essay on i stand here ironing

A Summary and Analysis of Tillie Olsen’s ‘I Stand Here Ironing’

‘I Stand Here Ironing’ is a 1956 short story by Tillie Olsen, first published in Prairie Schooner under the title ‘Help Her to Believe’. It acquired its more famous title when it was republished in Olsen’s 1961 collection Tell Me a Riddle . The story takes the form of a monologue spoken by a mother who is ironing clothes while thinking about her relationship with her daughter, Emily.

You can read ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ here (the story takes around ten minutes to read) before proceeding to our summary of the story’s plot, followed by an analysis of the story.

‘I Stand Here Ironing’: plot summary

The story begins with the first-person narrator, a mother, thinking about what one of her daughter’s teachers has said: the teacher has requested that she come into the school for a meeting to talk about her daughter, Emily, who is nineteen years old. She rejects the idea that, just because she is Emily’s mother, she has the ‘key’ to helping her daughter to sort out her life.

She reminisces about how beautiful her daughter was as a baby. But then she reveals that when Emily was still very young, her father walked out on them, and the mother had to leave her with a neighbour while she went out to work. When this happened, she was nineteen: the same age as Emily now is. This was back during the Great Depression when things were financially hard for a lot of people.

After Emily contracted chicken pox when aged two, she began to look different, her beautiful babyish looks gone. She also started to look more like her father. Emily struggled at nursery school, not least because her teacher was strict and cruel towards the children. However, Emily dutifully attended nursery, although now her mother wonders what the ‘cost’ of such ‘goodness’ may have been.

She notices that Emily finds it difficult to smile, although – as her current teacher has pointed out – she has a natural flair for comedy when acting in the school pantomime. She had to send Emily away from her several times because she didn’t have time to look after her and earn money to support the family. But when she met a new man, she could bring Emily back home to meet her new ‘daddy’.

Shortly after this, when she was seven, Emily developed a bad case of measles and she had to be sent away to a special place to convalesce. Although this home is pleasant enough, parents are forbidden to approach their sick children. When Emily returned home eight months later, she was thinner than before and disliked physical affection.

She also grew self-conscious about her appearance, believing that she was too thin, dark, and ‘foreign-looking’. She struggled to make close friends. Her asthma troubled her, and when her younger sister Susan was a bit older, the mother would keep Emily off school so they could be together. But this, if anything, only emphasised the differences between the two sisters, with Susan, despite being five years Emily’s junior, almost her equal in terms of her physical development.

The narrator’s young son Ronnie, who is still a baby, cries out and she goes to change him, reflecting on the word ‘Shoogily’, denoting comfort, which he has learned from Emily. This leads her to think about the impact Emily has on her family, and her mother reflects on the difficult upbringing her daughter has had, sometimes having to play the role of ‘mother’ herself to her younger siblings, especially during the years of the Second World War in the early 1940s.

Then, one morning, Emily phoned her mother from school while her mother was at work, and told her she had entered, and won, the school’s talent competition. Now, the narrator tells us, Emily was ‘Somebody’. But this just meant she was ‘imprisoned’ in a new way: in her difference (being singled out as a talented performer) rather than her anonymity.

At this point in her reverie, Emily comes in and disturbs her mother’s thoughts. She makes a jokey comment about how long it takes her mother to do the ironing, and when her mother asks her about her exams the following day, Emily says they don’t matter, since everyone will be dead from atomic war in a few years anyway.

Concluding her thoughts on her daughter, the narrator says she will never ‘total it all’: never be able to sum up everything about Emily that there is to say. She proceeds to summarise her daughter’s upbringing, however, with all the difficulties young Emily had faced, before saying, ‘Let her be.’ She knows that Emily will probably never achieve all of her dreams, but she wants her to know that she is more than the dress on the ironing board that her mother has been ironing, ‘helpless before the iron.’

‘I Stand Here Ironing’: analysis

In some ways, it makes sense to view ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ as a story about adolescence and coming of age, even if the narrator of the story is the mother, rather than her teenage daughter. One of the distinctive things about Olsen’s approach is that she allows us to observe the nineteen-year-old Emily only through her mother, who acknowledges early on in the story that her own knowledge of her daughter is incomplete: she dismisses the notion that she possesses some ‘key’ to understanding Emily’s identity and behaviour.

