Getting Out

"Getting Out" by Cleopatra Mathis

"Yet I think of the lawyer's bewilderment/when we cried, the last day" (Mathis, 896).

Q#2: The line containing "matching eyes and hair" (16) explains that the love and marriage of the two was based on the outside appearance of the individuals. Not much deep love is explained in the poem therefore, the marriage was bound to end. The maturity of the two also seems to be lacking as in the explanation of the lawyer finalizing the divorce, the two were sad and closer than a divorced couple would tend to be. The marriage seemed more like a dating couple that decides to be just friends rather than a couple who was married and getting divorced. Q#3: "Inmates" most closely matches the couple to be in an imprisonment. The diction of "escaped" and "stumbling" and "paced" signify that the couple felt stuck in the situation they were in and ready to get away from one another. Q#4: Lastly, the shift in tone from line 14 to line 15 comes with the thoughts of leaving and escaping the marriage to making the final decision to end the marriage that never seemed like a real marriage.