Housekeeping: Beyond Reason by Merilyne Robinson - Essay Example

Both the sisters have different attitudes towards their aunt. Lucille, influenced by her home economics teacher, abhors Aunt Sylvie’s abnormalities and inability to keep the house. She prefers normative behavior and always tries to remind Ruth of her waywardness. On the other hand, Ruth comes under the influence of Aunt Sylvie and in the end, shares her scheme of burning the house. The concept of housekeeping has not been used in a literal sense; rather, it assumes different connotations when used in metaphorical sense.

The housekeeping on the part of the characters is an effort to bring about order in otherwise chaotic universe around them. But the story shows that all these efforts are futile as the disruption in the natural world is inevitable as the natural order is the offspring of transience. It tries to defeat any attempt towards permanence. Elliott (2012) observes that “Robinson’s novel explores the notion of keeping within the house in relation to dense ethical and philosophical questions regarding the relations between inside and outside, community and individual, rest and motion, pattern and chaos” ( p 148).

The Significance of the title The very title seems to have ironic overtones as one of the main character fail to keep the house in the manner expected by the society. Aunt Silvie is a transient who believes in impermanence and enjoys a life of wandering. Though she quits her wandering and resolves to bring up the orphan girls. She takes up the task of housekeeping for the sake of girls. But she was unable to chaperone the girls she was entrusted to take care of. Rather, she was considered a bad influence for the girls under protection as she showed no skills in keeping the house.

Their grandmother tells them, “So long as you look after your health, and own the roof above your head, you’re as safe as anyone can be, God willing” (p 27). Housekeeping also refers to mothering. The main loss of the girls is the loss of their mother, which is the symbol of love affection and care and good housekeeping. The girls throughout their life are in search of a person whom they should identify with their mother. Mother is the symbol which connects the family together. The absence of a perfect housekeeper -- or mother haunts the characters throughout the novel.

They try to find their mother in different characters: their grandmother, their aunts. Hurley (n.d.) observes that “the girls struggle to connect with a mother figure which is not present. During this search the girls grow apart as they struggle to find themselves. After a series of abandonment, Ruth and Lucille of Robinson’s Housekeeping find their own identities through the mother-daughter relationships they form and the homes that they connect with” (p 1). Absence of male characters An exclusive feature of the novel is the absence of male characters in the novel.

The novel is populated with different female characters who are trying their femininity in different ways. The ladies of the Foster family live in a world which is devoid of any “masculine influence”. This thing affects their lives and puts indelible marks on their characters. Some critics have raised questions regarding absence of male characters in novel. Though such dearth of male characters may seem uncommon “but artistically, Robinson chose for her protagonist the voice of a single woman, a transient in her 20s looking back on her childhood, and this character