# Alone explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Voltairine de Cleyre.

## What happens

The narrator returns to the alley a year later to find Mrs. Bossert, now free from her husband's suffering, has fallen into alcoholism. He initially judges her harshly but eventually understands her profound loneliness and the depth of her love and sacrifice for her deceased husband.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Sacrifice

Mrs. Bossert's love for her husband is revealed through her years of care and her use of insurance money for his funeral flowers.

### Isolation and Alienation

Mrs. Bossert's profound loneliness after her husband's death is the central emotional force of the chapter.

### Suffering and Oppression

The chapter depicts the ongoing suffering of Mrs. Bossert, now through alcoholism, following years of caregiving.

## Character check-ins

### Mrs. Bossert

Now a widow, she has descended into alcoholism and is found drunk and disheveled, mourning her husband's death.

### Nathaniel

The narrator, who returns to the alley and confronts Mrs. Bossert about her drinking, later realizing his own lack of understanding.

## Key lines

> All—for the love—o’ him.

Everything she did was out of love for him.

_Mrs. Bossert explains her drinking as an expression of love for her deceased husband._

> Oh—I'm all alone.

She cries out in her loneliness.

_This moment reveals the depth of her isolation and prompts the narrator's change of heart._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters/ii-alone
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_55_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters