Mother's Monologue In I Stand Here Ironing

The central character within “I Stand Here Ironing” is not the unnamed mother, it is the child that the mother is distraught over due to the mother’s negligence. We only learn of Emily through her mother’s monologue. From what readers can gather from her mother’s monologue is that Emily is a nineteen year old young lady who is having trouble with school. The counselor called because of her concern of Emily’s development and to speak to her mother one-on-one, but the mother doesn’t see what good she would do. We see this when the mother says “Even if I came, what good would I do?” Emily’s childhood was spent with people from the mother’s living complex, the father’s family, and then when her mother gave birth to her other siblings after she