The seventh Mermaid is very confident and out spoken. Her family is very prosperous and so the S.M lives comfortably. She knows about the tales of her older sister, and claims she will not be this foolish. But when she visits the Prince, we see that perhaps she does have feelings for him. The prince announces his love for her and they agree to marry, soon after the prince lets her down and changes his mind once he discovers what he must give up for her love. On they outside the S.M says that “I’m not suffering. I’ve just proved a point. Men aren’t worth it.” But the reader can see that in reality she is perhaps just covering up for her true feelings of pain and upset.
Although the women are in different social classes, upper class and lower class, we can see that both stories show women getting hurt by men that they loved, but the man involved did not return the same amount of devotion.
Another similarity in the stories is possibly how both stories are trying to prove a point about women’s positions in society.
The “Pangs of Love” was published in 1983, in the years leading up to this women had realised that they too could do the work of men and consequently were not a lower class. I think that the story is a warning to women, saying that they should not involve themselves with things that they cannot control i.e they should have left men as a higher class. As in the story when the seventh mermaid is on over by the prince she only becomes disappointed and upset. It is as if the man has a control over her. Another view could be that the seventh mermaid thought that women needs to be “free of the terrible pangs of love which puts women into bondage”, this in some ways reflects how women realised they wanted to be free of the power that men had over them because of their gender. This is supported by the way the seventh mermaid has many different names, for example “Mademoiselle Sept”, “Numera Seotima” and “syedmaya krasavitsa” This perhaps could symbolise how the meaning of the story affects people over the world and not just in one area.
“The Withered Arm” was written in 1888, this was a time when women were considered a lower class to men purely because of their gender. I think this story shows how women deserve a better chance in life and that if this doesn’t happen then men will have to face the consequences. I think this because in the story Rhoda is let down by Farmer lodge and because of this she becomes angry and eventually hurts Gertrude, something that is close to his heart.
In conclusion I think that both stories portray important messages even if some of them are hidden deep in the story, but also both the story have similarities for example the story line.