Luis Ivan Lopez Rodriguez GEEN 2311 G00418163 Interamerican University Final Essay Exam Compromise in A Secret Sorrow and Sorrowful Woman Marriage is a compromise and both “A Sorrowful Woman” and “A Secret Sorrow” express this theme. But they portrait differently on how this compromise can affect the outcome of a marriage. On the short story “A Sorrowful Woman” shows that too much compromise can cause feelings of unfulfillment and the failure of a marriage. While in “A Secret Sorrow” shows that if there is a balance of how much is compromised the outcome can be worth the sacrifice and the marriage can thrive. Marriage is a compromise because both sides come to an agreement that they will be together to the day they die. Faye, the female protagonist of “A Secret Sorrow”, and the unnamed protagonist from “A Sorrowful Woman” both had to compromise something for marriage, yet Faye’s is the less severe of the two. The accident that she had been in made her incapable of having a child and Kai, her love, claimed to be willing to work through it and still desired to marry her. But she believed he was “playing the gentleman”(34). She thought that he was giving up his dreams for the sake of chivalry. Faye only had to give up her doubt and believe he really loved her in order to get what for her represented happiness, marriage. But for the unnamed female protagonist it seemed that marriage was the compromise. She could not stand the role of wife and mother. So mush so that “the sight of them made her sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again”(39) The way Kai and the way the husband in “Sorrowful Woman” handle the issues also impacts the outcome of the marriages. Kai, while