29 pages 58 minutes read

Gail Godwin

A Sorrowful Woman

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1971

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Story Analysis

Analysis: “A Sorrowful Woman”

The story’s fairy-tale structure demonstrates how traditional gender roles operate as myths. Far from the happy ending that the “once upon a time” opening suggests, the woman becomes increasingly erratic in her role as wife and mother. No magic potion (the nightly draughts) or Prince Charming (the doting husband who carries her in his arms) can vanquish her curse. The woman fluctuates between bouts of recovery and regression, and finally succumbs to her mental breakdown. Rather than reviving after her son’s kiss, she commits suicide. These subversions to the fairy-tale genre challenge traditional gender roles where the mother is the nurturer, the father is the protector, and the child is the precious being that defines the mother’s purpose in life. To emphasize their function as gender archetypes, Godwin eschews personal names and physical descriptions, and generically designates each character with the definite article “the.” The woman is interchangeably the wife and the mother, suggesting these appellations alone define womanhood. The detached narration and matter-of-fact tone also heighten the sense that the family would prefer to live in a fairy tale, as the narrator relates startling events with a neutrality that seeks to maintain normalcy.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
Unlock IconUnlock all 29 pages of this Study Guide
Plus, gain access to 8,500+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
+ Mobile App
+ Printable PDF
+ Literary AI Tools

Related Titles

By Gail Godwin