And this narratorial stroke of genius works to do something else, too. It makes ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ not a story about Emily, or a story about her mother, but a story about both of them, and the ways in which they are both still forging their identities in relation to each other. Emily, who has already had to take on various ‘roles’ as a child (including, significantly, that of ‘mother’ to her younger siblings, to help their mother out), finally locates her sense of self in the world of drama and theatre: in other words, her identity is, ironically enough, founded on an absence of one specific ‘self’ which is authentically her.

Olsen’s mother character in ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ is interested in how the various details of her daughter’s early life should have led to this culmination, this arrival at a sense of self that is, oddly, about negating or removing one’s true inner self for the purposes of performance. She is curious to discover what role her own parenting – as well as the genetics which led Emily to start physically resembling her absent father – has had in ‘making’ Emily who she is, for good or ill.

Of course, although the narrator of ‘I Stand Here Ironing’, as the title makes clear, is engaged in one of the domestic and maternal tasks which a doting mother might be expected to perform in the 1950s, she is aware that her own efforts to perform multiple roles in the family unit have put a strain on Emily’s childhood. Just as Emily has had to play mother at times to help out her own mother, so the narrator has had to take on the role of father, especially when Emily’s own father walked out on them, leaving her to be both breadwinner and homemaker.

So, although Olsen’s story, as the very title suggests, is centred on the domestic sphere of motherhood and the home, Olsen also shows how the home does not exist in a vacuum. The Great Depression of the 1930s, mentioned by the story’s narrator, possibly lies behind the father’s abandonment of his family (at a time when so many men were struggling to fulfil the role of breadwinner and put food on the table), and both Emily and her mother have had to shift their respective roles of daughter and mother to become, at least part-time, ‘mother’ and ‘father’ respectively.

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“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen Essay

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The short story, “I Stand Here Ironing” by T. Olsen, portrays the hardship and low status of women in society, poverty, as well as the realities of working poor females. Olsen depicts the common oppression of women and resistance through maternal bonding and nurturing. It is possible to say that Olsen succeeds in creating a space for women to articulate themselves and their feelings. The key idea of “I Stand Here Ironing” is based on the theme of the low social status of women in society but relates to various outcomes and conflict resolution.

In the story, the author describes the memories of a single woman with several children and her young years when her kids were small. She tries to analyze her behavior and mistakes and imagine what she would have done differently in order to create a happy life for her children. The woman finds out that her children were deprived of support, love, care, and trust. Olsen states that these problems are caused by oppression and the low status of women, a gender gap, and male dominance in society. The children suffer from the misunderstanding and lack of care while a single mother suffers from an inability to earn for living and low wages paid for women. The mother recollects, “After a while I found a job, hashing at night … so I could be with her days” (Olsen). This quote allows readers to say that Olsen presents a constructed and discursive identity by having her woman character take on the role of a mother and a poor worker.

Olsen seems to regard the woman’s role as an inescapable fate. In her struggle to extricate her family from the situations, she does not blame the other people who made such arrangements but the society and social traditions. For instance, the mother lost a connection with her daughter Emily working hard all her life and having no time for her children. She asks herself: “What in me demanded that goodness in her? And what was the cost, the cost to her of such goodness” (Olsen). This quote shows that the social culture places the family at its heart, as the experience of the women in this situation demonstrates, its attitude toward women begins in the more fluid modern world to tear away at this fundamental unit, making the difficulty of mother-daughter bonding a crucial problem for the culture as a whole. Olsen vividly portrays hardship and life grievances faced by a single working mother. In contrast to Olsen’s main character, the children do not suffer from income inequalities and low wages traditionally paid for women. On the one hand, the burden is due to the position of women in that society. Olsen’s mother understands the aimlessness and pointlessness of her life caused by the necessity to work around the clock.

To conclude, the short story “I Stand Here Ironing” demonstrates that the low social position of women in society deprives women of a chance to find happiness and maintain close relations with their families. Olsen’s mother has to work hard all her life to earn a living but she fails to communicate and establish close relations with her daughter. The story is very skillfully developed through the mother’s egg. It is her world with which readers are faced, her awareness of the process of personhood to which the story gives readers to access. Her fears with Emily’s past are defining the practices of her own motherhood and of the limits on her ability to care for and support the growth of her children.

Olsen, Tillie. “ I Stand Here Ironing .” The Short Story Project, 13 Oct. 2021, Web.

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“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen: A Critical Analysis

“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen first appeared in 1956, a year brimming with social upheaval and self-examination within the United States.

