A Myth of Sorrowful Woman

We see that her child is legal and looks at her with approving eyes and we be told quite oftentimes that she has an understanding and tactful husband, "He understands these things" (Godwin, p. 28). Her husband even tells her "I want you to feel freer?you need a rest from us" (Godwin, p. 28; 27). Still, the womanhood is tortured by anguish and gloominess as she goes about her daily ritual as wife, bewilder and homemaker. At unrivaled point she breaks into hysterics, "yelping without tears, retching in amidst" (Godwin, p. 26). Once more her husband seems to be the caring and considerate kind person as he cares for her. To explain what is contingency he tells their son, "'Mommy is sick,' as he carries her off to bed" (Godwin, p. 26)).

The conterminous day the woman's husband fixes her breakfast in bed and tries to alleviate her. Weeks pass as the bank clerk continues to distance herself from her roles as wife, vex and homemaker, eventually closing herself off in her room. Unexpectedly, the narrator wakes one day and visualizes that she must immediately find things to do to carry through her active. She spends the following days engaging in myriad activities nearly the house, from cleaning and cooking to doing the laundry and knitting clothes. It is these responsibilities and duties, allegedly the binge of myth that makes a woman happy but that do little to provide meaning or fulfillment for the narrator in "A Sorrowful Woman." As much(prenominal), she confines herself to a bantam room she has taken

over. This tiny space is meant to symbolize the tiny space for expression the woman suffers in her limiting roles as wife, mother and homemaker. As she tells us at one point; "She had hardly space to pillow" (Godwin, p. 29).

We find that patriarchy often defines strict roles and rigid norms of sort based on gender.

It is part of gender mythology that women are complete and happy so long as they have a nice husband, healthy children, and a home to look after. As such, for those women who are not fulfilled by this myth and who find as little meaning in it as the narrator, these roles are confining and ultimately deadening. We see that one day the no name woman expires in her room. We find this out not in a dramatic way but in a very subtle and barely perceptible room when her husband checks the "delicate bones on her wrist" and placed his face "into her fresh-washed hair" (Godwin, p. 30). Godwin appears to be arguing that all the no name narrator truly wanted is an escape from these roles, notwithstanding having little other desire expressed for anything else. This could also be the point of why we see the woman desire slide fastener else but escape from these roles. Living within the confines of such roles is often diminishing and confining over time.

Gardiner, Judith K. "'A Sorrowful Woman': Gail Godwin's women's rightist Parable." Studies in Short Fiction, 12(3), pp. 286-290.

The no name narrator in "A Sorrowful Woman" wants for nothing. This is because the roles she occupies as a woman in her society have left her u
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