The Theme of Identity and Objectification in William Carlos Williams’ “The Young Housewife”

The American physician and poet William Carlos Williams was a champion of Americana, choosing common and pastoral objects and illuminating their complexity through his poetry. In “The Young Housewife,” Williams uses form, language, imagery, figures of speech, sounds, and symbol to reinforce meaning and to develop the theme of identity versus objectification as the poem’s narrator watches and comments upon a young housewife in his neighborhood.

The form for “The Young Housewife” is open. The first three lines of the poem are conveying a thought without following a specific poetic format, “At ten AM the young housewife / moves about in negligee behind / the wooden walls of her husband’s house” (Williams). The line breaks are intended to focus more on the words being used than a particular rhyme scheme or syllabic structure. While it might have been interesting for Williams to use a closed form like a sonnet (or some other form associated with wooing or courting a woman), the open form contributes to the theme by allowing Williams to focus more on the other elements, especially the language. Also, the form for this poem is unique, giving it a unique identity, which is at play in the poem’s theme about a young woman’s identity.

The poem’s language—including its connotations, grammar, and diction—all contribute to the development of the theme. The use of “negligee” in the second line connotes intimacy and sexuality, and it is the first physical description of the housewife that readers get (Williams). Later, when she goes out “to call” the ice-man and fish-man, there is the connotation of the sirens calling men in The Odyssey. Williams is deliberately setting up the housewife as a sexual object who is complicit in her sexuality. This develops the theme by making the housewife both an individual agent and object of desire.

The grammar of the poem shows Williams’ mastery of language and helps develop the theme of objectivity and identity. Williams relies on suggestive verbs to portray the housewife as an object of sexuality. She “moves about in negligee” and “call[s] the ice-man, fish man” while “tucking in stray ends of hair” (Williams). Instead of “dressing in” or “wearing” negligee, she “moves about” in it, as if it is acceptable attire for her to wear for her day of activity. “Calling” is an active verb—she is seeking their attention—while at the same time “tucking” her hair behind her ears, a soft feminine gesture that is somewhat intimate. The use of specific verbs develops the theme by giving the young housewife a type of sexual agency, justifying (in the narrator’s perspective) his objectification of her. 

The diction of the poem is middle diction, intended to be both clear and precise but also more common than high diction. “The noiseless wheels of my car / rush with a crackling sound” is precise, but it is not elevated or slang speech. The narrator of the poem is presumably middle class—using intelligent but not elevated speech. This use of diction helps Williams develop the theme by framing the topic and discussion in the language of everyday people. Diction helps develop the theme of objectivity and identity by placing both the narrator and housewife in the same middle-class community.

Williams uses imagery deftly to develop his theme of identity and objectivity. The visual imagery is slightly sexy and suggestive. The housewife is presented in “negligee” and “uncorseted,” suggesting a state of undress and sexual accessibility, and it is titillating because this intimate imagery is in the public eye (Williams). Williams also uses the imagery of the housewife tucking loose strands of hair behind her head as a way of showing her innocence, developing the theme that the young housewife is exploring her identity while also being viewed as an object. 

The narrator’s use of figurative language, including metaphor, in comparing the housewife to a leaf helps develop the theme. The narrator states late in the poem, “and I compare her to a fallen leaf,” creating a metaphor between the housewife and something that is in its transition to decay, bound to be crushed under the wheels of a car (Williams). This connects to the theme by showing the way that the young housewife is viewed by the male community member and her fate after he has lost interest in her.

Sounds such as onomatopoeia are also important to the development of the theme. After the narrator compares the housewife to a fallen leaf, Williams uses onomatopoeia to signal the way that the housewife is treated, as the wheels of the narrator’s car “rush with a crackling sound” as he leaves and she breaks (Williams). The housewife’s identity crackles under the weight of the narrator’s gaze, and she is an object along his path as he travels.

The young housewife as a subject is also a cultural symbol from a period in American history when married women were mostly homemakers, led by a patriarchal culture, and not part of the corporate workforce. The poem states that she is still in “negligee” at “ten AM,” conjuring an image of a young, childless woman having the luxury of a slow day in front of her. Another part of the symbol of the young housewife is her sexuality, revealed by Williams through “uncorseted” with loose strands of hair. The young housewife is an object of desire, both culturally and in the poem, and it is this symbol that Williams uses to explore the theme.

Within the poem, a leaf becomes a contextual symbol, representing the young housewife and the people who came before her. The narrator acknowledges, “And I compare her / to a fallen leaf” (Williams). Then he “[rushes]… over / dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling,” connecting the young housewife who is now a freshly fallen leaf to the leaves that fell before, and which are trampled and forgotten. This develops the theme because the identity of the housewife, singular in the moment, is a lot like the many housewives everywhere. 

William Carlos Williams enjoyed finding the uncommon and thought-provoking elements of everyday things. In “A Young Housewife” the poet uses form, words, imagery, figures of speech, sounds, and symbol to explore the theme of object versus identity.

Work Cited

Williams, William Carlos. “The Young Housewife.” Poem Hunter, https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-young-housewife/ . Accessed 22 Sept. 2013.