O Henry's Witches Loves

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Witches’ Loaves Essay Revision In O. Henry’s Witches’ Loaves, the author wants to express what loneliness, desperation for companionship, and other middle aged dilemmas can cloud a person’s judgement through their actions that can harm others as well. Miss Martha, the protagonist of the story, is a middle aged, single woman with a sympathetic heart. She owned a bakery and she had her eyes on a regular customer of hers. “Miss Martha was forty, her bank book showed a credit of $2000 and possessed two false teeth, and a sympathetic heart. Many people have married whose chances to do so were much inferior to Miss Martha’s.” She was infatuated with her customer who had a foreign accent and always bought two loaves of stale bread. “Once, Miss Martha …show more content…

Her assumption led to her unbecoming. She assumed rather than asked, she did not make the effort to truly get to know her customer and now she regretted it, ruining her chances at love and marriage. It’s understandable how lonely she was and her desperation to get married at her age. She was going through a mid-life crisis due to her circumstances and she rushed to get a companion in life. Her desperation clouded her reasoning and she ruined and hurt the person she wanted to be with. She did not hurt herself but she hurt other people because of her assumptions due to her need for love and affection. It’s sad yet she should have known better than just assume about other people. Now she’s given up on love and all hope of finding it. O. Henry wanted to convey what it was like to be middle-aged and single. You’d compare yourself to others’ lives and wonder why they got the better end of the stick and why you, with all that you can offer, be lonely and unwanted. In Miss Martha’s case, she knew she wasn’t getting any younger and she was becoming desperate for love and companionship, and this desperation, has clouded her rightful reasoning and led herself to assume things about the person she likes but she’s not aware of it. If she truly did like him, she should have made an effort to get to know him and think rationally about what she does around him. Love should not be rushed or deceitful. Although she did not lie to him, she lied to herself and that makes it all the more,

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