Introduction: “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen

Table of Contents

“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen first appeared in 1956, a year brimming with social upheaval and self-examination within the United States. Initially published in Pacific Spectator and Stanford Short Stories, the work later found a permanent home in Olsen’s 1961 collection, Tell Me a Riddle. The story’s enduring strength lies in its innovative stream-of-consciousness narration. Through this technique, the protagonist, a working-class mother, grapples with the intricacies of motherhood and the weight of missed chances. Olsen’s poignant portrayal sheds light on the challenges faced by women of this socioeconomic background, particularly the lasting impact on the often-fraught bond with their children.

Main Events in “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen

• Reflections while Ironing : The narrator, a mother, ponders her daughter’s life as she irons, grappling with memories and emotions.
• Teacher’s Concern : A teacher expresses worry about the daughter’s well-being, leading the mother to question her own abilities and role.
• Struggles with Time : Amidst the daily grind, the mother finds it challenging to carve out moments for reflection on her daughter’s journey.
• Early Memories : Recollections of the daughter as a baby, juxtaposed with the later hardships and adversities she faces.
• Financial Hardships : The family’s financial struggles force the mother to work, leaving the daughter in the care of others, shaping her early years.
• Return from Absence : The daughter returns changed after a period away, bearing the marks of physical and emotional hardships endured.
• Nursery School Necessity : Despite reservations, nursery school becomes a necessity, introducing new challenges and experiences for the daughter.
• Loneliness and Resilience : The daughter copes with loneliness and discomfort at school, yet displays resilience in the face of adversity.
• Guilt and Parenting : The mother grapples with guilt over past decisions and their impact on her daughter’s well-being and development.
• Health Struggles : The daughter faces health challenges, including nightmares and a difficult experience at a convalescent home.
• Moments of Joy : Despite adversity, the daughter experiences moments of joy, creativity, and resilience throughout her journey.
• Social Pressures : The mother reflects on societal pressures and their impact on her daughter’s self-image and development.
• Educational Challenges : The daughter struggles with school, navigating issues of confidence and academic performance.
• Discovery of Talent : The daughter discovers her talent for comedy and performance, bringing recognition but also new challenges and expectations.
• Acceptance and Hope : The story ends with the mother’s acceptance of her daughter’s complexities and a desire for her to be seen beyond her struggles, hoping for a brighter future.

Literary Devices in “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen

Characterization in “i stand here ironing” by tillie olsen, major character:.

• Sacrificial and Selfless: “we squeezed our budget to a nub for that year.” (Highlights her sacrifices for Emily)
• Overwhelmed and Frustrated: “the iron hung heavy in my hand” (Symbolism of the burden she feels)
• Loving but Doubtful: *”what in me demanded that goodness in her?” (Questions her parenting methods)

Minor Characters:

• Creative and Expressive: “her imagination vivid and hungry” (Shows her artistic potential)
• Sensitive and Neglected: “the hurt that never showed in her face” (Suggests emotional struggles)
• Resilient and Hopeful: “there is still enough of her left to live by” (Hints at her potential to overcome challenges)
• Absent and Unreliable: “left me when Emily was a baby” (Limited information, but suggests lack of support)
• Unclear Communication: “It was only with the others I remembered what he said…” (His words have little impact)

Please note:

• The story is told from the mother’s perspective, so we get a more detailed view of her character.
• The characterization of Emily and the father relies more on indirect methods like the mother’s thoughts and memories.

Major Themes in “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen

• Complexities of Motherhood : Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” delves into the multifaceted nature of motherhood, portraying the narrator’s internal struggles, guilt, and introspection regarding her daughter’s upbringing. For instance, the narrator reflects on her daughter’s early years, marked by financial constraints that forced her to leave the child in the care of others while she worked. This complexity is evident throughout the narrative as the mother grapples with her perceived shortcomings and attempts to reconcile her past decisions with their impact on her daughter’s life.
• Influence of Poverty and Societal Expectations : The story vividly illustrates the pervasive influence of poverty and societal norms on the characters’ lives. The narrator’s economic hardships compel her to make difficult choices regarding her daughter’s care, such as sending her to nursery school despite doubts about its quality. The daughter’s experiences of loneliness, discrimination, and social alienation further underscore the impact of socioeconomic status on individual lives, shaping their perceptions and opportunities.
• Struggles of Adolescence : “I Stand Here Ironing” also explores the tumultuous journey of adolescence, particularly the daughter’s quest for self-discovery and identity amidst adversity. Despite facing various challenges, including illness and social isolation, the daughter exhibits resilience and inner strength. For example, she discovers her talent for comedy and performance, finding solace and recognition in her creative pursuits despite societal pressures and expectations.
• Resilience in the Face of Adversity : Throughout the narrative, Olsen emphasizes the resilience of the human spirit in confronting life’s hardships. Despite the mother’s regrets and the daughter’s trials, both characters demonstrate an enduring capacity for love, hope, and growth. Moments of connection and understanding between the mother and daughter, as well as the daughter’s ability to find joy and meaning in life despite her circumstances, exemplify this theme. Overall, “I Stand Here Ironing” underscores the resilience of individuals in overcoming challenges and adversity, highlighting the enduring power of human spirit.

