The Revolt of the Mother
"I've done my duty by you forty year, an' I'm goin' to do it now; but I'm goin' to live here."
I find it interesting how this line embodies the simplicity of Sarah's heterodoxy. She has committed no great atrocity and nothing, except the scenery, truly changes for the community. It seems that her greatest crime is forcing her husband to honor a promise. While she must forcibly attain her desire, the sinister and subversive implications of her actions are nullified as she indicates that her social position has not changed. I like this line because it emphasizes that Sarah has no intentions of making some kind of grand stand or promoting societal upheaval. It is not a matter of justice, but a matter of right and wrong. Within the text, I believe the line indicates a lack of animosity in Sarah and the innocence of her action.
Trifles
"You know, it seems kind of sneaking. Locking her up in town and then coming out here and trying to get her own house to turn against her!"
In a variation of the classic stereotype, Mrs. Hale implies that a woman's home is her territory and thus beholden to her. It is made clear that Mrs. Hale knew John Wright, but she refers to the house as belonging to Minnie. The house does not seem to belong to both of them, but to the female due to her labors and expectations about the home as evidenced by the exchange between the men, Mrs. Hale, and Mrs. Peters in response to the state of the kitchen. While the women of the play may have been governed by men, it seems as though they have applied their own rules and ideas to these stereotypes as to make them their own. It is much akin to the idea that a derogatory term loses power when easily used by those it was intended to offend. I believe these lines indicate how differently the women perceive the house, suspect, and crime.
As Children Together
"...past crystal swamps and the death/ face of each dark house,/ over golden ice of tobacco spit...."
The first thing that came to mind when I read this was the old saying, "Don't eat the yellow snow." While the words "golden" and "crystal" usually evoke rich images of beauty or luxury, they are associated with what may be perceived as unpleasant or base things here. With the eventual degradation of Victoria, one could possibly interpret this deceptive imagery as foreshadowing.
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2 comments:
hahaha, I LOVE YOUR ANALOGY OF AS CHILDREN TOGETHER! It totally made me see a different side to the poem. Very creative!
I agree that Sarah is not making a social upheval, I think this is a good distinction between some other reactions because it makes the focus of the story more on the relationship between mother and father and the promise he made to her when they were married.
It is interesting that you menioned the classic stereotype of the property being the males' and this story sort of reversing that. In thinking about that idea, I think the story needs that in order to make the connection between the happiness the bird brought the woman. Instead of her territory, I am thinking that the house and farm may have almost been her prision, tied to the metaphor of the birdcage. It is now probably ironic that she will be actually imprisioned after tolerating her solitude all the years she was married.
Great ideas, thanks.
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