A Woman Destroyed Summary
Simone De Beauvoir

A Woman Destroyed Summary

A Woman Destroyed is a collection of three short stories: "The Age of Discretion," "Monologue," and "Woman Destroyed." They share the same theme — fear of aging and loneliness, and the realization of a failed life. Each story is narrated by the woman protagonist. The focus is on the relationships which the woman has formed with her children and husband. In "The Age of Discretion" the main character is afraid that old age will diminish her creativity as a writer. She deceives herself about her relationship with her son whose life and career she has tried to dominate. When he announces that he is abandoning the career his mother had chosen for him in order to take a government position of which both parents disapprove, her life is shattered. The importance of the problem of aging meanwhile is kept in focus through the story's...

(read more from the Short Guide)