Eventually, she rejects the child entirely, telling her husband that she cannot see the child anymore. Moreover, she is not content to withhold her own love and affection from the child. On the contrary, when her husband employs a babysitter, the mother is threatened by the girl's competence and makes the father fire her. In this way, she absolutely fulfills the fairytale elements of the evil maternal figure, playing a role that is traditionally filled by stepmothers in these stories. Not only does she refuse to love her child, which could be explained away by the character's obvious struggle with mental illness, but she takes knowing and intentional actions to make sure that her son is deprived of any type of maternal love.

The finally fairytale theme present in "A Sorrowful Woman" is that of the rescuing male. The husband in the story is portrayed as actively compassionate. He sends...
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