Story Comparison Between Two Women Writers

¶ … Kate Chopin and Gail Godwin

When comparing The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and A Sorrowful Woman by Gail Godwin, the main similarity is the theme of marriages. These types of relationships should be based on important issues such as trust, love, and commitment between two people (Coontz, 2005). However, there are many people who do not base their marriages on such things, and these stories address that issue (Coontz, 2005). Women, like men, are not always happy in their relationships (Kiecolt-Glaser & Newton, 2001). Both Chopin's and Godwin's stories focus on the women and how they struggle with the marriages they have (Meyer, 2003).

Since nearly half of the marriages in the United States end in divorce, the idea that there are unhappy marriages does not come as a big surprise (Kiecolt-Glaser & Newton, 2001). However, what people sometimes do about their unhappy marriages and what it leads them to do have to be carefully considered (Kiecolt-Glaser & Newton, 2001). Such is the case with these two stories and their endings. Both women are devoted to their families, but they end up struggling with so much pain and misery personally that their stories end with death instead of with happier times (Meyer, 2003).

Chopin's story is the tale of Mrs. Mallard (Meyer, 2003). She is a caring woman who is very loving. She wants to have a good, solid, lasting marriage. However, she is also the victim of the standards that are placed upon marriage by society (Meyer, 2003). In other words, her marriage is not a loving one at all. It is very bad, but she does not feel as though she can leave it. Society does not find the leaving of a marriage to be acceptable, and Mrs. Mallard chooses to abide by that (Meyer, 2003). There is so much pressure that she does not feel she can make changes that would help her, based on what other people would say. The sense of responsibility is a strong and significant one that cannot be simply ignored (Meyer, 2003). It is a sign of the times.

The female protagonist in Godwin's story is unnamed, but she deals with many of the same concerns as Mrs. Mallard (Meyer, 2003). The guilt that this particular protagonist feels comes from not abandoning her marriage so she could be happier, but also from not wanting to see her son anymore (Meyer, 2003). She just does not feel like she is herself anymore, and that makes her sad, lonely, and depressed as she realizes she can no longer stand being around her family at all. In order to deal with the emotional troubles with which she is dealing, the protagonist secludes herself from her family and society (Meyer, 2003). This is similar to what Mrs. Mallard does in Chopin's story, as well, as there are many parallels between the two of them.

Both women think that they are trapped, because they do not see how they can get out of their marriages in a way that society would find to be acceptable. The stereotypical roles of women in that time period did not allow for a woman to just divorce her husband and walk away with little to no stigma attached. Today, this is very different for most women, who are not as concerned about what society thinks if they decide to get a divorce (Coontz, 2005). For Mrs. Mallard and Godwin's protagonist, sitting near windows and looking at the world becomes a popular pastime, as they attempt to find a sense of peace both in their relationships and in themselves.

Mrs. Mallard feels unhappy when she begins to mourn losing her husband, and then feels guilty when she realizes she is glad he is gone (Meyer, 2003). That guilt causes her to remain secluded so she does not show the world either her happiness at the fact that he is gone or the guilt at feeling that happiness (Meyer, 2003). She feels, instead, that the best thing she can do is simply remain away from society. This would not be the kind of choice that would be seen in most women today, because there is no longer the social stigma of divorce that women had many years ago. While there are still some schools of thought that will look down on women when they are divorced, this is becoming increasingly less of a concern for the majority of women today (Coontz, 2005).

A comparison of both stories shows the women trapped in the roles that they have -- as wives and mothers. They do not seem to have an identity outside of those roles from a societal standpoint, but it is clear that they do have an inner life that longs to be free from the trappings of their poor marriages (Meyer, 2003). Being trapped in a relationship that is unfulfilling has led them to resentment and unhappiness, and has caused them to struggle with the joys that they once had in being married and having children (Meyer, 2003). In other words, the issue was not that they were wives and mothers, but that society saw them as only wives and mothers. That became the wholeness of their lives, and gave them the feeling that those roles were all that mattered or all they were good for.