Compare And Contrast The Sorrowful Woman And A Secret Sorrow

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How far can sorrow in a woman’s heart take her? Who or, what comes to her rescue? In the excerpt from A Secret Sorrow by Karen van der Zee and the story “The Sorrowful Woman” by Gail Godwin, two women’s sorrow takes them into completely different worlds. There are many similarities and differences in the quality of literature each story carries. In this case, “The Sorrowful Woman” is a much better piece of literature. It leaves the reader with much more wonder and questions, when compared to A Secret Sorrow. The theme, the characters in the stories, and the foreshadowing of each make up this division.
The theme of conflict towards achieving love and happiness is presented in both stories. In A Secret Sorrow, Faye is devastated at the news …show more content…

Since A Secret Sorrow is an excerpt from a Harlequin romance novel, it is very predictable. There are many selections of romance novels where the main conflict is finally resolved with the power of the main characters’ love for one another. The same old “I want you, only you” (35) said by the stronger character, in this case, Kai, gives the reader an indication that this character will not stop until he achieves what he wants. Moreover, the reader can easily envision the happy ending. The author of “A Sorrowful Woman” as well throws in several examples of foreshadowing; however, they are not as clear. For example, when the wife in sorrow says, “if only there were instant sleep” (39) the reader can predict death happening further on in the story. The introduction begins with “Once upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times …” (38). This introduction gives the reader a setting of a fairy tell and gives a foreshadow and intrigues the reader to wonder what this means, and therefore, continue to read. The reader can conclude it is a fairy tale gone wrong. Unlike, A Secret Sorrow, this short story does not reveal all the answers to why the characters do what they do or say. In the ending, the author leaves the reader questioned. What causes the protagonist’s death? When the wife “went to the cupboard, took what was hers, closed herself into the little white room and brushed her hair for a while” (42) the reader could take this quote as a foreshadow. It is possible to assume that she might have overdosed. Even though we are never told anything directly, foreshadows work as clues for the reader’s knowledge for the ending and own interpretation of the

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