Firstly, I must say I really enjoyed this read. It has probably been my favourite thus far. I found The Shrouded Woman to be very thought-provoking and interesting.
The overall feel of Bombal’s fictional world in The Shrouded Woman seems to me to be very gender-stereotypical and of course, patriarchal. The toll each of these men had on the dead narrator, Ana-Maria, was very significant and caused her an abundance of emotions. She has plenty more to say about the men in her life than to her own daughters. I found this to be very sad. But also, kind of relatable. I feel like most people would have more to say to people who have ‘wronged’ them then to people who were consistent in their life. It is especially prominent in this time era because of the way women are deemed to be in this patriarchal time. A woman’s sense of identity and fulfillment came from the man (or men) she surrounded herself with at that given point in time. I would not consider Ana-Marie to feel very fulfilled with her past life, this is because you cannot base your self-worth on mens validation. Clearly, we can see her to be bothered by all these instances even after her passing, so how additive to her life were these men really? It doesn’t seem like they were the most positive emotions.
She does express feelings of wanting it to be different, for men to not take up so much space in her life. But, this can be kind of relatable, it is very difficult dealing with emotions of being in love, anger, toxicity and heartbreak. Even though our society has developed much since this time period, these feelings are still evident today. The most important difference is that now females have a sense of purpose outside of men. Purpose can now fall anywhere between joining a workforce to simply just being alive. Thankfully, women have a lot more opportunities to feel fulfilled without the presence of a man. It just goes to show how living in a more equal and educated society can impact something as delicate as self-worth or romantic emotions. However, I do have an interesting question to pose to my classmates. Even though we live in a society that we can thrive in without a romantic partner, do you think you could die fulfilled without ever being in love? For me, I recognize that I do not have to have a man in order to feel complete, but I would be very upset leaving this world without someone to love. In my mind, one of the main purposes of life is to experience being in love, is this true for you?