Attitudes About Men and Women in 19th Century New England

¶ … Revolt of 'Mother'" by Mary Wilkins is the story of a frustrated New England woman who used her independence, resourcefulness and determination to get what she deserved and wanted. Wilkins shows the attitude of New Englanders in the late 19th Century, with women being the dutiful mice who followed their husbands' leads and men disregarding women's opinions, wants and hopes based on promised. Mother gives her husband a big surprise when he returns home and he crumbles under her unexpected strength.

An interesting fact about Mary E. Wilkins

Perhaps the most interesting fact about Mary E. Wilkins was that she believed her own story, "The Revolt of 'Mother,'" could not be true. As a native New Englander, Wilkins is famous for her stories about frustrated New Englanders (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.), and made "Mother" a frustrated New Englander who got her way by clever determination but ultimately believed the story did not ring true (Glasser). When Wilkins was interviewed for The Saturday Evening Post in 1917, she said, "There never was in New England a woman like Mother. If there had been she certainly would have lacked the nerve. She would also have lacked the imagination (Glasser). Her story about the victory of a squelched but resourceful person is encouraging but hearing that she believes it really would not be possible is discouraging.

b. One predominant aspect of my identity and relation to a character

I am quite independent and my actions are not out of weakness or fear or currying favor. I do my duties because I believe in them, not because someone else is ordering me to do them. Mother is the same type of person. She is a dutiful wife who cooks, cleans, and performs her duties, no matter how angry she might be: "However deep a resentment she might be forced to hold against her husband, she would never fail in sedulous attention to his wants" (Wilkins 261); however, her dutifulness is not due to weakness, fear or currying favor: "…her eyes, fixed upon the old man, looked as if the meekness had been the result of her own will, never of the will of another" (Wilkins 259). She is responsible but she is no doormat. Even when the minister went to give her a hard time about moving the house to the new barn without her husband knowing about it, she told the minister in no uncertain terms that he could not change her mind. "I've got my own mind an' my own feet, an' I'm goin' to think my own thoughts an' go my own ways, an' nobody but the Lord is goin' to dictate to me unless I've a mind to have him" (Wilkins 271). I admire her independence and her willingness to do her duties because she believes she should do them, not because someone else is ordering her around.