Nature versus nurture: this debate has been revisited many times to try and determine how a child’s character is shaped into the adult that she becomes. In I Stand Her Ironing a young mother is asked by an unknown source to help them understand her daughter, Emily, because they want to help her. As she continues in her endless pursuit of finishing the ironing the mother goes on to contemplate why Emily is the way that she is. Was it her “fault” Emily is the way that she is or the environment’s? Emily’s life is examined though-out the text from birth to nineteen. Nature and nurture both play important roles as Emily’s character develops through abandonment, sickness, and a lack of confidence in her inner and outer beauty.
