“The First Seven Years” Analysis

In William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” the two main characters go to great lengths for love. The main characters reject their parents strong disapproval for their relationship and continue to be with one another. Like Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” Feld, the main character, in Bernard Malamud’s “The First Seven Years”, ignores and later resents the fact that Sobel, his employee, is in love with his only daughter, Mariam. Feld believes that Mariam deserves a boy who is well educated and financially stable. Even though Sobel has little formal education or wealth, he still offers what he does have to Mariam, his soul. Throughout “The First Seven Years” Malamud exhibits many literary devices such as symbolism, setting, and epiphany in order set up a well rounded theme for the reader. That a parents desires for his child is not necessarily what the child desires or needs.

In this short story, Malamud uses symbolism to exhibit the depth of Sobel’s love for Mariam. During the prelude of the story Feld is annoyed by Sobel’s “fanatic pounding at the other bench�

Throughout Malamud’s short story, he uses symbolism, setting, and epiphany to help develop the theme for the reader. Just like Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, Sobel struggles for several years in order to eventually be with Mariam. Even knowing of Feld’s aspirations for Mariam, Sobel continues to share his feelings through the books. By the end of the short story, Feld realizes how far and how much Sobel has sacrificed for his love. In the long run, happiness becomes more important than financial security.

Malamud gives great detail to the setting to establish Sobel’s poverty, making him unsuitable for Mariam in the eyes of her father. When Malamud describes Sobel’s apartment, the reader sees that Sobel has struggled financially. “The room was a small, poor one, with a single window facing the street” (898). In that quote Malamud is trying to show how poor Sobel is, having sacrificed a better salary in order to prove his love for Mariam. As Malamud continues to describe Sobel’s apartment he describes the items found in his apartment. “It contained a narrow cot, a low table, and several stacks of books piled haphazardly around on the

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