I Stand Here Ironing

“I Stand Here Ironing” is a short story about a mother who realizes that she did not give her daughter all the attention she needed, nor did she show all the affection she should have during her childhood, and as a result, her daughter has trouble fitting into society and is in a state of depression.


Level One Question:
What is Emily’s gift?

Level Two Question:
Why is “Somebody” capitalized on page 15?

Level Three Question:
Do you think affection and love are vital like the story implies?



The theme of this short story is that it is often human nature to put work and yourself ahead of others and loved ones. By doing this, loved ones often feel neglected, which causes them to become depressed and have flat personalities that could have been fixed through love and affection.

Emily “was a child seldom smiled at”. Instead of taking time to talk to Emily to see how she was feeling and what she wanted, her mother would try think how to “iron out” the problems between herself and her daughter. Her mom could not deal with Emily’s moodiness, which was caused by her feeling alienated from society, so she sent Emily to boarding school and to live with relatives. All of this moving is one of the sources to why Emily had a rough childhood, especially through the years when her personality and self-esteem were supposed to develop. This caused Emily to feel like she did not fit into society and this in turn caused her to have little confidence. In addition to feeling alienated, Emily was deprived of affection. The boarding school that she attended rejected showing any affection. Not only would the school not allow her to have any possessions or to keep letters from her family that would be of sentimental value, it believed in maintaining an “invisible wall” between parents and their children to prevent love or affection. These things caused Emily to have a nervous condition, even to the point where she would no longer eat. Emily was in a state of depression with no love and no one to care for her. This caused her to start acting, which was her way of becoming “Somebody”.