Choose a topic that will go with the paper Essay

Choose a topic that will go with the paper - Essay Example (supplementing historical and sociological writings) that detail the problems of the average family trying to survive the tough times of The Great Depression; d) tales of women struggling for independence and self-expression in an America just before the Women’s Liberation Movement; or e) as tales of the woman’s necessity to submerge what she likes to do to the demands of domestic responsibility†¦ Here, we shall look at Olsen’s ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ (ISHI) from angle (a) mentioned above, as a story that explores the mother daughter relationship, and also touch upon the impact of the early experiences that a child has (in this case the daughter) on her ability to have a ‘well-adjusted’ childhood, and on the kind of adult she grows up to be. In ISHI, the Mother is the protagonist, standing there and doing something as mundane as ironing clothes. And while ironing, she looks up occasionally to speak with someone — perhaps a teacher, perhaps a counselor, who feels that she should be paying more attention to her daughter. There is no counselor really there — what we see of her is merely what is reflected in the mirror-monologue of the Mother. Olsen’s style may be far removed from the Shakespearean dramatic tradition. But it packs the punch of a Shakespearean soliloquy, albeit in a low-key manner. There is nothing ostensibly dramatic about the woman talking in snatches, going back and forth from present to past, dwelling on the various incidents of her life. In setting and story the scene is far removed from that of a Hamlet. But the self-searching is the same: â€Å"To be or not to be† says Hamlet in torment; â€Å"I will become engulfed with all I did or did not do, with what should have been and what I cannot help,†(Olsen 1-2) echoes Emily’s Mother. She feels guilt for what she did not do for her baby, but wonders whether she could really have done it differently. The Mother admits to herself that even when her daughter was a baby, she gave