Silent sufferings

Silent Sufferings


There are two short stories that i would like to share with others. One is Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour' and the other one is by James Grover Thurber's 'The Unicorn in the Garden'. In the first story the wife Mrs Mallard, has a brittle heart that could never take either rapture or disconcert. It is informed to her brother in law that her husband died in a rail road accident and he manages to convey the shocking news to Mrs Mallard in a way that is malleable to her heart. The terrible shock makes her shut herself in a room alone awhile and rue over the life of hers with her husband. She is much grieved and looks into the bleak future with the bereaved husband. As she is sitting in a chair, her mind slowly thinks about a life without her husband; the possible free time that she would get and the freedom she would enjoy in her all walks, a life of inner comfort and struggle-free living, all these things bring fresh air to her. She comes out of the room as a recovered and rejuvenated wife who is parted with the news of the arrival of her husband unhurt, not being scathed to their residence. She swoons immediately and looses her breath in what according to the physician 'ecstasy kills'.

In the second story, a sleeping wife is woken up by her husband to inform her about a unicorn gracing in their garden. A Unicorn is a mythical horse with a horn at the centre of its muzzle. She shushes her husband and resumes her sleep. The husband is overwhelmed by the unicorn eating tulips and roses and he is at great rapture to part the same with his wife. The wife becomes concerned and dials police and psychiatrist. They are informed what has happened which the husband connivingly denies and allows the wife to be taken to an institution. Both stories discuss husbands who have done some silent harm to their wives. One story is written by a male writer and the other one is by a woman. The gender point has no effect in conveying the ills done to the 'weaker sex'.