Essay on Social Expectations in Story of an Hour and...

Social Expectations and Marriage in The Story of an Hour and A Sorrowful Woman Marriage does not always bring people happiness they expect. A number of people feel trapped in their own marriages. Mrs. Mallard in Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Story of an Hour† and the unnamed protagonist in Gail Godwin’s â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman† are among those who experience such unfortunate. Only one hour in her marriage did Mrs. Mallard feel really happy; that was, bizarrely, when she was told about her husband’s death. For the female protagonist in â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman,† her marriage was a torment. All the time, she suffers from grief and sadness. Both of the women are imprisoned in their own marriages and even more so in their own minds, which†¦show more content†¦By setting up such nice environments where the two protagonists live, the authors keep readers away from the thought that their protagonists’ deaths are the result of bad treatment. It is the force of social expectations placed upon the women that locke d them in the jail of marriage and that eventually lead them to death. Evidently, both of the female protagonists in the two stories have extremely unsatisfactory lives. Mrs. Mallard in â€Å"The Story of an Hour† feels trapped in her own marriage. The sentence â€Å"She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even certain strength† (11) tells us that her marriage has taken the spirit and energies away from the young woman. The line â€Å"It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long† (12), indicates that she must have never thought that freedom was an option in her life. Therefore, â€Å"She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same† (11) when she was told about her husband’s death. She just accepted it and went to her room because she realized that her husband’s death gave her the freedom that â€Å"she was waiting for it, fearfully† (11). In a different situation, the unnamed protagonist in â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman† is imprisoned in her own mind. The sight of her husband and her son makes her so sad and sick. Her life is so oppressive for her. She feels the burden of love andShow MoreRelatedMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 Pagesconstitute Chapter 5 was first read, and the Festival of the New Cinema (Pesaro, Italy), which organized the round-table discussion during which the last chapter in this volume was originally presented. The idea of bringing together a number of my essays in a single volume, thus making them more easily available, originated with Mikel Dufrenne, Professor at the University of Paris-Nanterre and editor of the series in which this work was published in French. He has my very warm gratitude. C . M. CannesRead MoreIgbo Dictionary129408 Words   |  518 Pagesillustrated the meaning and use of words; the great majority of the examples are due to him. Their merit is that they are not translations from English, but natural Igbo sentences elicited only by the stimulus of the word they illustrate. The short essays which appear from time to time (e.g. under otà ¹tà ¹, à ²Ã¯â‚¬ ¤gbanÌ„je) on aspects of culture are also his work, as are the sketches which served as basis for the illustrations, a large number of new words, and various features of the arrangement. When he had