fun any more.” At this point it appears that we have clarification of the vagueness in the title as well as the cause of Nick’s irritation; it’s hard to imagine
Dr. Love
Sophomore Seminar I
15 October 2012
The Economy of Love: Why Young Love Fails in Hemingway’s “The End of Something”
There is a lot of speculation about what causes the end of the relationship between Nick Adams and Marjorie in Hemingway’s early story of young love, “The End of Something.” Indeed, there does seem to be some vagueness in the narrative as to the reason for the breakup: Nick says when Marjorie asks what the trouble is: “’I don’t know.’” Even the title suggests this vagueness. Freudian theories abound, however: some suspect impotence; homoeroticism, Nick’s love for Bill, is another theory. However, these speculations ignore too often the reasons proposed by the text, indeed, at one point, by Nick himself. Nick’s explanation, too often ignored, is abetted by the story’s beginning; here Hemingway describes the mill town that once stood near the site of the story and the mill ruins that are all that remain and where we learn why the love relationship failed.
Throughout the story we get hints as to why the relationship will fail. Nick and Marjorie are on an evening date near the old mill and along the lake shore at Horton’s Bay. Marjorie is aware as they prepare to eat that Nick is irritated about something and she asks him what’s wrong, but Nick doesn’t want to talk about why he is irritable. Nick is about to break up with Marjorie, something that he apparently isn’t prepared to announce just yet. This is the “end” to which the title refers, the end of the relationship. Just what kind of romantic relationship is ended or why it is ended remains quite vague, especially in Nick’s mind, but we know from the title that it was “something.” When pressed by Marjorie near the end of the story to explain what is bothering him, Nick finally tells her that “It,” their romance, “isn’t fun any more.” At this point it appears that we have clarification of the vagueness in the title as well as the cause of Nick’s irritation; it’s hard to imagine