A Woman's Pain.

Essay by abcvvcUniversity, Bachelor's October 2003

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In Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman," the plot seems to be about family and marriage, but it seems to be presented in a very different way. The nameless character is very unhappy with her marriage and family. She lives at home all the time and towards the end of the story she loses everything. This story strictly discourages marriage and life after marriage.

This character experiences some major difficulties in her life, and these difficulties come after she is already married with a child. Her husband and child bring so much sorrow to her that she decides not to see them at all; they only communicate with her by sticking notes under her bedroom door. The husband and the child love her very much, but for some odd reason she is still extremely unhappy. This story is very different because unlike other novels which usually end with a "happily ever after" theme, this story ends with lots of sorrow and pain.

Marriage is the end in this story instead of a new beginning; this leads to the end of the unnamed woman's life. Even though, the woman's past is still a mystery to us, there are little details that suggest what she might have been like. After she moves in a new bedroom, she mentions getting a new prospective of the streets; this suggests what her previous lifestyle might have been like.

This nameless character, after marriage, says that her husband and her child make her sad and sick. According to other novels, marriages usually solve all problems and the characters usually end up living happily ever after; in this case, the problems begin after marriage. The woman keeps everyone away from her, but when her family improvises and seems to be happy without her, she gets...