Essay On A Sorrowful Woman

As a child grows up, parents and mentors constantly impose phrases like “The sky is the limit!” or “Don’t ever let someone tell you what you can or cannot do!”. Yet, as children age to become young adults and people of their own, they find themselves under constant scrutiny for not fulfilling society’s roles. Everyone is forced to fit within a one-size-fits-most mold, and anyone who refuses to follow society’s demands falls victim to the constant eye of judgement. However, authors like Rainier Maria Rilke, Kate Chopin, and Gail Godwin have used their literary works to counteract the standards of society. In “The Panther,” “The Story of An Hour,” and “A Sorrowful Woman,” these authors display the motif of repression and isolation through the …show more content…
Rather than love being a source of happiness, the unnamed wife sees love as a reminder of all her imperfections; she constantly feels like she must act as the perfect wife to deserve the love she is given. From the very beginning of the piece, Godwin refers to the main character as merely “a wife and mother,” implying her lack of personal value, and states, “The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again.” From the ever-present demands of providing love and affection to her husband and child, the unnamed wife loses her own life, literally. The wife becomes an image of imperfection and depression because she can not force herself to live a life she never wanted. With Godwin’s addition of “the perfect girl,” she emphasizes the suppression the wife feels from never living up to her husband’s idea of the perfect wife; she is forced to watch “the girl with all the energies” complete all the motherly tasks she could never do. The constant mention of the perfection and love forces the wife to become a complete slave to society’s standards. In the act of providing everything for others, the unnamed wife becomes a puppet to her family’s desires, a soul lost to