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Is the Sacrifice Worth the Reward? Marital life in A Secret Sorrow and A Sorrowful Woman Marriage is a compromise and both Gail Godwin's short story A Sorrowful Woman and the excerpt of Karen van der Zee's novel A Secret Sorrow express this theme. But they portray differing aspects of how this compromise can affect the outcome of a marriage. Godwin's short story conveys that too much compromise can cause feelings of unfulfillment and the failure of a marriage. While the excerpt from A Secret Sorrow shows that if there is a balance of how much is compromised the outcome can be worth the sacrifice and the marriage can thrive.

Faye, the female protagonist of van der Zee's novel, and the unnamed female protagonist of Godwin's short story both had to compromise something for marriage, yet Faye's is the less severe of the two. The accident she had been in rendered incapable of bearing children and Kai, her love, claimed to be willing to work through it and still desired to marry her. But she believed he was playing the gentlemen (34). She thought he was going to throw out a life of dreams just for the sake of chivalry(34). Faye only had to give up her doubts and believe he really loved her in order to get what for her represented happiness, marriage. But for the unnamed female protagonist of Godwin's story it seemed that marriage was the compromise. She could not stand the role of wife and mother. So mush so that the sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again(39). The way Kai and the way the husband in A Sorrowful Woman handle the issues also greatly impacts the the outcome of the marriages. Kai, while willing to work past not being able to have children of his own with Faye still admits to her that her inability to have children bothers him but also says, We're in this together you and I. Dont you see that its not just your problem it ours. The husband in A Sorrowful Woman is in denial about he and his wifes problems. Whenever she has an

episode or cant stand to be around him and her child he says things like You need rest from us(40) and Of course, I see(42). He says it almost like he trying to convince himself more than he's trying to console her. He in denial about their problems and thinks all these quick fixes will make them disappear and it only makes it worse. Kai on the other hand, addresses he and Faye's problem's wants to work through them.

All marriages have obstacles and no one is perfect. These stories show that how you handle those problems and imperfections determines how successful your marriage will be. Both couples had to make compromises for their marriages but the extent of of how much they compromised determined their fates. Kai and Faye managed to keep a balance of how much they gave up for each other and their reward greatly outweighed their sacrifices. The couple in A Sorrowful Woman compromised too much of themselves so much so that they lost their identities and their whole lives became about their sacrifices.

Works Cited Van der Zee, Karen. From A Secret Sorrow. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature.

Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 31-48. Print.

Godwin, Gail. A Sorrowful Woman. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 39-43. Print.