A Woman

The Similarities Between the Woman and Her Father

The narrator and her father lose the strong relationship that they had when the woman was young, yet the woman’s actions seem to mirror those of her father’s as she gets older.  The woman grew up admiring her father, admitting, “The only thing that dominated me was love for my father” (3). She idolized him and did not have a great relationship with her weak mother. She says that she doesn’t even feel that she had a “real” mother (7). However, once the woman hears that her father is having an affair, she immediately detests him; she is in shock. She explains, “Until then Father had been my model; yet in an instant he was transformed into an object of horror, a man who had brought me up to respect sincerity and loyalty but had deliberately concealed a part of his life from Mother, and from us all” (32). She is devastated and loses all faith in him, yet once she is married and loathes her husband, she follows her father’s footsteps and forms a relationship with another man.

She starts to feel the distance between her and her husband, noting, “I had stopped thinking about him” (66). Her son brings her joy and hope to her life, but he doesn’t strengthen the relationship between the couple. When she meets the other man and he begins showing interest in her, she is reserved at first and it doesn’t concern her. After she receives a letter from her admirer, she describes, “As I became aware of this I went through what I imagine a breakdown to be; for the first time I understood how appalling my isolation was. I felt the chill of being twenty and deprived of love” (74-75). Although she doesn’t admit that she can understand her father’s interest in another woman besides his wife, the woman’s relationship forms before she can really question it. As she followed the footsteps of her father growing up, she continues to copy the action of having feelings for another person.