Quote: “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (paragraph 19?)

Comment: This quote made me think of how this assertion must mean that before, her life was really not her own and that by feeling this new wave of freedom and life’s purpose, she is, for the first time realizing her own confinement within these strict gender roles, her life must have always adhered to prior. Yet, there are still elements like the idea of “running riot” that bring in ideas that this is not a good thing to be feeling and that it is a disturbance or this uncontrollable display that should be repressed. Nonetheless, I still see it as a mechanism for women to subtly start to question their roles and what their lives might look like with this freedom and choice and the idea of something being “her own” while not going too far as not to be published or allowed into their realm of knowledge in this patriarchal system. 

Question: 

Knowing that this article was published in Vogue to me makes this interesting because this is an example of a sphere in society that is usually accessible and taken in primarily by women. How could this perhaps be a way for women to form critiques and silent protests in a way that the publishers or men would not pick up on but the women that this type of magazine may start to pick up on the resistance? Also, the fact that it is in a magazine plays into this commodity idea that this story’s emotions or relevance among their audience could be used just to attract readers. Still, I also feel that these women may have used that as a disguise of sorts to partake in the form of expression they could achieve while under certain conditions in a commodified and patriarchal world.