Gender Roles In Alice Munro's Short Stories

Placing the words open and secret together forming a phrase in actuality creates an oxymoron; if a person becomes honestly open about conditions it no longer holds the clandestine characteristics defining a secret. Additionally, as an idiom, open secret, is described as “a supposed secret typically recognized by several”. Consequently, Open Secrets seems inappropriate to title the Alice Munro short stories found within its covers, as they are all filled with characters, especially women, having and keeping secrets, which nobody, perhaps even themselves, are aware. Seemingly, she attempts to show that when examining society approved gender roles, the perception of women as warm, open, and emotional individuals, holds inaccuracies since they are capable of harboring their own dark and hidden secrets, which Munro expresses with her stories and characters; a feasible theory, nevertheless seemingly incomplete. Admittedly, her characters have much to hide; longings, extramarital …show more content…
Unable to disengage herself from Will, she decides to create a façade, selling her business she owns, lying regarding her plans, completely changing her appearance, flying to Australia, and presenting herself as Mrs. Massie, from Oklahoma, to investigate what has become of his life and relationship with Sandy. “The night before she left, she did a transformation on herself” (169), choosing a hairstyle and wardrobe entirely out of character, “What sort of woman did she think she was making herself into?” (169). Furthermore, once there, she finds a way to integrate herself back into his life, assuming another personality, Ms. Thornaby, to write letters, simultaneously, disparaging him, as she felt he once did to her, and discovering supplementary evidence concerning his life. One the other hand, while Louisa aspires to portray herself as the ideal fantasy lover in the picture she sends to Jack, she instead remains