Gail Godwin I would assume is some what of a feminist. Judging from her past novel titles “A Mother and Two Daughters” and “Dream children”, she probably is a mother and knows first hand how it is raising children. Even before reading the short story “A sorrowful woman”, reading Godwin’s short biography before the passage, gives a sneak peek to what is expected. Godwin creates the story with the intention of making the wife’s refusal to be a traditional wife and mother, absolutely tolerable. The story revolves around the reader feeling extremely sorry for the wife.
Circumstances are given so that even becoming an ungrateful wife and bad mother is given an excuse. The title itself gives off sympathy for the mother previously, “Sorrowful” and the opening line “One upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times” sides with the wife and mother also. “One too many times” already shows the reader how fed up the wife and mother character is going to be. So even before a reader actually sits down to read, there are clues pointing to how the story is one sided and gives sympathy for the woman character.
Time and time again throughout the story the woman seems almost scared to come in contact with her husband and son, “I’ve locked myself away from him. I’m afraid.” At the end of the story, she eventually has to stop seeing her own child, “One night she tasted for the first time the power of his baby sit. “I don’t think I can see him anymore,” she whispered sadly to the man” and eventually both child and husband all together, “After he had gone, she sad looking at the arm. “I’m afraid it’s come to that,” she said. “Just push the notes under the door; I’ll read them.” Godwin though, gives the wife a fairly legitimate excuse. It is really interesting that Godwin explains the mixing of the medicine very detailed and includes the description of her drinking it each and everyday, yet she does not go into detail what kind of sickness the wife has.
The Essay on The Branded Mother and her Throwaway Child
The Branded Mother and her Throwaway Child The Scarlet Letter is a story of hypocrisy and punishment. The strict Puritan laws made adultery a sin punishable by death or a life of misery. Although being an unwed mother or an illegitimate child is no longer a crime leading to capitol punishment, the treatment of welfare mothers and their children is similar to the treatment Hester an Pearl received ...
This gives the reader the imagination to think about any kind of sickness the woman could have. The ending especially gives a big emphasizes on the woman’s sickness. The story ends leaving the reader confused. Is the woman committing suicide because she is depressed and wants to take the burden off her family “I don’t know what we ” ll do. It’s all my fault, I know.
I’m such a burden, I know that”? Or is the woman committing suicide because she’s just too sick mentally? She has cut off all communication and now it is her last resort, to over dose “She went to the cupboard, took what was hers.” Godwin, though it seems the first time you read it, to make the wife the bad character in the story. Really makes hidden effort to sympathize with the wife. Starting from the opening line, throughout the story with her sickness, till her committing suicide, the wife is really portrayed as the victim.
