The Impact of Loneliness on the Growth of Romantic Intimacy in Alice Munro’s Story "Queenie": A Sociological Study

Khatab Mohammed Ahmed

Tikrit University \ College of Art \ Translation Department

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.7.1.3

Keywords: Structuralism, Loneliness, Happiness, loneliness


Abstract

This study examines Alice Munro's short story "Queenie", and how the female characters cope with grief and solitude. The study come across that the female protagonist of the short narrative felt lonely and unhappy throughout. The Study finds out that other works ascribed to the same author have common narrative elements. The story structures show how the protagonist's emotions of loneliness lead to her ultimate satisfaction. This Paper employs a structuralist technique, focusing on Tzvetan Todorov's Narratology theory. The story's analysis reveals a continuous narrative structure in which the protagonist's emotions of loneliness are turned into the realisation of her ambitions and objectives. The answers of the author found to her own queries on loneliness highlight how widespread the feeling is and how many different factors might contribute to it. The characters' sense of alienation is supposed to drive them to make good life changes. Although the characters' sentiments of solitude take many forms, the reader nonetheless feels its pain via the author's words. Subtly, via the phrases she inserts into the narrative, she demonstrates that being alone may lead to happiness, if the heroes do not give up and are not afraid to take action to alter their lives..