Gender Roles In A Sorrowful Woman By Gail Godwin

“One winter evening she looked at them: the husband durable, receptive, gentle; the child tender golden three. The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again” (Godwin 1). Gender roles in the 70’s tell us that being a successful woman means being a good wife and mother and taking care of her family. “A Sorrowful Woman” by Gail Godwin portrays the story of a mother who is going against the roles given to her by society. The woman in the story is seen as mentally ill, but in actuality she is challenging the gender roles assigned to her by not wanting to be a wife and a mother and hiding herself away and trying to discover what her true passions are. which is bringing her away from her motherly duties causing …show more content…
Then the father and son see it the son realizes that everything was back to normal and that’s how things were supposed to be. When the two rush in to see the woman in her room and she is dead the boy thinking she is asleep says “she is tired from dong all our things again.”(36). Showing us that’s what was the socially normal thing to do in this time was to cook and clean and make the home a better place for her husband and children to live in. I think Godwin wrote this part in at the end before the woman died to show us that maybe the woman felt remorseful that she hadn’t been there to do all of these things for her family and that maybe she wanted to do it for them one time before she died. Or to show us that she knew she was going to die and she wanted to leave the child and man with a good memory of her. So the child wouldn’t grow up with all the bad thought that his mother was sick and didn’t care about him at …show more content…
It shows that not all woman do not want to be mothers, wives, and home makers. Some may have bigger dreams and aspirations. They may not know what it is and they will try to figure it out. And that men can be home makers and breadwinners, and that they are capable of taking care of the home and the children while still making money and financially supporting their family at the same time. This story is an eye opener at what the times were like and were we are today. Even today women and men have very strong and obvious gender roles. Were men are taught to be powerful leaders and women are expected to stand off to the side quietly. And if it’s the other way around things are seen as wrong and backwards. Things now don’t seem to be as different as they were in the 70’s when this was written with such obvious and separated roles in the