Life Of Ma Parker Essay Example For Students

Life Of Ma Parker Essay Katherine Mansfields ;quot;Life of Ma Parker;quot;: Womens Plight Katherine Mansfields ;quot;Life of Ma Parker;quot; presents the plight of Ma Parker as a working-class woman at the turn of the century, in terms of her position in the sphere of the family and in the sphere of society. ;quot;Life of Ma Parker;quot; is a story of a widowed charwoman. Like Miss Brill, Ma Parker is a very lonely woman, but their equally painful story is told quite differently, mainly because Mansfield supplies no background to account why Miss Brills Sunday passes as it does. As the title of the story denotes, we receive the story of Ma Parkers life, which explains her current situation. ;quot;As servant, wife, and mother, shes the generic British working-class female at the turn of the century cowed by drudgery and burdened by loss. Her husband, a baker, died of white lung disease, and those children who survived the high rate of infant mortality fell victim to other ills of the late-Victorian underclass: emigration, prostitution, poor health, worse luck;quot; (Lohafer 475). At the present point in the story, Ma Parker arrives to work in the house of the literary gentleman after she buried the previous day her loving grandson, Lennie, who was the only ray of light in her dreary life. According to Irigaray, ;quot;all the systems of exchange that organize patriarchal societies and all the modalities of productive work that are recognized, values, and rewarded in these societies are mens business.the work force is this always assumed to be masculine, and products are objects to be used, objects of transaction among men alone;quot; (171). Ma Parker has to play the role of an object circulated among masculine employers as she has to support her children and herself. Ma begins working as early as the age of sixteen as a ;quot;kitching-maid;quot; (143). Later on, ;quot;when that family was sold up she went as help to a doctors house, and after two years there, on the run from morning till light, she married her husband;quot; (144). Ma is an object of transaction among men, as she transfers from one male employee to another, until she is married. Now then, Ma was working for the literary man, as people advised him to ;quot;get a hag in once a week to clean up;quot; (142, my italics). The literary man, insensitive to his surroundings and lonely as Ma Parker at the same time, dirties everything around him and leaves it all looking like ;quot;a gigantic dustbin;quot; (142), but Ma ;quot;pitied the poor young gentleman for having no one to look after him;quot; (142). Instead of thinking of herself, of her plight, her poverty and loneliness, Ma pities the gentleman she works for. At this point she does not stop to think of her troubles, of her grief, of her hard life. While Miss Brill lives in a world of her own creation and is a mere spectator of life (much like the literary gentleman Ma Parker works for), Ma Parker is an active participant in the cruel and difficult reality of her time, and suffers the hardships of a working-class woman. Ma Parker realizes she has had a hard life and wonders to herself, ;quot;why must it all have happened to me?what have I done?What have I done?;quot; (Mansfield 148-149). Ma Parker, sadly, has grown ;quot;accustomed to the pain;quot; (141). She and her husband ;quot;had thirteen little ones and buried seven of them. It if wasnt the ospital it was the infirmaryquot; (144). Her husband then dies of consumption and Ma Parker is left alone to struggle to bring up six little children and quot;keep herself to herselfquot; (145). She must keep herself to herself, for quot;the gender-coded expectation is that Ma should swallow her sufferingquot; (Lohafer 477) and keep on being strong for the sake of everyone concerned. She does not have the privilege of breaking down and actually feeling her pain. quot;Mother, virgin, prostitute: these are the social roles imposed on womenquot; (Irigaray 186). .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 , .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .postImageUrl , .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 , .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791:hover , .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791:visited , .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791:active { border:0!important; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791:active , .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791 .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u167e4b81006a3048a80dd72a6ba9c791:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: A New Sense Of Life Essay As Mas children are grown she is left alone and is ;quot;robbed;quot; of her social role as an active mother. She has no place in the patriarchal society therefore unless she assumes