Letters to Louis: Marital Dissolution Through the Social Construction of Lived Experience

This article examines the author's narrative within letters written to her husband over a span of several years. I examine how a marriage dissolves from the inside out, from the perspective of the lived experience of one member of the marriage. The primary research focus is how individuals living within troubled marriages construct their own marriage. Although we know much about what predicts divorce, little research considers the social construction of marriage from the perspective of the person living within that marriage. Drawing on symbolic interactionism, this autoethnographic analysis of my letters to Louis reveals an insider's view of how a marriage dissolves. Gottman's Oral History Interview coding is used as a tool of analysis throughout.