A Sorrowful Woman Author Gail Godwin By Adrean

“A Sorrowful Woman” Author: Gail Godwin By: Adrean Rogers & Iqra Khan

About the Author Gail Godwin • Gail Godwin, a brilliant author of many short stories and great • • • novels was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Godwin earned her two degrees in journalism and a Ph. D in English from the University of North Carolina and University of Iowa. She has received enormous grants from different foundations, such as; the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Institute for the Arts and Letters. She has been nominated for National Book Awards and has had several national best sellers. She has published; A Mother and Two Daughters (1981), Glass People (1971), The Finishing School (1985), Evensong (1999) and other bestsellers. Godwin has received tremendous recogonization for her short stories and novels.

Elements of Fiction • Plot • Character • Setting • Point of view • Symbolism • Theme • Style, Tone, and Irony

PLOT • Definition: the author selections and • • arrangements if incidents in a story to shape the actions and give the story a particular focus. Example- Plot includes not just what happens, but also how and why things happen. In “A Sorrowful Woman” the story was centered around the idea of marriage and motherhood.

Character • Definition: is a person presented in a dramatic or a narrative work • Example- – An protagonists is the hero or heroine who engages the readers – An antagonist is the character who stands directly oppose to the protagonist.

Continue Character • In the “A Sorrowful Woman” the characters are: • 1) Husband- main character, sympathetic, loving, caring, and understanding father. Who devoted his time and effort to please his wife by taking care of her and his child while she was in her depressing state. – Examples • • Chores • Paying bills • Roles- mother and father role 2) Unnamed Wife (Mother) - the story presents a portrait of a woman who was trapped in a depressive state of being a mother and wife. She was diagnosed with a serious illness of depression, which later caused to commit suicide. 3) Child- a toddler, who is a loving and understanding (“its all alright, Mommy”) 4) The Girl- helped around the house and took care of the child. The woman said, “The girl upsets me. ” Therefore he fires her. The girl said, ” I love the little boy, what will become of him now? ”

Setting • Time – – The story starts off with one winter evening and ends with first sign of spring. • Place- – The setting had taken place at the house. • Social environment that frames characters – Family

Point of view • Definition: refers to who tells the story and how it is told. – First- person narrative- uses “I” – Second- person narrative – uses “you” – Third- Person- uses “he, she, or they” • In “A Sorrowful Woman” the point of view in this story is in third person.

Symbolism • Definition: Person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of addition meaning beyond and usually more abstract then it literary significance. • In “A Sorrowful Woman” to one, a Marriage and motherhood symbolizes a happy ever after ending. However, the story, which the author emphasizes that marriage and motherhood does not always end up as a happy ending.

Theme • Definition: central meaning or dominate idea in the literary work • In “A Sorrowful Woman” the stories theme of marriage and motherhood is that the unnamed wife was depress that she felt as if she was being suffocated with the roles of being a mother and wife.

Style • Definition: unique manner in which a writer arrange words to achieve particular effects. • In “A Sorrowful Woman” no complicated sentence structure was used in this story.

Tone • Definition- the author implicitly attitude toward the reader or people, place, and events in a work as revived by the elements of the authors style. • Sad or happy • Private or public • Serious or ironic • Angry or affectionate • In “A Sorrowful Woman” the author presumed that the unnamed woman (wife) had a happy and beautiful life before she had a child. Therefore this story portrays the happiness and sadness of the story.

Irony • Definition: literary device that uses contradictory statements or situations to reveal a reality different from what appears to be true. – Verbal Irony- a figure of speech that occurs when a person says one thing but means the opposite. • The author uses verbal irony in the story when the narrator uses the three phrases, which states that the husband understands his wife, however, he does not understand his wife at all. This shows verbal irony because by him saying he understands is a form of composure that causes a problem rather than a solution. – Situational Irony- exist when there is an incongruity between what is expect to happen and what actual happens due to forces beyond human comprehensions or control (suicide). • The reader never expected that the unnamed woman (wife) would commit suicide because of her being depress about her life.