Queens Mother's Red Dress Analysis

Decent Essays
“Millie’s Mother’s Red Dress” by Carol Lynn Pearson is a poem about a daughter listening to her mother’s last words. In this poem Millie, the daughter, is called to visit her mother as she tries to “undo a lesson or two.” The mother goes on to explain to Millie the lessons she taught and how wrong those lessons were. Her sacrifices went unnoticed and unappreciated, and before her death, she hopes to make sure that Millie doesn’t make the same errors she made. From the mother to the father and sons, the characters in this poem play a major role in developing the general significance of the poem. Millie’s mother was a subservient woman who lived for her family. As a particularly dedicated wife and mother, she never got to indulge in any of …show more content…
Such small sacrifices as taking the “very smallest piece of pie” had a great effect on how Millie’s mother viewed her life. Through all of these …show more content…
When the doctor’s informed him of the mother’s condition he only thought of himself asking the question “What’ll become of me?” He was in shock because of the news of her worsening condition, so there is no question that he loved his wife. The reliance on his wife and her willingness to be as dutiful as possible bring about the question of the time period of this story. One can assume that this poem was set in a time period where women were expected to care for the home and obey their husbands. The mother states that the father “can’t even find the frying pan.” From this, one can infer that the husband never had to do anything except work and come home to a wife who had the meals ready. We can also tell that he was a selfish man by the way he talked to the mother when she bought her red dress. A person would think that he would gather from her buying of the red dress that she wanted to go out and have a good time with the man she loved. He only made snide remarks that could have only made her question why she bought the dress The mother blamed herself only for the actions of her sons against their wives, but the father’s actions also set a horrible example for how women should be

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