Miss Grief -

The narrator in Constance Fenimore Woolson's "Miss Grief" is as she labeled him on the first page, "a conceited fool." He has a very high opinion of himself as a young, good looking, well-to-do author. He blows off this old woman who wants nothing more than to just meet with him for weeks until, by a chance of rain, he happens to be in when she calls. Even after agreeing to see her, he still refuses to be kind or show her any hospitality even though she appears tired and nervous. He only agrees to read her drama after she basically has to bully him into it, showing a temporary lack of power. When he does read it, he realizes how talented she is, but again can only focus on the negative aspects of her writing. During the entire story he fails to acknowledge the fact that he judged her too quickly and too harshly and instead chooses to have her work burnt rather than read by his wife because "women will misunderstand each other." In some aspects Miss Grief did have power over him, but in her inability to change the narrator from a conceited fool to a more humble and aware person he still, at least in his own mind, is the more powerful of the two.