The Elegy for Iris is a memoir of the novelist, Iris Murdoch written by her husband John Bayley. The book was broken up into two different sections, a then and now. The majority of the book was covered in the then part, however, Bayley would frequently jump between situations that happened decades apart but were similar in nature. This caused me some confusion. After I would realize he switched to a different period of time, I would have to reread that section, to comprehend exactly what happened. During the beginning of the book, John describes Iris as an independent woman, who loves to wear trousers and has unusual relationships with other men, whom are referred to as gods. This gave me the feeling that John thought of Iris as “better” than himself. She was almost the dominant individual in their relationship. John didn’t envy to be Iris though, but accepted that that’s just how it was. Once they got married, John describes it as if they aren’t really a married couple, but are just two individuals who are enjoying each other’s company. He refer’s to as taking marriage for granted. However, once Iris develops Alzheimer’s, she beings to feel very lonely and cries out for John to be near her at all times. He says that this is when it felt as if they were really married. …show more content…
This was a few years after Iris showed full symptoms of the Alzheimer’s disease. Iris and John loved to travel but since Iris got sick, it became very difficult. The symptoms, which included dementia, would often have Iris asking “where are we going?” It also made it difficult for John to communicate with her. He wanted to remind Iris of happier times or when something reminded him of a memory, but he knew Iris would not remember. In my opinion, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and the struggle with their relationship were negative reactions within the