I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen

I Stand Here Ironing is set in the 1930's during the great depression. The narrator is a single mother who talks about how she had to raise her daughter. It is said in a stream of consciousness point of view and in a sad, regretful tone. The protagonist seems to be Emily, the daughter who the story is about. She is a developing character that is somewhat of a loner and ends up interested in acting. The narrator, the mother, sees herself as the antagonist who regrets not being there for her daughter as she was growing up and hates herself for it. As the story unfolds, the hardship the narrator faces is what makes Emily's childhood horrible. All the moving, being away from her mother and the bad living conditions as she grew seems to make Emily isolated and socially undeveloped. The mother is a static character. Though in many times she wants to change, she does not, which is what she regrets. Because the mother does not pay much attention to the protagonist as she should have, Emily resents her younger sister Susan, who seems to be everything she is not and puts off her school work because she has to care for her other siblings. Emily, at 19, is finally a little happier because she has found acting even though it is just a way to escape her reality. She finally gets the attention she has always wanted. The denouement is that Emily will never reach her full potential because she has settled for the first form of admiration she has received and the narrator still does nothing to change her ways, even if she wants to. The theme is guilt and regret as the whole story is said as a mother’s regretful life and guilt for that life.




This story is very sad in that there is no way in changing how the narrator raised her daughter. As she recalls all the hardships she endured and how it affected her eldest daughter the most, it made her regret everything and made her feel guilty. Emily is moved from place to place either because of her sickness, or because her mother cannot care for her. She practically raised herself. It was sad when the mother mentions that whenever Emily had a nightmare she could not go see her and she would yell to her that everything was going to be okay. She was not even comforted which made her not like human affection as she got older. It really makes people realize that even though things are hard sometimes, it is important to love those around and to pay attention to them. This is what the narrator regrets, not being there to love and comfort her child when she needed it the most. The outcome of this is that Emily resents her younger sister, Susan, for having and being everything she wanted. This makes Emily believe that studying makes no difference, she felt unimportant and she thinks this as how her life will always be.