The Judge's Wife Analysis

“The Death of Ivan Ilych” and “The Judge’s Wife”
When we think about the family, we immediately think about our loved ones. Usually, they are the ones that help us get up during hard times. As we know, a family is usually always related to love and comprehension, but there are some cases when a family can become an individual’s nightmare. The stories, “The Death of Ivan Ilych” by Leo Tolstoy and “The Judge’s Wife” by Isabel Allende share the theme of family and how family affects them in distinct manners throughout their lives. In “The Death of Ivan Ilych” Ivan develops a very distant and hateful relationship towards his family, and in “The Judge’s Wife”, the family is crucial to the story because it demonstrates how a family can be broken apart due to poor decisions.
In the story “The
Allende states that “his courage might have failed him… I’m not going to fall into his trap like an idiot.” (Allende 515) This statement clearly demonstrates how Vidal’s ego took over him and prefer to protect himself instead of risking everything to save his mother. Allende also portrays how poor decisions made can destroy third party people. Allende adds the statement that exemplifies how Vidal’s mother is the victim of his son’s ego. Allende states “His laughter turned sour the next day, when he heard that Juana the Forlorn had hanged herself…over-whelmed by the shame of her only son leaving her to fester in a cage…” (Allende 516) Allende also portrays how the stubbornness of the judge leads to the danger of him and his family. Allende states “… the stress of his race to save his family, Judge Hidalgo’s heart gave a massive jolt…” (Allende 516) Allende makes the reader understand that the stubborn decisions of Judge Hidalgo not only ended up killing him but lead to the immediate danger of his wife and