My mother speaks of my step being a source of life-long pain to her, that it is a living death, etc. By the same post I had several letters from anxious relatives, telling me that it was my duty to come home and thus ease my mother's anxiety.
Marriage is miserable unless you find the right person that is your soulmate and that takes a lot of looking.
Fairytales have always got to have that scary quality, as long as you make them laugh.