Godwin’s story “A sorrowful woman” revolves around women and motherhood. The main theme of the story is the choice of both women and mothers openly opting not to be mothers (“Gail Godwin”). Women and mothers in families are deliberately lacking other alternatives apart from being a mother and a wife. Godwin’s story explores various methods in which the unfulfilling domestic lifestyle undermines and subverts women’s emotional health and psychological well-being trapped within them (“Gail Godwin”). This paper will interpret the meaning of Godwin’s story, “A sorrowful woman”.
Women are lacking options outside apart from being a wife and a mother and that is what leads to a woman’s mental deterioration. Women and mothers should be given opportunities to explore other life privileges apart from life and their normal house chores duties (Basu). Women deserve to undertake professional careers just like any other human being. They need to be educated like men and have good jobs too. In the story, the woman is depicted to be doing house chores only and is not granted the opportunity to secure a professional job (“Gail Godwin”). She only performs household chores and other family responsibilities full-time without professional exposition to external opportunities.
Women and mothers are deemed to be caregivers and should spend time with their children and family at large (Macnicol). In the story, a mother has neglected her child and left the nanny to take care of the child. The mother does not care about the child and isolates herself from everyone and wants people to communicate with her through sliding notes under her door. The nanny gets concerned about the welfare of the child and requests the child’s mother to allow the child to move into her room to stay with her so as to develop the mother-child connection which is important for the child’s psychological development (“Gail Godwin”). This depicts that it is important for a mother to spend some time with her child for the sake of the child’s psychological well-being as they grow up.
Women and mothers are overburdened by responsibilities. In families, women are tasked with a lot of responsibilities that make their life so difficult and as well impact their health (Macnicol). For instance, in the story, a woman who is overburdened by her expectations of being both a wife and a mother is tasked with many responsibilities which eventually lead to her illness. Too much responsibility of caregiving and undertaking house chores has eventually led to her health deterioration (“Gail Godwin”). The overburdening responsibilities affect women both psychologically and physically.
Family responsibilities need to be shared between a man and woman in the family. This will help to avoid overburdening women with too much responsibility that ends up affecting their health and psychological well being. Godwin suggests that the husband in the family should take up some roles like the husband depicted in the story to have requested some time off work to help the nanny to take care of the child when the mother was sick (“Gail Godwin”). We should stop dedicating all house chores and family responsibilities to women but instead should be shared between the husband and the wife.
In essence, I got to learn that a child needs love, care and support from their parents, especially mothers. Both the father and mother are responsible for the well-being of their children. Family responsibilities should be shared between men and women. Actually, women and mother require equal opportunities like those of men.