Literary Analysis of I Stand Here Ironing By: Tillie Olsen
Tiffin University
Jeremy Vernon
September 28, 2013

Cohort 19
ENG 365 Issues In Literature

The story I Stand Here Ironing is the story of a mother looking into her past looking back at how she raised her daughter Emily. The title of the story is in its self a metaphor, I Stand Here Ironing. When one is ironing an item of clothing they are looking at something that has problem in it and working to fix those problems using the iron. Throughout the story Emily’s mother looks back at her life and how she raised Emily with regret and sorrow, she thinks how things could have been different or what she could have done to make them better. In the beginning she talks about how she nursed Emily, and all of her children, but with Emily she followed all the books and would not feed her until the clocks said that it was time to feed her. This was one of the earliest regrets that she expressed. This is also the introduction of food into the story which is to be talked about more later, food is going to represent another issue other than hunger. Later in Emily’s life her mother had gotten a job working at night, during this time she was forced to leave Emily with a person to care for her at night. This was another point of regret for Emily’s mother as she felt that no one could care for her the way that she did since she was her “miracle.” (Olsen, 2011) At the age of nineteen Emily’s mother felt that it would be best for her to live with a family member since she as working nights and was not able to provide for her and her daughter. Later in the story Emily’s mother was able to get enough money to get Emily back but Emily was sick with the chicken pox and was not able to come back right away. When she did come back her mother said “I hardly knew her, walking quickly and nervous like her father, looking like her father, thin, and dressed in a shoddy red that yellowed her skin and glared at the pockmarks. All the baby loveliness gone.” (Olsen, 2011) Here she is expressing her concern for sending her daughter to live with other people, and talks about her being thin and looking like her father. The remarks about her being thin and looking like her father fall back on the lack of food, which may symbolize more than just a lack of food, but also a lack a ability to care for Emily.
Later Emily’s mother says at one point “I knew the teacher was evil because all these years it has curdled into my memory, the little boy hunched in the corner.” (Olsen, 2011) Here she seems to be saddened because she knew that something was wrong with the teacher, but Emily never expressed any issues with the teacher directly, only trying to make excuses why to not go to school. Later she is told by an old man that she should smile at Emily. When the old man says that I do not think that he means literally she needs to smile, but that she needs to show Emily love the way that she shows her other children love. Also in this part they start to talk about the comedy that Emily is able to perform, and Emily’s mother does not know where she is getting this from. She is regretting the time that she did not have with Emily to get to know her better. If she had known her better and known that she was capable of this she would have been able to get her into things that would have made this easier for her to do and to succeed at. At this point Emily’s mother goes to the hospital to have a child Susan, during this time Emily has a very high fever and becomes delirious. Due to this illness Emily was not allowed near her mother or her new sister. Emily was not eating and was losing a lot of weight. Again this is not just referring to lack of food but the mother’s ability to provide for Emily. Emily would call for help from her mother and get no help and be told in response that she was okay. Later Emily’s mother knew that what she had done was wrong but now when she would ask Emily if she needed help Emily would reply that she was fine and that her mother needed to go back to sleep. Due to this she was sent to a home in the county where they said that she would be well taken care of. While in this home Emily lost more weight, again referring to lack of care from mother I feel, not necessarily lack of food. During this time Emily’s mother wrote her once a week but Emily was not allowed to keep the letters that were written or even read them. The letter were read to her, I think that this is to show the control that the workers had in the house over the children that were living there. The children were not even allowed to have contact with their families. Again I feel that this was an attempt to show control over the families, and the children. Once Emily was out of the hospital she went home where things seemed to be going well. At that time Emily’s mother learned of a boy that Emily liked, and Emily was taking money from her mother to buy this boy candy. Emily thought that this would make the boy like her, but he did not like her and liked another girl. While I think she was trying to say that Emily was trying to get her mother’s attention as well because the mother did not know that Emily was taking the money from her mother. Her mother not noticing that the money was missing was a regret that she is expressing because if she had noticed she would have been able to help her daughter with the feelings that she was experiencing. At this time Emily’s mother decides to encourage her to do her comedy at the school talent show. This is the point in which the mother is no longer showing regret for what she did in the past but how she is happy for what is happening for Emily now. Now Emily is on a path that will make her happy and she will be able to be successful and lead a happy life. This is the direction that you are left to believe the story would end. Emily ask her mother “Aren’t you ever going to finish the ironing?” (Olsen, 2011) As I said before the ironing represents mistakes or regrets in the mother’s life, and the question will she ever finish is really a statement that there will always be mistakes and or regrets. It is how it turns out in the end that matter, if you fix your mistakes and do not dwell on your regrets. The final line in the story says “Only help her to know – help make it so there is cause for her to know – that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron.” (Olsen, 2011) Here I feel that she is saying that even though mistakes have been made she feels that she has done well for Emily.

Works Cited
Olsen, T. (2011). I Stand Here Ironing. In A. Charters, The Story and Its Writer Eigth Edition (pp. 1065-1070). Boston, New York: St. Martins.