Writing Style in “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen

Stream of Consciousness:

• The story unfolds through the narrator’s (Emily’s mother) unfiltered thoughts and memories. This creates a sense of immediacy and allows the reader to directly experience her internal struggles.
• Sentences are often fragmented and jump between past and present, reflecting the jumbled nature of memory and the narrator’s emotional state.
• Repetitive phrases, like “She was a beautiful baby,” highlight the narrator’s fixation on certain moments and the guilt she carries.

Fragmentary Narrative:

• The story is not presented in a linear fashion. The narrator jumps between different points in Emily’s life, triggered by associations and the act of ironing.
• This fragmented structure reflects the difficulty the narrator has in piecing together a coherent narrative of motherhood and the impact she had on her daughter.

Vivid Imagery and Sensory Details:

• Despite the fragmented structure, Olsen uses vivid imagery to create a strong sense of place and evoke emotions.
• Details about the hot iron, the smell of the apartment, and the child’s laughter bring the story to life and connect the reader to the narrator’s experience.

Emotional Tone:

• The overall tone of the story is one of regret, remorse, and a desperate search for understanding.
• The use of short, often negative sentences (“I pushed her out… I was young”) reflects the narrator’s internal conflict.
• However, there are also hints of hope and resilience, particularly in references to Emily’s inherent potential.

Simple Diction and Sparse Dialogue:

• The language used is straightforward and unadorned, reflecting the working-class background of the narrator and the challenges of her life.
• There is minimal dialogue, further emphasizing the introspective nature of the story and the narrator’s internal monologue.
• The iron itself is a powerful symbol of the burdens and monotony of motherhood for the narrator.
• Other potential symbols include the cramped apartment, the missing father, and Emily’s artistic endeavors.

Through these stylistic choices, Tillie Olsen creates a powerful and nuanced portrait of a mother grappling with guilt and the complexities of her relationship with her daughter. The story resonates with readers due to its raw honesty and exploration of universal themes of motherhood, sacrifice, and the search for redemption.

Literary Theories and Interpretation of “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen

Topics, questions , and thesis statements about “i stand here ironing” by tillie olsen, short questions/answers about/on “i stand here ironing” by tillie olsen, literary works similar to “i stand here ironing” by tillie olsen.

• “ The Yellow Wallpaper “ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: This short story explores themes of mental illness, confinement, and patriarchal oppression through the perspective of a woman confined to a room by her husband. Like “I Stand Here Ironing,” it delves into the complexities of women’s experiences and challenges societal norms.
• “ Everyday Use “ by Alice Walker: This short story examines the dynamics between family members and the clash of values between generations. It explores themes of heritage, identity, and the struggle for self-definition, similar to Olsen’s exploration of identity and self-discovery in “I Stand Here Ironing.”
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan: This novel delves into the complex relationships between mothers and daughters, exploring themes of cultural identity, intergenerational conflict, and the immigrant experience. Like Olsen’s work, it offers insights into the challenges faced by women and the resilience required to navigate them.
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls: This memoir recounts the author’s unconventional upbringing in a dysfunctional family marked by poverty, instability, and neglect. Similar to “I Stand Here Ironing,” it explores the impact of parental decisions on children and the resilience needed to overcome adversity.
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: This semi-autobiographical novel explores themes of mental illness, societal expectations, and the struggle for identity and autonomy. Like Olsen’s work, it offers a poignant portrayal of a woman’s inner turmoil and quest for self-understanding in a challenging world.

