Love in That Tree

The narrator in That Tree has a fascinating view of love that he doesn't seem to fully recognize. For the narrator, love is an idea of comfort, support and adulation provided by the "other" in a relationship. Miriam does not conform to his idea of what she should be: she does not adore his hobbies or his "artistic lifestyle," she does not clean for him with a smile on her face, and she is apparently not very interested in sex. It seems to me that what this narrator expects from love is a mother figure he can also fornicate with. The brief reference to his mother's cheery disposition and uncomplaining take to housework enforces this idea for me, as it is fairly near the discussion of Miriam's virginity and "frigidity" in the narrative. However, this works both ways. It would seem that Miriam (though we only understand her through the narrator's perception) also has a well formulated conception of what love should be, i.e. a romantic escape from the boredom of her Midwestern life among beautiful, cultured strangers. Miriam's vision of love and marriage are clearly perturbed by the realities of her husband's life (and Mexico in general). Is Porter saying that love is a joining of separate, ultimately incongruous personal visions wherein the participants seek a selfish satisfaction of wish-fulfillment through one another? If viewed this way, love is not selfless, giving or kind (as it is popularly thought of in hallmark cards, movies, etc) but rather self-serving and, at worst, delusional; at best, an attempt to find a person who most wholly conforms to one's internal vision of a partner and companionship.