The social positioning of a woman in society is supposed with definite functions and duties, roughly speaking. This idea was developed from ancient times by manpower which seemed to be absolute in every time and every culture. Tillie Olsen and Kate Chopin are the most popular researchers in this sphere of social relationships. Their short stories are allegedly intended to show the truth of women’s desires and thought “for short”. This idea is increasing in the settings of both stories. Thus, the paper deals with the explanation and evaluation of the current background maintained and provided in the bodies of both texts.
Looking at the present and the situation of relationships between men and women which seems to be changing, one can obviously state that notwithstanding the previous times’ women have become more emancipated and independent from men. The Storm and I stand here ironing were great contributors to the current development of the woman’s role in society. Both stories are not directly outlined with radical and somehow aggressive intentions of the main protagonists, but a slight motive to look into the inner sufferings of both women is provided.
Kate Chopin promotes a story of a woman who was told all her life what to do and how to behave as a woman being subordinate to a man. In this respect, the protagonist Calixta always had a mere extent of fear in her heart. She becomes significant as a woman, according to the setting of the story, if only she is chaste. Her inner world and her feelings are not significant for men and for Alcee, in particular. Her purity of heart is under the idea of sexual relationships. Thus, the author is highly motivated to oppose her protagonist to the realities of a woman’s life. The culmination of the story touches upon the episode when Alcee made out the real significance of a woman’s beauty without any stereotypes:
As she glanced up at him the fear in her liquid blue eyes had given place to a drowsy gleam that unconsciously betrayed a sensuous desire. He looked down into her eyes and there was nothing for him to do but to gather her lips in a kiss (Chopin 344).
Here the concept of love, as the best helper for making relationships between man and woman equal and stable, is emphasized. Moreover, woman and her destiny are the main motives in the story by T. Olsen I stand here ironing. In this story the picture of a woman who during the process of ironing is dreaming about her daughter, Emily. Constant reasoning about Emily does not give any space for the protagonist to think about anything else. This idea is emphasized in assumptions about Emily’s upbringing, her adulthood, her would-be husband, her position in this cruel society, on the whole. Standing at the ironing board Emily’s mother also thinks if not such destiny of hers get at Emily (Olsen and Rosenfelt 282). In other words, she is rather excited about Emily’s life and that she will not be pressed by a man’s power, at large.
All in all, the setting provided in both stories is a sort of criticism that moves a reader toward an idea of a woman’s role in society, as it is, without any points on the inner structure of the female half of mankind and their natural intentions as well.
Works cited
Chopin, Kate and Knights, Pamela. The awakening, and other stories. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Olsen,Tillie and Rosenfelt, Deborah Silverton. Tell me a riddle. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1995.