In Gail Godwin’s short story, “A “, we are introduced to a woman who just as said in the title, is a sorrowful woman. She is described this way because she has some sort of problem mentally and quite often emotionally. She has a three year old son who, just like any other three year old, wants and needs the attention of its mother. She also has a husband, who is loving and very much devoted to her, her needs, and of course, the needs of their child. His undying loyalty towards her says a lot about marriage.
When a married couple takes those vowels “Till death do us part”, they should really mean it. Those are the words that people in today’s society say too often without enough thought. In the story the husband makes a number of efforts to please his wife. He understands that she is sick and needs help. One evening while she was looking at her husband and child she got sick, sad and for some reason after that she didn’t want to see them anymore. She told the husband that she didn’t want to see them ever again and he, being the understanding spouse that he was, just asked what she wanted him to do.
The author, Gail Godwin, is trying to give examples of how a good marriage should work. The wife was usually grumpy and always wanted something and the husband was always willing to help her and make her feel better. Marriage in a real life situation should be the same way. Just as a couple takes those vowels “Till death do us part”, they should be willing to do anything to fulfill those words. The husband in this story probably wouldn’t have married the sorrowful woman, had he known that she was going to be like that. But he did, and he kept those words because he did whatever he could to please her.
The author just wants the readers to see that marriage is a big step and that no one knows what the future holds. If the marriage doesn’t go as expected, you must still keep your words and do right by your spouse, even if it is a sorrowful woman.