A Sorrowful Woman Analysis

Comparison and Contrast Essay “Bartleby the Scrivener” and “A Sorrowful Woman” are two drastically different stories, however, they share many commonalities. The main characters in each story are constantly enabled by those around them, allowing them to further their seclusion from society, to the point at which readers struggle to empathize with them. In both, “A Sorrowful Woman” by Gail Godwin, and “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, there are three main themes: passive resistance, mental illness, and isolation. These themes are often furthered in each story through the use of symbols and epigraphs. The two main characters, Bartleby and the woman, are often enabled by those closest to them. The ‘woman’ for example begins the story by saying “I am the luckiest woman” (Godwin 34) in thanks of her husband’s compassion, but as he continues to facilitate her until she, “stayed in the white room” (Godwin 36) all day, only to eventually, kill herself. Similarly, Bartleby begins his job as a law-copyist diligently, “… {doing} an extraordinary quantity of writing…” (Melville 96). However, he quickly begins to become a deficient worker, with only the excuse, “I prefer not to.” (Melville
Melville and Godwin use similar themes, symbols, epigraphs, and supporting characters, though the stories send different messages. Additionally both stories cast the main character in a sympathetic light, though they continue with behavior that leads to their deaths. Both “Bartleby the Scrivener” and “A Sorrowful Woman” promote the lives of its’ characters in a way that evokes sympathy, but readers struggle to empathize by the middle and end of the stories as both protagonists are in clear need of psychiatric help which they are denied by the only ones capable of giving it to