@mk30 I read the whole thing as a comment on gender relations. Like, across history and cultures women have often been "happy enough" with marriages they've been constrained into, and wouldn't actively wish their husbands harm, but these marriages are prisons nonetheless, and the women will always perceive that even if the man does not. No matter how kindly he treats her. No matter how well he provides.

As a trainee person-centered counsellor I understand the seal or the swan or the dolphin to be a woman's "organismic self", her animal needs, her personal desires, before society tells her what she should be and how she must behave. And we always feel the pull to live true to that self.
@moonlitconfessionsromance