"'Frau Brechenmacher' is a cry against the stupidity and brutality of men and the women who support arrangements through sentimentality or weakness; it is written with feminist rage." Do you agree with the above quote? Discuss.

and prepares the rest of his uniform. The mentioning of uniform in the first paragraph, paints a picture of a military structure in the household and being that there are ‘five babies to bed’ gives us an idea of how busy and hard it would be to get things prepared before her husband arrives. The military atmosphere conveys that there is a lack of warmth in the household and everything must be done by schedule, therefore limiting Frau Brechenmacher’s freedom to take a rest once in a while. Frau Brechenmacher is so busy that she does have time to iron her own dress as it is revealed in the second paragraph. She prioritizes her husband’s appearance and presentation before herself, as she only hangs her dress ‘in front of the stove to get the creases out.’ Herr Brechenmacher’s uniform already sounds stunning with his ‘polished… shoes’ and buttons and his ‘black satin necktie’. There are two main points in the text that shows how much Herr Brechenmacher has overpowered her – One, when they arrive at the wedding and he had forgotten his rights as a husband to jostle her ‘against the banister’ and the ending of the story where ‘Herr Brechenmacher lurched in’ as she waited ‘like a child who expected to be hurt’. These two points tells us that Frau Brechenmacher allows her husband to hurt her. She has succumbed to him so far that she has forgotten her own rights as an individual human being. Herr Brechenmacher is also used as a threat towards his children and this enforces the idea of his dominance in the household. He is also referred to as “the father” showing his distance from the family or perhaps respect and again, the idea of a lack of warmth in the family. In contrast, Frau Brechenmacher is referred to sometimes as ‘little Frau’ in the story. When Herr Brechenmacher arrives home, he immediately asks for his clothes without giving his wife any sort of greeting. His male chauvinist attitude seems to be acceptable to Frau Brechenmacher as he tells her off for not being dressed. Herr Brechenmacher is extremely demanding and aggressive in character as throughout the story he is associated with strong words such as, “stamping” and “strode.” In response to this Frau Brechenmacher is very compliant to his demands as she politely tells him that his clothes are ready for him. The irony here is that she is dedicating all this time to get things prepared for him and nothing for her. Through the use of the wedding, Mansfield is able to show us of what is lost once a woman is married. The bride is associated with the image of ‘an iced cake all ready to be cut and served in neat little pieces to the bridegroom beside her.’ This tells us that the bride will be dominated by the groom and that her sense of individuality will be eaten up by the groom as like a cake, she is created to be consumed. This as well reinforces the idea of sacrifice and that is it is the bride that has to please the groom and not the other way round. Frau Brechenmacher is as well physically dominated as it is later revealed in the ending of the struggle between her and Her Brechenmacher. She has completely succumbed to him as she lets him “lurch” at her again in the end of the story.                 Mansfield shows us that Frau Brechenmacher accepts the routine of being the inferior one, as ‘Dressing in the dark was nothing to Frau Brechenmacher’ suggests to us of her willingness to accept Herr Brechenmacher’s attitude. He commands her to do things and she obeys. It is evident that she really is just an extension of him since Herr Brechenmacher uses her to boost his ego or status even more. How she dresses would be viewed as a reflection or a small extension of him that’s why he tells her off when she is not yet dressed. He also starts flaunting himself by ‘puffing himself out’ in the kitchen, making himself feel more important. Frau Brechenmacher replies he looked ‘Wonderful’ in his uniform when he asked her about his appearance. Frau Brechenmacher is obviously aware that she is viewed as an extension of him as she would assume ‘the air of dignity’ once she appears in public. The idea of the importance of appearance appears now and again, as reminded by Frau Rupp, “one must be careful” about one’s appearance. Theresa and Frau Brechenmacher are both being emotionally abused in the story. There is even a sense of neglect, annoyance and irritation which Herr Brechenmacher demonstrates by swiftly ‘slamming the front door behind [him.]’ Even if she had prepared the uniform, put the babies to bed and ‘lighted the lantern’, he does not even express a sense of appreciation. He is constantly only thinking of himself. Through pathetic fallacy, Mansfield reveals Frau Brechenmacher’s feeling of danger and insecurity as the ‘frozen ground was slippery as an icepond’. Her sense of isolation and loneliness is shown as she ‘felt muddled and stupid’ walking outside of the house being that she has been in ‘the house for weeks past’ and that ‘her man was running away from her.’ Her sense of being alienated is as well shown when everyone was laughing at the wedding and ‘Frau Brechenmacher did not think it funny’ to be laughing at the time. The wedding had reminded her of her own, of her own wedding day. Of the day she had to give up her rights and had to be bounded to someone else. What makes me partially agree with the above quote is that we are shown a side of the German society. In the story we are given a glimpse of individuality through Theresa, the bride. The reason to why she agreed to marry the groom was because the priest had made her. Germany at the time must’ve been a highly conservative place and so must have upheld conservative values where they believed the men had every right to dominate their wife. As well, the story is from one perspective. It is of a woman, having a glimpse of her past that sees herself being bullied as Theresa was being bullied. However this was acceptable as the view was ‘every wife has her cross’. However, it is evident that the women in the story do submit to the men and do nothing about it, as even their mothers would surrender their own daughter to a man with the knowledge that their daughter will be mistreated.