I Stand Here Ironing Essay - 932 words

I Stand Here Ironing I Stand Here Ironing is an autobiographical story that narrates about a woman who raises her daughter alone, describing her husband as a man, who "could no longer endure" (he wrote in his good-bye note) "sharing want with us..(Olsen 1961). The story shows us a woman standing at her ironing board. She tries to find the way of how to deal with her young daughter. The technique of narration shows us situations that change the whole womans life as she finds herself completely exhausted. This forced isolation from society makes her to think about her and her daughters existence, her aims, good and bad, what is important and what is not. The woman speaks about her daughter Emily with a bit of irony: wish you could manage the time to come in and talk with me . .


. She's a youngster who needs help (Olsen 1961). The relations between the daughter and mother remind us a wall. The mother tries to penetrate the wall with her desperate attempts to love her daughter, who seems to be too distracted and isolated from the world that nothing can be done to succeed. Mother has nothing to do but to change her attitude to situation and to appeal to irony. Why does the author use irony? First of all, the woman in the short story suffers mentally because she is not able to solve the problem with her daughter.


Historically there are several ways of how to deal with sufferings. The man can suffer because of his reflections and thoughts caused by pride, prejudices, envy, despair, problems, etc. Idealization also can cause sufferings because the man doesnt see the correlation between his own ideas and views and the reality he lives in. It is well known that a man is responsible for his happiness. The irony proposes something different it proposes the alternative solution of problem. With help of irony the man can change his attitude to problem as well as the size of negative consequences.


He can create new attitude to problem that will gradually eliminate negative consequences of problematic situation. Situations, which occur in our life, usually seem to be complicated only within the limits of our system of life values. The irony proposes to look at life difficulties with smile. Such position allows a man overcoming his problems. Under these circumstances, the attitude of mother in I Stand Here Ironing is presented in a kind of theatrical self-consciousness. It is not an escape fro reality with help of laugh and smile. Mothers attitude is enriched with psychological overtones, sometimes dark comedy of words, but shows her positive attitude to the problem with her daughter.


Her irony develops a meaning that allows the mother to exhibit her feelings. The iron ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: i stand here ironing, irony, short story, negative consequences, ironing

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