Emotional Abuse Domestic Violence Revealed through the Conflicts
loved but the threat has aimed to take the people away from her. The point of the psychological abuse in this situation is that the threat has made Elizabeth as the
victim feels unsecured to live with the people she loves. Elizabeth is unhapyy with the fact that Ben dislikes to spend the weekend
with his father, on the other side Elizabeth is actually does not want Ben to go either, but on the reality she cannot do anything other than tries to cheer him and
asks Ben to go to his fahter’s house on weekend, because Keith has the custody
and if Elizabeth tries to keep Ben on weekend it will make the situation harder Sparks, 2008:146.
Keith’s custody on Ben has made Elizabeth cannot do much on letting Ben free to spend the weekend. Keith who has joint custody has
intimidated Elizabeth because the custody has the strict rule on spending the time with the child, if in a situation Elizabeth tries to keep Ben on weekend, Keith who
has the custody will have Ben forced to live with him, in the other words the situation will be worse for Ben who dislikes to spend time with his father. This
kind of intimidation categorized into psychological abuse because in the situation Elizabeth cannot do anything more than just letting Ben to spend the weekend
with Keith. The situation of this conflict is that Keith has the custody on Ben which made
Ben must stay with him on the weekend. Meanwhile, Ben is unhappy when he has to spend the weekend with his father because his father always forces Ben to do or
to fulfill his expectation on Ben. Elizabeth is unhappy with the fact that Ben does not like to go to his father’s house, and that makes her wants to keep Ben stay
with her on the weekend. On the contrary to her idea on keeping Ben on the
weekend, she realizes that her desire to keep Ben on the weekend is against the custody, while if the custody is unfulfilled Keith will proceed the custody into the
full custody which means that Ben will spend his whole life with him. The point in this situation that related to psychological abuse is that the
custody proposed by Keith is unintentionally has threatened Elizabeth not to try to keep Ben stays in her house on the weekend. The other effect of Keith takes the
custody is also makes Elizabeth submitted to Keith because Keith has the control to make her life become sorrow.
In relation to the feminist perspective by Simone de Beavoir and Elaine Showalter, Elizabeth in one side is described as an independant woman because
she is an educated woman who works for living as teacher which shows that she is living in the female phase where women in common is equal as men. On the other
side, Elizabeth is under Keith’s domination. Keith uses the custody on Ben as the weapon to weaken Elizabeth, so that he can control over her life including her
romantic life. Moreover, Logan as the man who helps Elizabeth to get through her life is also considered as the male domination over female and it makes Elizabeth
as the female become unintentionally subordinate to male. Logan’s role in her life implies Elizabeth as a female become the dependant person, she cannot face Keith
so that she needs Logan as the helper. It is the same with de Beavoir’s theory
where men are the dominant and women are just the other which means that women are in the control of the men in the society.