I Stand Here Ironing Characters

We've all had moments when we feel that our mothers, much as we love them, just don't understand us. Maybe we don't agree with the rules that they set for us (curfews, an age limit on dating…), o...

In "I Stand Here Ironing," the narrator tells us from the beginning of the story that she cannot provide the "key" to her daughter Emily's character: "There is all that life outside of me, beyond m...

The story never tells us who asks the question that starts the narrator thinking about Emily's life ("I wish you would manage the time to come in and talk with me about your daughter"). Most reader...

Susan is one of the narrator's children from her second marriage. Unlike Emily, Susan grew up in relatively comfortable circumstances, and in many ways, she is Emily's opposite. While Susan is "gol...