Examining Conflict in I Stand Here Ironing Essays

The day after her father's death, the women of the town went to give their condolences to Miss. Emily. To their surprise, Miss. Emily was "dressed as usual" and had "no trace of grief on her face (Perrine's 285)." Emily told the women that her father was not dead. Finally after three days of trying to hold on to her father, "she broke down, and they buried her father quickly (Perrine's 285)." The town's people tired to justify Miss. Emily's actions, by saying that she had nothing left, and was clinging to the one thing that had robbed her for so long they convinced themselves that she was not crazy.

Their escape from the current world is directly from their feelings of repression which leads to them to be physically isolated. In “A Rose for Emily”, Emily spent all her time shut inside her house, which is symbol of her downgrading physical condition. Other than her changing appearance, the townspeople’s attitude also alters after her father’s death and they treat her as "a tradition, a duty and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town" (Faulkner, 139). Besides her father’s disapproving outlook of Emily’s marriage, the community also disagree with the idea of Emily having someone new in her life. They describe her relationship with Homer as “a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people” (144). Her abysmal relationship with the community, her father and Homer limits her growth as a person and prevents her from future interactions with the people around her. Correspondingly, the narrator from “The Yellow Wallpaper” is confined in a room in an isolated country estate. Additionally, she is forbidden to engage in a normal conversation and her physical isolation is partially designed to remove her from the possibility

Suffering from tuberculosis, Emily was sent away from her mother again to a convalescent home, where she could be better cared for. While Emily is at the recovery center, she is cut off from almost all communication especially relationship with her own mother. Even the letters the narrator writes to her are read to her once and then thrown away. Parents are allowed to visit only every other Sunday, when the children line up on the balconies of their cottages and conduct shouted conversations with the parents who stand below. Emily’s balcony in particular represents the emotional distance between the narrator and her daughter.

She cannot not let go of the man that has monitored her every move.  "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her."  She refuses to bury her father, not because she cannot bear to part with him, but because she refuses to let go of the man that she now has complete control over.  When Emily is forced to part with her father's body she sets off to find his replacement.

A reason that is presented as to why she has so little family other than her father is because he once had a falling out with some other relatives in Alabama, so the two sides refuse to come together. Even after Mr. Grierson dies, the Alabama kin “had not even been represented at the funeral.” (Act III) This once again showcases the loneliness of Miss Emily because she did not even have her own family to comfort her in a dark time. By being all alone, her unresolved feelings could have contributed to the abandonment issues. From the suggested abandonment issues, the reader can start to see that possibility of Emily taking matters in her own hand if given the chance. Besides just foreshadowing, her family history can also be argued to be the foundation of Miss Emily’s instability with her loneliness she needs to resolve being a result of their actions.

Miss Emily's relationship with her father is a key factor in the development of her isolation. As she is growing up, he will not let anybody around his daughter,

Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal

Emily’s upbringing is plagued with difficulties. She is the first-born of a young mother and the eldest of five brothers and sisters. As a baby, she is

Although the mother may have been trying to help Emily, the mother should have tried to take care of Emily better instead of sending her off as the only solution. One of the other effects of her mother’s unavoidable neglect is Emily’s failure to be on the same pace as her peers in class. She is at a state of illiteracy that is uncommon for her age at the time which may be a result from staying at home instead of going to class to take care of the household. In addition to the mother’s neglect, having a sister who was the ideal poster child may have caused self confidence problems as she grew older being the odd one out in the family. Emily’s mother should have made sure she was able to take care of Emily first before deciding to give birth to another child. What the mother thought would be the best option for Emily had a more clear negative effect on Emily after she grew older still not having any clear direction in her life.

Emily's father suppressed all of her inner desires. He kept her down to the point that she was not allowed to grow and change with the things around her. When “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated…only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps” (Rose 217). Even when he died, she was still unable to get accustom to the changes around her. The traditions that her and her father continued to participate in even when others stopped, were also a way that her father kept her under his thumb. The people of the town helped in

This reality sends panic and fear through her because now she has nowhere to turn and no one to tell her what to do, no one to command her life. Not only is she stricken with the loss of her father but now she is cut off to the outside world, because her only link has passed on. Emily immediately goes into a state of denial; to her, her father could not be dead, he was all that she had and she would not let him go.

I Stand Here Ironing lies in its fusion of motherhood as both metaphor and experience: it shows us motherhood bared, stripped of romantic distortion, and reins fused with the power of genuine metaphorical insight into the problems of selfhood in the modern world. ironing is a metaphor for "the ups and downs, back and forth of pressing pressures to make ends meet and a determination to pass through life's horrors and difficulties by keeping the mind intact and focusing on the beauty and blessings that [lie amidst] the dark times"? So the ironing is like a drug, to keep the mother calm and sedated. The story seems at first to be a simple meditation of a mother reconstructing her daughter's past in an attempt to

     Emotional support also plays an important role of Emily’s well being. The idea mother suppose to care, support, and value their children needs. Emily needed this nourishment. She needed her mother to smile at her in order for her to feel a connection with the person that she supposed to be able to depend on. Emily’s mother did not know how to communicate with Emily. The mother-daughter relationship has an element of coldness, it lacks warmth. “There were years she did not want me to touch her” (Olsen 262). Emily’s mother inability to interact with her, leaves Emily unloved and in return, she shall not express any love toward her mother. Emily’s mother feels her “wisdom came too late” (Olsen 262). With this thought in mind, Emily’s mother shall never show communication or love to Emily, therefore the relationship shall continue to be doomed.

"I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen is a short story that talks about a handicapped child. Emily had to struggle a whole lot on her short life, but at the end she proved to be a very strong child. Tillie Olsen's characterization of Emily shows a strong female protagonist who overcomes numerous odds: loneliness, humbleness, vulnerability, and her disability.

In the story, “I Stand Here Ironing”, written by Tillie Olsen, the iron symbolizes the role of poverty and loneliness in the mother’s life., hence the title. The iron itself represents the mother’s current circumstances; poverty, loneliness, and other misfortunes whereas the actual motion of ironing represents the mother’s train of thought.