Suggested Readings about/on “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen

• Kirschner, Linda Heinlein. “I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen.” The English Journal 65.1 (1976): 58-59.
• Olsen, Tillie. Silences . Feminist Press at CUNY, 2003.
• Olsen, Tillie. Tell me a riddle . Rutgers University Press, 1995.
• Martin, Abigail. “Tillie Olsen.” (1984).
• Rosenfelt, Deborah. “From the Thirties: Tillie Olsen and the Radical Tradition.” Feminist Criticism and Social Change (RLE Feminist Theory) . Routledge, 2013. 216-248.
• Olsen, Tillie. I stand here ironing . ProQuest LLC, 2002.
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tillie-Olsen
• http://www.tillieolsen.net/about-tillie.php
• https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/olsen-tillie

Representative Quotations from “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Literature › Analysis of Tillie Olsen’s I Stand Here Ironing

Analysis of Tillie Olsen’s I Stand Here Ironing

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 26, 2021

“I Stand Here Ironing,” first published in Prairie Schooner as “Help Her to Believe,” became the opening story of Tillie Olsen ’s collection Tell Me a Riddle (1961). It is a mother’s monologue, instigated by a school counselor’s request that she go in to discuss her daughter Emily. She recalls the obstacles she faced as a single mother during the great depression and their inevitable consequences for her firstborn. She was forced to send Emily to live with her in-laws on two different occasions when she could not find work. When she was working and they were able to be together, she had to leave her daughter in inadequate day care with indifferent caretakers. She regrets the effect of her worries on Emily, especially when she compares Emily’s good behavior to the stubborn demands of the younger children in the family. Even after her second marriage, when circumstances improved, mother and daughter were again separated when she was convinced to send Emily, who was not recovering well from the measles, away to convalesce. But the convalescent home’s rules, which restricted parental contact and discouraged close attachments, only taught Emily isolation.

Tillie Olsen/Wikimedia

Thin and awkward as a young girl, labeled “slow” at school, Emily faced difficulties and disappointments in her peer world that were exacerbated by her family’s frequent moves. She resented her younger, more attractive, and more outgoing sister, Susan. She had to help care for her four younger siblings, whose needs often took precedence over her, leaving little time for her to attend to her schoolwork or for her mother to attend to her. Forced to become self-sufficient at an early age, she learned not to need attention and grew to shun her mother’s efforts to nurture her.

Her talent as an actor gained her attention and success: Audiences loved her humor and charisma. But her mother lacked the means to support her daughter’s talent with acting lessons, and Emily was left to develop her gift on her own. The mother knows Emily probably will never realize her full potential. Emily’s happiness when she bounds in at the end of the story reassures her mother, but the fatalism of her daughter’s final remark—that she is not going to take her midterm examinations because “in a couple of years when we’ll all be atom-dead they won’t matter a bit” (11)—depresses her. Within her realistic resignation to the circumstances of her daughter’s life lies her decision “Let her be” and her hope “Help her to know,” she asks, “that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron” (12).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bauer, Helen Pike. “‘A Child of Anxious, Not Proud, Love’: Mother and Daughter in Tillie Olsen’s ‘I Stand Here Ironing.’ ” In Mother Puzzles: Daughters and Mothers in Contemporary American Literature, edited by Mickey Pearlman. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1989. Coiner, Constance. Better Red: The Writing and Resistance of Tillie Olsen and Meridel Le Sueur. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Faulkner, Mara. Protest and Possibility in the Writing of Tillie Olsen. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Frye, Joanne S. “ ‘I Stand Here Ironing’: Motherhood as Experience and Metaphor.” In The Critical Response to Tillie Olsen, edited by Kay Hoyle Nelson and Nancy Huse. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1994. ———. Tillie Olsen: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Macmillan, 1995. Olsen, Tillie. “I Stand Here Ironing.” In Tell Me a Riddle. Chicago: Lippincott, 1961. Orr, Elaine Neil. Tillie Olsen and a Feminist Spiritual Vision. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1987. Pearlman, Mickey, and Abby H. P. Werlock. Tillie Olsen. New York: Twayne, 1991.

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I Stand Here Ironing

Tillie olsen, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

I Stand Here Ironing: Introduction

I stand here ironing: plot summary, i stand here ironing: detailed summary & analysis, i stand here ironing: themes, i stand here ironing: quotes, i stand here ironing: characters, i stand here ironing: symbols, i stand here ironing: theme wheel, brief biography of tillie olsen.

Historical Context of I Stand Here Ironing

Other books related to i stand here ironing.

• Full Title: I Stand Here Ironing
• When Written: 1950s
• Where Written: San Francisco, California
• When Published: 1960
• Literary Period: Postmodern period
• Genre: Short story, Realism, Feminism
• Setting: Unspecified urban, working class neighborhood
• Climax: Emily enters the room where the narrator is ironing
• Antagonist: Economic and social pressures
• Point of View: First person

Extra Credit for I Stand Here Ironing

Documentary Subject. A 2007 documentary called Tillie Olsen: A Heart in Action focuses on Tillie Olsen’s life and literary influence.