Livvie

            The responsibility of being a wife and/or housekeeper in today's society is a difficult position to hold. However, thinking back fifty or sixty years ago about the duties and tasks of these two roles they naturally became the jobs of most women. In Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" and Eudora Welty's short story "Livvie", they each illustrate the effects of the duties and tasks can have on women. The two women in the short stories are shaped by their roles of caring, cooking, and cleaning, which ultimately affect the women with the realities of being a wife and housekeeper. .
             In "A Sorrowful Woman", the Woman after years of performing her social duty as a wife and mother decides "the sight of her husband and child makes her sick and that she never want to see them again" (Godwin 35). As the reader, we can only imagine how serious this "wife/housekeeper" role is on a woman, especially in the time period this woman lives in. During her time, society believes that men should work and women should stay at home, care for the children and maintain the house. Being expected to take on the double roles as wife and housekeeper, it is quite natural to understand why a woman might want to call it quits of her "societal duties". Terribly affected, the lady quits and becomes her own prisoner locking herself up in her bedroom. Distant from her husband and child, she relies on her daily dose of draught to keep her going. .
             Throughout this time the father takes on the role of his wife as the housekeeper and caregiver. He announces to his wife, "We will manage, until you"re better- (37), and with this confidence he manages everything at work and home. Although he obtains some help from a hired girl, he does become the father and mother to his son. At the end of the story, the woman decides to perform her given duty one last time. She prepares for her husband and child a hearty feast of foods and cleans the house while they are away.