Rows may lead to violence. (Revenge is sweet, The way up to heaven, For services rendered, Makeover)

When two people living together and bound by the marriage ties are too different and try to use every ploy to make the life of each other more difficult, daunting and even downbeat one of them (of either) may try to commit a crime. This aggression may be caused by their spouse’s imprudent behaviour and constant humiliation, like in the text “The Way Up to Heaven”.

Mr. and Mrs. Foster are so different that it is perplexing, how they managed to develop a good rapport and, as a result, get married. Mr. Foster fosters his wife’s fears, torments her, insults her by pointing out her defects. He appears to be almost a beast and Mrs. Foster is a flabby and feeble woman, who is unable to confront her husband and stand up for herself. But still, it was on the cards for her to rebel some day for it couldn’t last forever. She never had even a temporary stress release. Mr. Foster’s actions were not arbitrary – he tormented his wife on purpose. But when he appeared to be a hindrance for Mrs. Foster to visit her child, she couldn’t bear it and had to handle this problem, for her utmost wish was to set her eyes on her three grandchildren in reality. Their mismatch triggered the conflict. And as Mr. Foster increased his wife’s misery in every possible way he had to go up to Heaven or down to Hell.

Rows may also result from the advent of the green-eyed monster – jealousy, which is unveiled in “Revenge Is Sweet”, where Felicity is confronted with a problem: her boy-friend Gerald left her in favour of a new girl-friend – Tricia. Gerald wrote a careful letter contrived in such a way that it may not hurt Felicity. This was a break-up letter, and Felicity – the discarded mistress – longed for revenge. Felicity was flustered, frustrated and devastated that’s why at first her imagination became morbid and she envisaged the picture of her coming to Sunday lunch to Gerald’s place and pushing Tricia out of the window. Still, it was too crude. There was also a lure to make a helter-skelter out of Gerald’s flat, crush everything there and thus spoil their marvelous homecoming. Still, Felicity conjured up another plan – she decorated Gerald’s flat, as if nothing happened, and that was moral violence – for she knew that such interior decorations will trigger Tricia and Gerald’s break-up.

Everything is even more grave and downbeat in the text “For Services Rendered”, where a woman – Patsy Randolf – knowing that her husband has a liason and having a liason herself wants to discard her husband, but he is unwilling to divorce, for she owns all the money. This makes Patsy fling into a vortex of lunacy – and tried to turn her psychoanalyst round her little finger – Dr. Harry Bernstein – and make him believe that she is morbid, which should excuse her killing her husband. Thus, that intricate plan was just a way of handling family problems.

We encounter a similar way of handling family problems in the text “Makeover”. Emily just wanted to alter herself in order to be more attractive for her husband – Todd. Meanwhile Todd was having liason with his secretary – Stephanie. He was the one who wanted to discard his spouse, be exempt of all the duties of his marriage. But when Emily learned what Stephanie and Todd have up their sleeves, she became vindictive. And everything turned to be a pretty kettle of fish for Stephanie and Todd. Todd tried to poison Emily with a piece of pizza, but she, emulating her husband, did the same to him, using that very piece that was meant for her. That day she dressed like Stephanie, and that is why she was the one to be prosecuted for the murder of Todd. And after that Emily became even more dazzling and stunningly looking.

Thus, in most cases that violence in handling family problems may be just an answer to the shattering plans of one of the spouses. This is similar to self-preservation instinct – when all the notions of morality simply sink into oblivion and people start forging their heinous plans aimed at someone they used to love. They start being voraciousbeasts, capable of howling and biting each other and even killing each other, for quarrels are something that is deeply rooted in our nature. It appeared as soon as a human being started his existence, that is why rows are something close to animal instincts, they make people prone to committing crimes.