A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Mother-daughter Relationship in “I Stand Here Ironing”

“I Stand Here Ironing” is recognized as one of Tillie Olsen’s most anthologized works. As a biographical short story extracted from the writer’s own experience as a single mother, with the first daughter Clara as the prototype for Emily in the story, it relates how a single mother parents her first child Emily in the turmoil of the Great Depression. It has attracted interests of many scholars to explore the feminist themes of motherhood among the working class or Jewish identity in woman literature. However, psychoanalysis is seldom employed to tap the inner being of Emily and her mother so as to examine the dynamics of motherdaughter relationship. This paper aims to analyze the defense mechanisms adopted by Emily and her mother to explore their unconscious, so that we can have a better understanding about the motherdaughter relationship. Both Emily and her mother resort to certain defense mechanisms to protect their tortured ego and escape from the family as well as the real world. Finally, they bravely confront the reality and fulfill a harmonious return.