Thursday, March 29, 2012

14 "The Young Housewife"


"The Young Housewife" by William Carlos Williams displays how young love is ruthless, carefree, selfish, stupid, and inconsiderate.  The poem, which is told from a first-person point-of-view,  speaks of a young woman who goes behind her husband's back to cheat with other men that are mentioned within the piece.  The ice-man and fish-man both have her way with her before she is discovered by the narrator whom I presume might be her husband or private investigator.   The last line of the poem says, "The noiseless wheels of my car/rush with a crackling sound over/dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling," which I take as a notification of discovery and satisfaction for catching the frivolous female in the act of deception.  As I stated earlier, the narrator may very well be the husband or a P.I. tailored to trailing the deeds that the young housewife commits, so as he "bows and smiles" as he passes her the gratification may come from the idea that he caught her red-handed or  it is the husband's gratification for finally freeing himself of deception, lies, and false love.   

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