Essay Questions

What is the resemblance between the Glass Wife (in “Requiem for a Glass Heart) and the narrator in “The Mark of Cain”?

Both are women who are aware of their husbands’ philandering ways. In other words, they put up with their husbands’’ unfaithfulness. The ignorance of their husbands’ dishonesty amounts to self-deception. Also, the two women are comparable because their lives are duplicitous are they are sentient of the deceitfulness. The two women profess, through acts of cluelessness, that all is well in their marriages.

Compare and contrast stone thrower’s handling the glass wife and the mistress in (“Requiem for a Glass Heart”).

The ‘stone thrower’ holds the wife cautiously so as not to disintegrate her glass body. Comparatively, he handles the mistress savagely and audaciously as she would not shatter easily considering that her body comprises “flesh and bones”.

How do the narrator’s actions in “The Mark of Twain “ contribute to the relevance of the overall title “Difficult Women” (Which is the title for the entire collection from which the story is drawn)?

The narrator is a ‘difficult woman’ as she appeals to in self-defeating actions that would not assure her a delightful, uncomplicated life; in other words the narrator is liable for her predicament. Also, the narrator is a ‘difficult woman’ as she is contented partaking in a polyandrous relationship with indiscernible brothers who have divergent temperaments. The narrator is apprehensive about a possibility estrangement a husband who does not regard her highly. She has reservations that the parting would break her.