However, by the end of the poem she seems to have built up confidence and she makes it clear that she is fed up of working hard, like when she says ‘you can bake your bread and make your bed and answer your own front door.’
She states that she is never coming back by saying ‘But now you’re on your own, my dear. I won’t be there anymore.’
I think the purpose of this purpose is to show that servants have feelings and that they are not just people that should be ordered around. The poem states that servants should stand up to their ‘masters’ and have a more confident attitude, for example ‘and you can open your own front door,’ which would be a more confident way for a servant to leave a household.
The poem suggests that Charlotte is not being treated well and that her life is very different to her master’s, as the poem says ‘you lay on a silken pillow, I lay on an attic cot.’ This compares the rich and the poor and is just a small example of how different their life-styles were.
The jobs that Charlotte had to do were not at all pleasant, for example ‘I emptied your chamber pot.’ This is a very low chore to give somebody and was possibly one of the worst jobs that a servant would have to do.
Other jobs that Charlotte O’Neil had to do were simply everyday jobs, I’ve cleaned your plate and I’ve cleaned your house and I’ve cleaned the clothes that you wore.’ I also notice how Farrell has repeated ‘I’ve cleaned’ three times, almost as thought to emphasize all the things that Charlotte O’Neil had to clean and just adds to the many things she had to do for her “master”. Also, Farrell uses ‘I’ve’ instead of ‘I’ pointing out that Charlotte did clean the house but will not do so anymore.
It seems Charlotte had good manners towards her master, like where she says “but I’ll never say “sir or “thank you ma’am”, suggests that she had been polite and had addressed her masters formally. This also makes her seem more innocent which makes the readers feel sorry for her more.
Farrell uses lines from the hymn “All things bright and beautiful” to compare the rich and the poor and to state that Charlotte O’Neil’s master believed that the rich deserved more than the poor, simply because they were richer; “The rich man earns his castle, you said. The poor deserves the gate.”
The employer’s attitude is obviously completely different to the servant’s because of the fact that the servant is so poorly treated and ordered to do so many chores. The employer does not seem to take any notice of the servant’s feelings and intends on living his/her life the way they want to, e.g. “you dined at eight and slept till late.” Also the employer seems to think that the servant should be treated as poorly as this, “that’s the way it should be, you said. That’s the poor girl’s lot!” which means that the employer obviously agrees that the rich should be treated better than the poor.
The poem finishes with a line, which was already been used in the poem “and you can open your own front door.” This suggests that she is never coming back and indicates that the servant shall never open the employer’s front door again!
