Prof. Jessica Penner | OL05 | Fall 2020

Formal Critique- ” The Wife’s Story”- Leviza Murtazayeva

Reviewer’s name: Leviza Murtazayeva

English 1141 Creative writing

Formal critique “The Wife’s Story”

Author: Ursula K. Leguin

Dialogue: I enjoyed reading the story by the author, who wrote the story “The Wife’s Story.” He included moments of past and present where the characters such as husband, her sister, and narrator had conversations between each other. I also like how the author added thoughts and feelings that occurred within the narrator, this made the story more mysterious and interesting to read.

Question: Even if the narrator had all the trust for her husband, why would she not seem to acknowledge that there are rumors going around and why wouldn’t she share it with her husband for some answers?

Plot:  The author does a good job at sharing the story from the narrator’s point of view. The story begins with the narrator explaining how she met her husband, and how much every moment meant to her. The story goes on with the narrator already having a family with her husband, having some kids. Unfortunately, it goes to the part where the neighbors began to have rumors about the family mostly, her husband. Later on, the wife begins to notice odd behavior from her husband, when the moon comes back. She has all her trust in her husband, but she begins to worry about his night hunting trips. Then, at the end of the story, the wife finds out the secret that her husband has been hiding from her and everything in her life changes.

Question: Why the author stopped the story at very odd moment without any explanation? Was it for the reader to seek for further details, but by themselves?

Point of view: The author did a good job at writing the writing the story from the narrator’s, the wife’s, point of view. It was detailed. And very descriptive. Very mysterious, where the reader may have never thought that the story may have ended the way it did. But may have ended completely differently, for example I thought there was an unfaithful action by the husband.

Question: What was going on through the wife’s mind while she was seeing what was happening to her husband, how may have that affect her life now?

Voice and style: The whole story, has a twist that the reader would have not guessed it from the beginning. The title is also intriguing where it would never show off the plot of the story would just briefly say that a wife has a story, but nothing about a werewolf action. The style was also, made it really nice to read. Ever paragraph had its own little story and it was not as calm because every reader was waiting to get to the point of where exactly it says that is wrong with the husband. This a technique the author used to force the readers in to reading more deeply, and finish from the beginning to the end.

3 Comments

  1. Diana Rivera

    Hey Leviza, I enjoyed the way that you described the things you liked. I completely agree with the point of view being so great at the descriptiveness the author put into the wife’s story it makes the reader want to know the reason behind her husband’s weird actions. I also agree with the voice and style positives you mention, the way that the title gives no detail as to what the story is about, and to be frank it has nothing to do with the story other than the story being told by the wives point of view. It makes the reader think why that title was chosen.

  2. Amna Ahmed

    Hi Levia, I definitely agree that the twist was completely unexpected which made the story more interesting. From the beginning of the story, the readers get a vibe of mystery but, not for werewolves. That was a complete surprise since they was no mention of the werewolves. The author was able to seamlessly add werewolves into the story without making it forced and awkward.

  3. Marina Malak

    Hi Leviza,
    I agree that when the author added description of feelings to the story, it made thing more mysterious. I wonder if actually the author was there in person as a character in the story but chose to tell the stor in the third person.

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