Compare And Contrast A Secret Sorrow And A Sorrowful Woman

Though fulfilling love, happiness and trust in a relationship can be comforting, couples often are unsuccessful in finding or keeping the love that their relationship need; even if issues may interfere within the relationship, couples should find a way in working through their problems. Once a couple's happiness, trust and love have been fulfilled, they can experience unconditional love. Although they would need to make every possible step to heal their relationship, if and when their relationship breaks down, there is still much they can learn. With this stated this idea holds opposing views among the two females in A Secret Sorrow and "A Sorrowful Woman."

Children often learn about their society’s ideals of love and relationships from fairy tales. Told from a female perspective, the poem Puce Fairy Book by Alice Major challenges and disproves the unfeasible and degrading expectations that women are held to, specifically by men in relationships. The motivation of the speaker, addressing a male counterpart, is to say that she does not care for other’s opinions of her faults and does not desire such unaccepting people in her life. Major’s use of fairy tale allusions and metaphors play an important role in establishing the central message that is the “perfect” ideological image that society has created for women to conform to are unrealistic and

The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time

In a world usually depicted as a “man’s world,” a woman’s role is not considered as significant and thus can be repressed. It is why a feminist perspective or criticism comes into place, especially in literature. By definition, a feminist criticism consist of scrutinizing “the ways in which literature reinforces the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women.” (Tyson) In Gail Godwins’s A Sorrowful Woman, the leading female character is concentrated in her efforts in distancing from her structured lifestyle. A feminist would critic Godwins story by as the female character is in pursuit of peace and happiness and wants to escape from the role she has been implanted. The critic would concentrate on the experience woman

The Human Condition is a big part of our understanding of literature, it can mean death, acceptance, judgment, and several other diverse things. It is about the positive or negative aspects of humans that everyone all universally deals with at least one time in one’s life. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the short stories Raymond Carver’s “Everything Stuck to Him”, and Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”, all have the most prominent human condition: love. Love is portrayed as society’s primary concern in literature, and is represented as a main concern in today’s society .

In the three stories “Eveline”, “A Rose for Emily”, and “Desiree’s Baby” three single women go about love in three different ways. Their struggles for love are similar; the decisions they made you will not believe. One thing you can say about all the women is their poor love lives. With their fathers in their way, the women find it hard to find love. Love is a four letter word that everyone wants, but some never get to experience the happiness. While Eveline, Miss Emily, and Desiree have controlling fathers, they want love; one walked away from her happiness, one kills for it, and another kills herself.

Women are taught from a young age that marriage is the end all be all in happiness, in the short story “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin and the drama “Poof!” by Lynn Nottage, we learn that it is not always the case. Mrs. Mallard from “The Story of an Hour” and Loureen from “Poof!” are different characteristically, story-wise, and time-wise, but share a similar plight. Two women tied down to men whom they no longer love and a life they no longer feel is theirs. Unlike widows in happy marriages Loureen and Mrs., Mallard discover newfound freedom in their respective husband’s deaths. Both stories explore stereotypical housewives who serve their husbands with un-stereotypical reactions to their husband’s deaths.

“Once upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times” (Godwin 39). This short story begins with the famous opening, once upon a time, which foreshadows that the story line will be similar to a fairy tale. It raises expectations for the story that all will be magical and end happily. A typical modern-day fairy tale is that of a distressed character who overcomes an obstacle, falls in love with prince charming, and they ride off into the sunset; living happily ever after never to be heard from again. Godwin however, puts an unexpected twist on “A Sorrowful Woman”. This short story is a tale about what can happen when everyday roles take over our identity. Ultimately, this short story challenges societal expectations of marriage

A life as a wife and/or a mother, is usually appreciated and is a happy life as well. A relationship between two people should consist of joy, commitment, responsibility, and most importantly love. For the two main characters in both stories ( “The Story of An Hour”, and “A Sorrowful Woman” ) this was not the case. The stories go against societies view with marriage roles and happiness.

What Janie’s grandma experienced was not warm, caring love. Getting love was the worst thing to ever happen to Nanny. The child conceived by the horrific effects of the rape, Leafy, was also sexually assaulted at a young age. One day Nanny explains to Janie, “But one day she didn’t come home at de usual time and Ah waited and waited, but she never come home all dat night… De next mornin’ she came crawlin’ in her hands and knees… Dat school teacher had done hid her in the woods all night long, and he had donerped muhbaby and run on off just before day” (Hurston 18). This shows that someone as sensitive as your first love and virginity can be the worst thing to ever happen to a little girl. Leafy gave birth to Janie and left the newborn with her mother, Nanny, to live the rest of her life drinking away the pain. When Nanny explains how Janie’s mother left it further highlights the idea of love being the worst tragedy in one’s life. The rape left Janie’s mother absolutely broken, to the point she could not raise the child. Janie never met her mother and never got the love she wanted from her maternal mom. The love and sexual interest the Crawford women hoped to get wasn’t what they

Storytelling has been used for all of human existence to pass down ideas and morals. Writing was just the next step in allowing additional individuals to have access to the multitude of new stories being created. When different people read the same story, they are able to glean different things from it. This is due to the fact that people read the stories on different levels and with differing viewpoints. Upon the first reading of “Dream Children”, by Gail Godwin, a reader may view the story as a timeless, boring love story. However, if a reader dives into the story from a feministic approach, one sees a deeper plot where Mrs. McNair is imprisoned by societal norms and longs for an understanding of her feelings and desires.

Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and the impossible love of Ethan Frome and Mattie Silver. These two stories have more in common than you think. They both end sourly, as each resists a “happy ever after” ending. Both romances also seem to convey that love isn’t always what it seems. And both their characters set unrealistic expectations for the others. As these stories unfold side by side, they seemed unlikely qualifiers of similarities, at first. But as one reads more and more, each tale exists to try to give a message to all who read. In reality, life and love don’t often end happily ever after.

Isolation from society can evoke a deep loneliness and self-reflection. The poem "The Wife's Lament" from the Exeter Book expresses the desolation of exile. The dominant theme is the contrast of a happy past and a bleak present of isolation. The anonymous author of "The Wife's Lament" uses setting, tone, and conflict to develop the theme of great loss. He/she augments a situation in which meditation on life's past joys is the only redemption in a life sentenced to confinement. “The Wife’s Lament” is an excellent example of nostalgia, resentment of the present, and hopelessness about the future.

Over the years, there have been many interpretations of who the speaker of The Wife’s Lament could be. These range from very interesting ideas to ones that seem a little rough around the edges. It is obvious that no sure answer can be found due to the fact that whoever wrote this poem is dead and that the answer will always be in speculation even if it is correct. Hopefully, at the end of this quest I will be slightly more enlightened as to who the true speaker may really be.