A Sorrowful Woman

“A Sorrowful Woman” is a selection written by Gail Godwin. Within this selection she shows how a marriage does not always lead to a perfect life. Godwin uses “A Sorrowful Woman” to portray modern marriages. “A Sorrowful Woman” is a parody of fairy tales. The traditional fairy tale has a fixed resolution- everyone lives happily ever after. At the beginning of “A Sorrowful Woman” the reader is given the illusion of a happy story because …

…herself (Godwin 37). The short story by Godwin serves as a warning to say that marriage may be happiest when it is deferred because marriage does not always lead to eternal happiness. Modern marriages sometimes cause havoc and end disastrously. Works Cited Goodwin, Gail. “A Sorrowful Woman.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 33-37. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur. Sleeping Beauty and other Fairy Tales. New York: Bantam, 1989. 2-12.