The main character, Addison Montgomery, in the series Private Practice is always concerned and obsessing about the impact of time in her life. For example, Addison was married to Derek Shepherd but cheated on him with his best friend. Whenever Addison would try to convince Derek that they were meant to be together, she would always revert back to the fact that they were married for 11 years. Addison rarely talked about moments that she and Derek shared together that were meaningful in their marriage. The fact she only spoke about the amount of years shows that she cared more about the longevity of the marriage rather than how the two of them really felt about being together. Halberstam says that, “The logic of time-as-productive thereby becomes one of serial cause-and-effect: the past seems useless unless it predicts and becomes material for a future.”(5) Addison’s actions showed that she felt as though her future years would mean nothing because of the amount of time and effort that she put into her marriage with Derek. Also, the simple humiliation that comes along with divorce was difficult for Addison to understand. Society often sees divorce as a sign of failure and misfortune, and Addison was aware of that. When she got married it was to build a permanent life and home together, and in Addison’s eyes a divorce showed that all of that failed.
Addison was also obsessed about time when it involved her having children. Addison got pregnant at an age and time in her life that she thought was not appropriate. She was married and had gotten pregnant by another man, and she thought that it would have been wrong to have a baby that is not by her husband. In numerous episodes she expresses that she would have had the baby if there were not other parties influencing her. Those outside parties were the standards set by society. Halberstam argues that, “These are teleological schemes of events or strategies for living such as marriage, accumulation of health and wealth for the future, reproduction, childbearing, and death and its attendant rituals.”(4) Addison’s actions did not fall in place with the normal, expected life process, and that ultimately hindered her. She was not able to do what she truly wanted because it did not fall in line with her life’s timeline.
Your connection between Addison’s hesitancy to get a divorce because of the length of her marriage and Halberstam’s ideas about “time-as-productive” is super effective. It’s interesting how there seems to be a contrast between two ideas here, though. On the one hand, as you’ve described, Addison sees marriage as an end point; it is the position of stability that she has strived to get to. At the same time, though, she views the many years of her marriage as part of a process of building something, and that is why she is afraid to end it—because her marriage is like an entity that she has been producing for a long time, something that has required a lot of work. It’s interesting how both of those configurations of marriage contribute to the view that a divorce is a failure!
This connection is really solid. I love what you say about society seeing divorce as a failure. I think you can unpack that a bit more. Why, when something ends, is it designated a failure? Why, specifically for marriage, is it only successful when the marriage ends only when someone dies? Why can’t a relationship be successful but not last forever? This is a really solid analysis you have going on and I think it would make a great essay topic! You seem to have a good foundation with Addison’s background, so finding new material to analyze doesn’t seem to be too tricky!