I have a scene in the beginning of one of my manuscripts where the wife is thinking of murdering her husband. Her husband had been acting crazy for months. Obsessed with building a bomb shelter, pouring all their money into it. It so consumes him the wife is living in fear of his mania. My critique group thought it was a bit extreme to have the wife thinking of murder instead of..say...therapy.My thoughts are that just sending him to therapy would be a boring book. And she doesn't actually kill him in the book. (that's taken care of by forces beyond her control) But how weird would your significant other have to get before you'd think of divorce? If your "other" started obsessing over something strange, drained your saving account and spent every waking hour on this obsession. Got so bad you could see something in his eyes that scared you.... What would you do? How long would you put up with it?
I'm not saying murder is the answer (we'll save that for the book) but what about divorce? Or just leaving? Kicking him out?
Thoughts?
5 comments:
Abandoning me would be at the top of the list. Cleaning out the savings account would need an incredible reason. (Or, rather, a credible reason, LOL.)
Other than that (and the obvious ones, like turning into a wife-beater or an axe-murderer), it would probably just be a parting of goals. Like if I wanted to stay in Ohio forever and he wanted to hit the road in an RV and I didn't.
It doesn't take a lot for me to leave someone, just sustained unhappiness. I don't believe in staying together just to prove you can stick it out. If one or both parties is suffering, there is no point in going on. I left my husband last year. But we've reconciled.
I think leaving him was one of the best things I ever did for the relationship. It gave us both space to deal with issues so we could come back together stronger.
But yeah, in a book, I don't think contemplating murder is that insane. In fact I would wager that even if a wife hasn't had a husband killing fantasy on occasion, she's had some other kind of way out there fantasy of how to detach herself from him.
Spy, I think I'd like hitting the road in an RV! As long as I didn't have to drive.
However with gas prices the way they are I don't think I could afford it. lol
Zoe, Exactly! I think if her dh was giving her enough problems and she was thinking divorce it would enter her mind to murder him (Its fiction after all!) And just because a person thinks it, doesn't mean they'd actually do it.
i'm all for the 'offing' bit! :O lol
divorces drag on too long, giving the other ample time to do any deed
leaving = they can find you, eventually
ditto, kicking them out
but one needs must know all the consequences in their choices...
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