“Clever Manka”
The short story of” Clever Manka,” written by an anonymous writer delves into
Compromise vs. Confrontation. The Burgomaster expresses interest in Manka after her
She solves several riddles for him. The Burgomaster then takes Manka as his wife, but
with conditions and impending consequence if she did not comply with them. He states,
“You are not to use that cleverness of yours at my expense. I won’t have you interfering
in any of my cases. In fact, if you give advice to anyone who comes to me for judgment,
I’ll turn you out of my house at once and send you home to your father.”
This is where the inner conflict for Manka begins she has to choose to
compromise her qualities of cleverness in order to avoid future confrontation with her
spouse. Manka makes the choice and busied her self with housework in order not
interfere with his cases.
Manka suppresses her qualities of cleverness until she is presented with
a case she feels her husband mistakenly ruled upon. Manka does not compromise and
finds courage and confidence to stand up for what she thinks is right. Although Manka
had to face confrontation after her husband finds out she interfered in his ruling. Manka
uses her qualities of cleverness to win back his heart and her husband embraces her
abilities without restrictions.
By contrast, Mrs. Mallard speaks of a different form of oppression. She seems to suggest the unfairness in having to be inflicted or controlled by a man. Mrs. Mallard is also oppressed by the circumstances within her marriage. Mrs. Mallard however suppressed her feelings and of unhappiness and in which the story implies puts stress on her heart. The announcement of her husband death brings on conflicting feelings of grief and joy. Mrs. Mallard paradoxical statement about the death of her husband changes her perception about life. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
tries to make her disinterested in him so that again, he may concentrate on the
Mrs. Mallard’s husband is thought to be dead, and since she has that thought in her mind she goes through many feelings
"secret words", and it gives him the ability to change to a man. Without her knowledge of
The evil villain husband appears to be holding our hero hostage, not letting her trapped soul escape.
At the sight of this Crooks becomes defensive and declares, “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse and you ain’t wanted
She submits to her husband in the same way that Dracula's brides and Lucy's three admirer...
Helen takes a turn for the better by the end of this story. She ends up finding the man that she deserves, she
Her story reflects this idea that a good husband submits to his wife. She also asserts her expertise on marriage in saying she knows what all women want
The story begins on a very sad note especially in the eyes of a reader. Mrs. Mallard is said to have a “heart
In the end, it’s basically her husband making her do the things she is doing. Her power in the story is basically using her stereo typical womanly powers of talking and seducing men in order to gain control of
Mallard finally finally realizes her freedom without her husband she can live her life to do whatever she wants to do. This final realization has reinvigorated her she is ready to move on in her life almost immediately she has skipped through the stages of grief and realized her happiness and has accepted her husband's death “She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory.” (Kate Chopin 3). The very end of the story reveals that her husband is actually still alive and as he walks in Mrs. Mallard dies of the shock and realization that she no longer has her freedom kills her.
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
lies and tells her that he has torn the manuscript into pieces because he has torn his own
... wasn’t sure if the man she was talking to is really her husband. He could not prove it until he noticed his bed. He explained how his bed had been made and who made it. Instantly Penelope knew it was him and apologize for antagonizing him.
The first reader has a guided perspective of the text that one would expect from a person who has never studied the short story; however the reader makes some valid points which enhance what is thought to be a guided knowledge of the text. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a woman who seems to be the "victim" of an overbearing but occasionally loving husband. Being told of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." (This shows that she is not totally locked into marriage as most women in her time). Although "she had loved him--sometimes," she automatically does not want to accept, blindly, the situation of being controlled by her husband. The reader identified Mrs. Mallard as not being a "one-dimensional, clone-like woman having a predictable, adequate emotional response for every life condition." In fact the reader believed that Mrs. Mallard had the exact opposite response to the death her husband because finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow. "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." We can see that the reader got this idea form this particular phrase in the story because it illuminates the idea of her sorrow tuning to happiness.