Monday, October 24, 2016
"Washing Day" and the Romanticization of Women's Labor
In Anna Laetitia Barbauld's "Washing Day" there seems to be a sort of romanticized whimsy or wonder ascribed the the hard domestic work of middle and lower class women. In the poem, the laborious task of washing clothes is treated as an almost joyous occasion. Even at the beginning of the poem, when the speaker talks about how much the women hate washing day, the poem seems to be making fun of it rather than sympathizing. Talking about how "to that day no peace belongs nor comfort" and how the women themselves have no "pleasant smile, nor quaint device of mirth" seems comedic in its seriousness the same way we might joke about the horrors of finals week (11-12, 14). Furthermore, the poem chastises the women for complaining when it talks about how "Saints have been calm while stretch upon the rack" but housewives are upset by rain on washing day (29). In this the poem seems to trivialize women's labor--or at the very least working-class women's labor. The whimsy comes in toward the end of the poem, when the washing is done and the speaker sits musing over soap bubbles and wondering over the washing. The buoyant bubbles seem to be given a heavenly aspect in that they float above "the sports of children and toils of men"--as if the act of washing is holy (84). Ending the poem this way makes the action of washing clothes seem like some sort of magical women's domain, which is obviously very far removed from the physical labor required in order to clean.
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Perhaps I read the poems wrong, but I viewed Robinson's portrayal of women's domestic duties to be romanticized, and Barbauld's to be a lamentation. I did not pick up any of the joyous undertones.
ReplyDeleteHowever, looking back at Barbauld's poem, I can see the romanticization-- but still no joyous undertones. I still feel as though it is a lamentation referring to the "toils of men" (84), where "briskly the work went on,/all hands employed to wash, rinse, to wring" (75-76). This lamentation, I feel, is romanticized and exaggerated- making the usually mundane (albeit tedious) act of washing clothing to be something absolutely dreaded all week long.
I also saw this poem as romanticizing domestic duties but after discussion, i now see the levels of satire. One aspect I thought of while reading however was the use of nature in the poem. In other stories, we discussed how nature reflects or effects the subjects in the work and I think it works here in how nature is interfering with the women's washing day. It shows that even nature is against them.
ReplyDeleteThis is the difficulty with "Washing Day". The double speak that Barbauld employs is maddeningly complex. On one hand, she seems to be romanticizing women's labor, thereby downplaying the need for changing women's education/upbringing. And yet on the other hand, she is satirizing the very notion of romanticized labor. This whole poem is a paradox. Barbauld is able to simultaneously critique female domestic life, while making it seem innocuous and harmless.
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