Comparing Kate Chopin And Gail Godwin's A Sorrowful Woman

The authors Kate Chopin and Gail Godwin used fictional elements to define more fully a theme or an essential message. Marriage does not always bring people the contentment that they presume. Countless number of individuals today feels confined in their own marriages. Mrs. Mallard in Kate Chopin’s “The story of an hour” and the anonymous character in Gail Godwin’s “A Sorrowful woman” are amongst those individuals who experienced this. For the character in “The Story of an Hour”, at only one point in her marriage did Mrs. Mallard fell indeed happy and that was when she was informed about the death of her husband. As for the female protagonist in “A Sorrowful Woman,” her marriage and responsibilities of a mother was agony for her.

Women have

developed and are more innovative in the workplace, generating a more equal culture. Gail Godwin and Kate Chopin both represent their protagonists as bottled-up women forced into characters in their lives they did not want. To these women, marriage was like being in jail, narrowed to the necessities and responsibilities of women in those days. They were submissive and respectful to their spouses and lived as housewives.

In both story, gender inequality discloses in the establishment of marriage, customary oppression and taming of one gender. The women in the two powerful stories are floundering beneath social biases caused by male supremacy. The men are superior to females in virtually all phases of the society. There is a transmission of the belief that men are better self-confident to take part in the wild pitches of governance, political affairs, professional jobs which categorized the perspectives of many women from 19th century backwards.

In “A Sorrowful Woman,” the protagonist is a vessel for plague, sorrow, and dissatisfactions in marriage. Besides her poems writing job, she still has to prepare meals and carry out other strenuous work. It is this strenuous work that possibly, makes her to breakdown. It is also possible that she has not been encouraged by her marriage to do these tasks out the affection she has for her husband and child. Contrasting many other love stories where a lady or fiancée breakdown and come around up after being kissed by her male lover, her husband cannot do that. The name of her child is “tender golden three”. The name of the child is an ironic one seeing her mother's inability to handle the encounters of being a mother.
Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” is a victim of a failed marriage and its frustrations. While marriage is accompanied with unending happiness, it outrageous that Mrs. Mallard has delight in her marriage for just an hour. It surprising to note this one hour happiness got to its ultimate when she was informed about the death of her husband. Threat approaching in her life is hastened by her own protection. She fights to protect herself but the stability of her persecution is the only thing to show for her brave turn. She appreciates a short life freedom.
Both stories provides an enlightening view of sad marriages due to being forced into conventional characters.

These stories show women, who are stuck in their marriages and imprisoned in their socially projected roles. They are recognized by their role as a wife and mother. In "A Sorrowful Woman" the wife is miserable with her life, so much that this wife and mother has come to despise her life, the existence of her family members, and goes into a deep despair. She is unhappy in her life because she wants to be more than a mother and wife. She wishes to have a life separate from the home does not know how to go about it, so she faults her present life and family

members.
This discontent goes against society’s view that a woman should be contented with being a wife and mother. Her husband’s character is making matters even worse. He makes no effort to ascertain her worth to him, or the child. Evidently he believes he is in control and her sadness grows into annoyance with her life, she puts the faults on her family and reacts.

The short story "A Sorrowful Woman" portrays a mother and wife who slowly pull out from her family. She becomes dazed with her husband’s and child’s company. Her family was a regular reminder that her life would not be the same; she would seize from having the same freedom. Similarly, in the "Story of an Hour" Mrs. Mallard discovers her freedom in the death of her husband. The freedom of both characters depends on their separation from their families. The protagonists are not contented with being housewives and want something much more.

Beginning with discovering that her husband is dead, Mrs. Mallard is full with various feelings. She finds clearness of thought by looking out the window of her room. The sight of nature provided a peaceful and soothing environment she needed to discharge with her thoughts. She begins to change her understandings regarding her husband's death. She is then filled with an unexpected sense of freedom- she would no longer be under the control of her husband. Truly she loved him but only "occasionally," she did not like the feeling of being intimidated.

Finally, women in the two stories are oppressed. In A Sorrowful Woman, the female protagonist is struggling with the traditional roles assigned to her by a gender biased society. She has to tend to her only child and attend to her numerous domestic duties while the man of the house is away. In The Story of an Hour, Louise Mallard sufferings are not only defined by her failing marriage and health but also herself as Josephine, her sister, notes. The stories make a serious statement that women of this world have been oppressed and deprived their natural justice. Gender biased should be eliminated if the modern society is to achieve any socio-economic and political development. The need to co-exist and avail equal opportunities for all, irrespective gender, can never be overemphasized.

Through the setting of both stories, both of the authors recommended that social expectancy is the real causes of their protagonists’ deaths.

In the story “A Sorrowful Woman,” the anonymous character appeared to have a desirable life. She has a “long-lasting, calm, approachable” husband and a son. He was in agreement with her and understood her. He is ready to sacrifice his time for her and their family. Mrs. Mallard in the story “The Story of an Hour,” is also in a comparable environment. Understanding that she has heart issues, the medium at which the news about the death of her husband was relayed to her was very careful. Her family and friends care a lot about

her.
By setting up such pleasant environment where two characters live, the authors keep the readers and audience away from the beliefs that their death is as a result of wicked treatments. It is the force of social expectancy placed upon the women that sealed them in the imprisonment of marriage that in the long run lead them to death.
Obviously, both of the female characters in the two stories have inadequate lives. Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” feels imprisoned in her marriage. Her marriage has taken the life force and vitality away from the woman. Also, that she must have never have thought of freedom as a choice in her life. Most happily married women would be completely delighted at the thought that life would lengthy because they would get to spend the rest of their lives with their husbands, the love of their lives.
When Mrs. Mallard was informed about the death of her husband, she heard the story differently from other women, with a paralyzed incapability to accept its meaning. She just acknowledged it and went to her room because she realized that the death of her husband gave her the freedom she had longed for silently within herself. In a different state, the anonymous character in “A Sorrowful Woman” is held captive in her mind, yet still held captive indeed. Seeing them was just a continuous reminder of how unhappy she really was. Her life is so punitive for her to live. She feels the weight of responsibility and affection.
Comparing the two stories, the women seem to be more distressed by unsuccessful and deteriorating marriages than their male colleagues. Both women have become convicts in their marriages and ceaselessly playing as second fidget to their unsympathetic husbands. Their beliefs have also been clouded till they are released by death. Women are more affected by unsuccessful marriages and the stories undoubtedly give reminders that gender clashes within societies, and people have greatly been affected by unhappiness and other emotional tragedies in marriages. Unlike men, women in the two stories have been exposed to unrewarded domestic labor.
Both of these women are trapped in their own marriages and even more depressing psychologically, which finally lead them to death. After effectively describing their main characters’ growths of feelings, Kate Chopin and Gail Godwin,-two different authors from different time episodes, points out that the fight between society and people is the reason behind sadness and tragedy of marriage.