To the characters of Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Gwilan’s Harp”, Isaac Singer’s “The Washwoman”, and O. Henry (Sydney Porter)’s “The Last Leaf”, loss is a familiar burden. Whether they experience loss of material things, or people they hold dear, all of the characters from these stories have felt loss’s unwelcome touch on their shoulders. Most of the tragedy occurs, however, when a major character dies. In “The Washwoman”, the aptly named washwoman dies from, presumably, old age. During the events of “The Last Leaf”, Mr. Behrman meets his demise due to pneumonia after he paints his masterpiece. In “Gwilan’s Harp”, Torm loses his life to an unknown illness. Even fantasy is not immune to the troubles of reality.
“The Washwoman”, by Isaac Singer, is a tale about an old woman who does laundry for a Jewish family in nineteenth century Poland. During one particularly cold winter, the Washwoman arrives to pick up a load of laundry. However, she doesn’t come back. “Usually the woman brought back the wash after two or, at the most, three weeks. But three weeks passed, then four and five, and nothing was heard” (Isaac Singer). Eventually, after winter ends, the washwoman shows up at the door of the Jewish family’s home with the laundry.
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Le Guin is a story about a harpist named Gwilan. Gwilan owned a majestic harp, the most beautiful harp ever to grace the earth. “It was the work of great craftsmen, you could see that at a glance,”. However, one day, as she rode with a fellow musician named Torm in his cart, they crashed. The harp smashed beyond repair, and Gwilan’s wrist broke to the point where she could no longer play music properly. Eventually, she married Torm, and they had two sons. Years later, Torm got sick from an unknown illness, and died. Gwilan went to the main hall of the house, and began to sing, something she had not done before. Gwilan’s story teaches readers to make the best of their situation, no matter the
In her article, Quindlen delivers her position to the massive mixed audience of the New York Times, drawing in readers with an emotional and humanizing lure; opening up about her family life and the deaths she endured. Later presenting the loss of her brother's wife and motherless children, Quindlen use this moment to start the engine of her position. Quindlen uses her experiences coupled with other authority figures, such as, the poet Emily Dickenson, Sherwin Nuland, doctor and professor from Yale, author Hope Edelman, and the President. These testimonies all connect to the lasting effects of death on the living, grief. She comes full circle, returning to her recently deceased sister-in-law; begging t...
In this article “ The Old Man isn’t There Anymore” Kellie Schmitt writes about the people she lives with crying in the hallway and when she asks what happened she is told that the old man is gone. This starts the big ordeal of a Chinese funeral that Schmitt learns she knows nothing about. Schmitt confuses the reader in the beginning of the story, as well as pulling in the reader's emotions, and finishes with a twist.
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss. There is no right or wrong way to grieve (Huffman, 2012, p.183), it is a melancholy ordeal, but a necessary one (Johnson, 2007). In the following: the five stages of grief, the symptoms of grief, coping with grief, and unusual customs of mourning with particular emphasis on mourning at its most extravagant, during the Victorian era, will all be discussed in this essay (Smith, 2014).
In the stories “The Last Leaf” by O Henry, “The Washwoman” by Isaac, Singer, and “Gwilian’s Harp” by Ursula LeGuin, the characters of these stories all have to endure much loss, however the loss of these characters varies. Some lose material things like in “Gwilian’s Harp”. While in “The Washwoman” the characters lose relationships or someone’s love. Also characters lose their life or someone who was dear to them like in “The Last Leaf”. Loss is the common thread that ties all three of these interesting stories together.
Through her own extraordinary work ethic, this elderly woman manages to support herself without help from anyone, including her own family. The washwoman apparently has no living husband and suffers from the figurative loss of her son, a wealthy villain who demonstrates utter faithlessness towards his own mother. Isaac Bashevis Singer clearly conveys the disgusting nature of the son when he writes, "The woman had a son who was rich. . . . He was ashamed of his mother, the washwoman, and never came to see her. Nor did he ever give her [money]" (Singer).
Grief played a large role in the lives of the Boatwright sisters and Lily Owens. They each encountered death, injustice, and sadness. Grief impacted and left an imprint on each of them. Grief proved fatal for May. August knew that grief was just another aspect of life; that it had to be accepted and then left in the past. June and Lily learned to not let grief rule their lives. Life is not inherently good or bad – events not solely joyful or grievous – it is glorious in its perfect imperfection.
“Successive Deaths” by Adelia Prado is a complex poem that deals with death, grievance, and rebirth. Prado uses free verse in her poem to express the grievance she felt of losing the three most important and influential people in her life. Losing her sister, her mother, and her father while also going through the physical changes of puberty is difficult to deal with but in the end she recalls those moments in an effort to move on from her grief. Prado begins her poem with the remembrance of her sisters death. When my sister died, I cried a great deal And was quickly consoled.
Jane presents one aspect of woman in The Waking collection (1953): Ross-Bryant views Jane as a young girl who is dead. The poem expresses concern with the coming of death. This poignant elegy is presen...
An Analysis of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
“Story of an Hour”, written by Kate Chopin presents a woman of the nineteenth century who is held back by societal constraints. The character, Louise Mallard, is left to believe that her husband has passed away. She quickly falls into a whirlwind of emotions as she sinks into her chair. Soon a sense of freedom overwhelms her body as she looks through the window of opportunity and times to come. She watches the world around her home run free as nature runs its course. Louise watches the blue sky as a rush of “monstrous joy” shoots through her veins (Chopin). She experiences a new sense of freedom. Although she sometimes loved her husband, his “death” breaks the chain that keeps her from experiencing a truly free life. Thoughts over times to
At a glance, the poem seems simplistic – a detailed observance of nature followed by an invitation to wash a “dear friend’s” hair. Yet this short poem highlights Bishop’s best poetic qualities, including her deliberate choice in diction, and her emotional restraint. Bishop progresses along with the reader to unfold the feelings of both sadness and joy involved in loving a person that will eventually age and pass away. The poem focuses on the intersection of love and death, an intersection that goes beyond gender and sexuality to make a far-reaching statement about the nature of being
Edgar Allan Poe’s 1849 poem, “Annabel Lee”, explores the common themes of romance and death found in many of Poe’s works. The poem tells the story of a beautiful young maiden named Annabel Lee who resides by the sea. The maiden and the narrator of the poem are deeply in love, however the maiden falls ill and dies, leaving the narrator without his beloved Annabel Lee. Contrary to what many might expect from a poem by Poe and yet still depressing, the poem ends with the narrator accepting Annabel’s death and remains confident that they will forever be together despite her parting.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
Losing a loved one is one of the hardest experiences every person must go through. The experience does not end with the loss though, but begins with it. The loss of a dear person leads those left behind into a downward spiral of emotions and memories. A poem entitled “Lucy Gray” by William Wordsworth focuses on that loss and the emotions that follow it. By reading the poem one can objectively experience both the grief that Lucy Gray’s death brings on but also her parents’ acceptance of her death.