If I Cant Have Her, No One Can :: essays research papers

Most people, when forced to give up the one affair they truly love, would rather see it be destroyed than in the workforce of another person. In &8220Old char charr Magoun, by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, the oeraged woman is in that position. She is burdened with relinquishing custody of her granddaughter, Lily, to the child&8217s father. Throughout the story, the out of date woman faces an inner struggle over condole with for and, ultimately, losing her granddaughter. She deals with her struggle in a very realistic, human response. Old cleaning lady Magoun is a woman who refuses to be disobeyed or disagreed with. She has a peculiar miss over all those in her company. &8220No one had dared openly contest the one-time(a) woman (Freeman, 362). The only person she cannot make &8220visibly cower (361) is Nelson Barry, Lily&8217s father. He is the only one that shows any disregard towards the archaic woman. Old Woman Magoun and Nelson Barry never agree with each other in any way. T he old woman has been especially cautious of Barry ever since her daughter died and she had to take direction of Lily. After an undesired and unforeseen encounter between the girl and Barry, the old woman is informed that she must hand over the girl. Feeling bemused and having no hold up over the site, she feels forced to make a major decision to prevent the young girl from, what she feels, would be a solemn predica custodyt.Old Woman Magoun most likely feels responsible for Lily&8217s situation and her own daughter&8217s demise and has learned to fear men as a result of it. She fears the girl&8217s father because he represents the part of herself that she cannot control, Lily. She has no choice but to give up her granddaughter and she cannot book to lose her to the man she despises, Nelson Barry. Facing the reality of losing Lily is more than the old woman is readily prepared for. In many of her stories, Freeman &8220invests the women with power and only simultaneously lim its their power (http//www.georgetown.edu/libraries/ 2). Old Woman Magoun has a mysterious command over people, but it doesn&8217t help her when it comes to keeping Lily. She still has to relinquish her control over the child and she has no power to change the circumstances. Freeman makes the old woman suffer the &8220realities of nineteenth-century New England (2). These realities are that a woman must abide by her socially defined and accepted role and if she does not abide, she will suffer the consequences that result.