Week 9 Story: The Unhappy Wife

There once was a wife who was so sick of her husband she would rather die than stay married to him. She could not marry another man or run off because that was against her morals, so the only true way out of her commitment was death. The husband was awful to her and never allowed her to do anything without him. However, she knew how to get under his skin and thought of a plan to make him so mad that he would take her to the forest and kill her himself. The husband had an extreme dislike for palm-nuts. The nuts were extremely hard to prepare and even more difficult to find. The wife started asking for the food more consistently and assured the husband his family members were the ones requesting all of these nuts. The day approached where the husband broke down and asked why she needed so many nuts.

"What is the use of all of these palm-nuts? I know people are not eating this many every day!" insisted the husband.

"I told you it is your family who wants them! Now please, go gather some more!" said the wife.

The husband insisted that the wife join him on the next journey to find these nuts. When she refused, he forced her into the woods, cut off her limbs and left her there for death to find her. Although this was what the wife wanted, she began to think how evil it was for the husband to actually kill her.  When the next morning came she began singing loudly so someone would hear her. A man walking towards the woods for his daily hunt heard the beautiful voice and followed it. He approached the awful scene and immediately ran back to tell his wife what he saw. The gossip spread around town faster than you could imagine and the man was brought to justice by being placed above his wfie while they were both set to fire.

No one else could hear the wife as she whispered, "I suppose this means our marriage is over."

Author's Note: The Wicked Husband tells the story of a husband who takes his wife out to the forest and cuts off her arms and legs because she will not accompany him to find palm-nuts. Someone sees her after the disaster happens and word of it gets back to the prince. The husband was accused and set below a grill his wife was placed on. The burning of his body was his punishment. I wanted to expand on this tale and give more of a reason for why the husband would do such a thing to his wife. I also wanted the wife to have a bigger role in my story.
Bibliography: The Wicked Husband by Richard Edward Dennett, Web Source: Congo Unit
Image Information: Fire Pit, Web Source: Flickr