Daystar
"She had an hour, at best, before Liza appeared/pouting from the top of the stairs."
Although one technically cannot determine precisely who Liza is from the passage, the connotations associated with "pouting" would lead one to assume she is a child. A number of ideas provide further evidence of this, such as the napping children and diapers on the line. Having a small battalion of nieces and nephews and fair experience with younger children myself, I can easily picture a sleepy face appearing at the landing. It would look slightly quarrelsome as it has not yet shook loose its sleepy stupor and is rather unclear whether it should be happy or if there is something about which it should show displeasure. In the poem, this line is one of many that emphasize how desperately the woman seeks to escape her domestic duties, which seem to be quite trying at times (Liza appears pouting rather than with a smile).
A Pair of Silk Stockings
"...when she lay awake revolving plans in her mind...."
"Revolving," lacking its usual prepositional phrase, reminded me automatically of a revolving door. Considering the events of the rest of the story, the line may act as foreshadowing and reiterate the idea of Mrs. Sommers' "better days" that encouraged her actions.
Why I Want a Wife
"...I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one."
Oddly enough, this line causes me to picture a washer. It might possibly be because it is a useful machine that toils hard regularly only to be replaced by newer models or thrown out when something suddenly goes wrong. My family has gone through a number of perfectly healthy looking washers as they took to devouring our clothes. A part of me suffered regret and reluctance as the machine did look so new; however, the fact that it was ruining all my favorite undergarments could not be ignored. Simply put, they had to go, new or not. In the manner in which Syfers described a wife, wouldn't she be just another domestic machine?
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2 comments:
I really like your comparison of the wife in the story to a washer. Or should I say metaphor? Anyway... obviously, people shouldn't be considered replaceable, and I think the reason why this particular wife can easily see herself being replaced is because she does nothing but manual labor just like a washer. She doesn't get to contribute anything to her marriage that a machine couldn't manage.
I had not closely considered the revolving metaphor in the silk stockings story. The washing machine analogy was very descriptive and I also not an association that I made. I really appreciate your creativity in the images you crate to relate to the stories and poems. Great job, I'm looking forward to reading your future comments.
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