The consequences of silence in The sea house

Perhaps, everybody has at least once in their life wondered what is the key to a happy relationship? Common value or the lack of secrets, the ability to agree to a compromise or giving freedom to your partner? However, I would also add another equally important point. Conversation. Partners should be able to talk to each other. They should talk not just on everyday topics or have small talks, but also be able to express the wishes and open their hearts. After all, the silence will not lead to anything good. In Ester Freud’s book The Sea House we can see some consequences of ‘silence’ in relationship of some characters.

There are several love stories in this book and, probably, in each of them one of the main problems is the fact that they do not know how to talk and express their real feelings and desires.

Let’s take the first couple – Lily and Nick. Lily, an architecture student, went to the seaside village Steerborough in order to think about the works of the German architect Klaus Lehmann. Her boyfriend Nick was immersed in work and active full-of-events life in London. Throughout the book, the relationship between Lily and Nick was the chain of silence and misunderstandings. From the first pages it was clear how much Lily wanted attention from him, long and sincere phone conversations and love letters similar to Lehmann’s letters to his wife. However, Lily could not ask Nick to do this. Perhaps, she was afraid to do it. Perhaps, she hoped that he would guess himself. Unfortunately, he did not get the hint. That’s why, phone conversations were quite short and cold, and she could only dream of long letters filled with love.

Also, Lily often did not tell Nick about her desires and dissatisfactions. She was afraid of being misunderstood. Moreover, it is nec-

essary to add that Nick has never told her such important words as ‘I love you’. It is these words that help to truly understand that a person loves his soul mate. All this silence accumulated and accumulated, eventually turning into a time-bomb that was about to explode. So, Lily was tired of waiting. She was tired of being a shadow, and at one point the bomb exploded and she expressed all her dissatisfactions to Nick.

‘ Why,’ she (Lily) said, her whole face flushing, ‘do you never say you love me? … I just feel tired out with waiting, that’s all… I just hate it, our life, it’s all so cold. Not needing each other for anything.

I think that all of this could have been prevented. If they could talk to each other and really express their feelings, then the years of their relationship would have passed differently. If Lily did not feel such loneliness in that relationship, she probably would not have had an affair with another man. After all, she would not have written a letter in which she had decided to break up with Nick. Nonetheless, we are all human beings and we all make mistakes. We are not born with the knowledge of how to properly deal with another person. So, when Nick realized that he could lose his beloved person, he began to change.

‘ I love you, Lily. Did you hear that? I love you.’ Nick started to laugh. ‘It’s not so hard, you’re right. I love you, I love you. I’ve been wanting to say that since the first night we met.’

Let’s turn to another couple from this book – Max and Elsa. Their love story was a little bit different from the previous one, because they were not the official couple. Elsa had an extramarital affair with Max, while Lehmann was on a business trip. That’s why Elsa and Max concealed their feelings and relationship in society. However, when they were alone, they let their hair down. They could talk to each other for hours, share their secrets and confess their love to each other. At the end of a book, Elsa told Max that she was expecting a child from him. The man was really happy and was dreaming of private life with his sweetheart somewhere far from the village. Howev- er, this period of euphoria did not last long, because after a while Elsa told Max that the child might be from Lehmann. Crash. The destruction of all Max’s dreams and hopes. He understood everything and decided to just leave the village forever. He did not tell anybody about his intentions and where he was going to go. After some time, Lehmann died and Elsa was left alone with the children.

At that moment Max could at least write her a letter where he could express to her all his feelings and desire to spend the rest of his days with her and the children. They could have remained friends and their whole life would have passed differently, but he did not do anything. He just gave up or maybe he loved Elsa too much and did not want to ruin her life? I am not sure. The only thing that is clear is that because of their silence and the lack of actions, their life did not go the way they would like.

In conclusion, I would like to say that relationship is a serious work of two people, in which everyone has to put a lot of effort. It is necessary not only to hear and listen to your partner, but also talk to him. After all, sometimes not saying something and silence can radically change the life of two lovers and lead to not-very-good consequences that cannot be corrected.