Gail Godwin's The Sorrowful Woman

Here opening line is “Once upon a time there was a wife and a mother one too many times” (Meyer 39). Here we find a stereotypical opening for a fairy tale but soon readers immerse themselves in an atypical tale. The first hints that she has an idea life start to resound in the very first sentence. “One winter evening she looked at them: the husband durable, receptive, gentle; the child a tender golden three.” Then the striking line, “The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again.” (Meyer 39). Unlike Melville, Godwin, quickly states the dissonance between the character and the character’s family.

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."

With the stereotypical gender roles in a marriage especially in the past, the husband goes to work and makes money while the wife stays home. Because the stereotypical man brings home the money, he has control and holds the power. These similarities between the husband and “the hand” show that the wife may have been connecting the two and symbolically showing her fear towards her husband. The traits in her husband that sparked feelings of fear in the wife are shown through the traits of “the hand” described in the

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

In everyday life, a relation is always identified as trust and support. In this novel, a relation between a husband and a wife is shown in a different way. Min, one of the characters in the story, is shown losing her mental stability and is living with her two children. She did not have any contact with her husband in few years and neither did he try to contact

Gail Godwin’s Sorrowful Woman develops the message that the archetypal role of mother and wife is so constricting and limiting as to force ‘the mother’ character to end her life. The end of the story demonstrates the power of rhetoric, contrast, and detached narration in creating the text’s message.

Children, Marriage and Love are the three main factors of the two short stories, “A Sorrowful Woman” by Gail Godwin, and “A Secret Sorrow” by Karen van der Zee. Two relationships at risk because of children. Neither of them know what to do but try to find solutions to solve their problems. They end up having different outcomes.

The next requirement for being a “true woman” was submissiveness. According to society men were superior to women by “God’s appointment.” If they acted otherwise they “tampered with the order of the Universe” (Welter 105). A “true woman” would not question this idea because she already understands her place. Grace Greenwood explained to the women of the Nineteenth Century, “True feminine genius is ever timid, doubtful, and clingingly dependant; a perpetual childhood.” Even in the case of an abusive husband, women were sometimes told to stay quiet

Over the course of many years, women have struggled to expand their roles and rights in society, hoping to one day achieve complete equality with their male counterparts. Two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady, both recognized the patriarchal society in which women had to endure. They despised the way it heaped inequality and servitude upon women, and decided to assert their opinion on the issue in order to change the perceptions and imposed limitations on women. In Stanton’s speech, “Declaration of Sentiments”, and in Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, both women attempt to convince their audiences that females deserve complete equality with men by stating the submissive situations and obligations women find themselves immersed in. This is done to get their female audiences to reevaluate how they have been treated and give them a second chance at attaining equality. Both women employ various rhetorical techniques in their arguments to strengthen, as well as compel other women to oppose the ‘domesticated’ image of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady expressed their views in pursuance of forging a path to a revamped lifestyle for women.

The girl distrusts her mother and believes her to be out of touch, while helping her father in "his real work" (468). Surprisingly, the girl's desire to avoid the manifestation of her femininity in womanly tasks, such as cooking and cleaning, influences her into feeling that her mother is "plotting now to get [her] to stay in the house [. . ]. and keep [her] from working for [her] father" (469). The girl chooses to dismiss her mother, thereby dismissing her own future role as a housewife.

Unlike her friend, Nora, Mrs. Linde has more freedom to do what she wants, however she is not entirely satisfied. In this culture, a woman’s role is normally to do housework and to raise their children, but Mrs. Linde is exempt from this. She does not have to conform into this picture, but she is not content with her lifestyle until she meets up with her lost love, Krogstad. “I want to be a mother to someone, and your children need a mother. We two need each other.”1 This quote exemplifies that Mrs. Linde is only content with her life when she fits in the role of being a mother and a wife.

The discussion of the Wife’s five husbands describes her evolving role as a woman and how she overcame the most ridiculous obstacles to maintain this idea or illusion of marriage. The Wife’s depiction of her marriages was that three were good and two were bad. The initial marriages were to older rich men where she kept up this idea of marriage in order to receive money, but was not faithful by

All characters in the novel are living in a man’s world; nevertheless, the author has tried to change this world by the help of her characters. She shows a myriad of opportunities and different paths of life that woman can take, and more importantly she does not show a perfect world, where women get everything they want, she shows a world where woman do make mistakes, but at the same time they are the ones that pay for these mistakes and correct them.

In the story “The God of Small Things," the term family can be defined as persons that an individual cares about. The obligations of the family members appear to be influenced by the bold ties. Despite the disputes among some family members, the blood ties obligate them to express care and love towards one another. Just like in real life situations, the novel explains that family relations can be frustrating, complicated, and confusing. In most cases, it is apparent that most individuals are forced by the family ties to stick together. The failure to express care towards one another is seen as one of the factors that prompt families to fall apart.