Mrs.+Williams+(Jocelyn)

"Mrs. Williams" Read by: Jocelyn Photo by: Jocelyn

media type="custom" key="11254274" The Secrecy of Mrs. Williams  In the __Spoon River Anthology__  by Edgar Lee Masters, “Mrs. Williams” poem is about how she has grown her perspective and charisma by means of life in Spoon River. Even after death, Mrs. Williams is seen as a milliner, an outcast, and a mother of a gold digger. Taking that in, all into consideration, is what creates her personality. And it all wraps up since being anti-social, causes her to grow more observant and perceptive by being the milliner, a hat maker. Mrs. Williams sees beyond others’ every day persona, and characteristics that most do not notice. The hats she makes are an impact on the relationships with husbands and wives. Wives and women wear hats to take away husbands or keep them faithful. “Do you think that Spoon River / had been any worse? (lines 25,26)” However, she still believes Spoon River really had not been any worse with wives or women taking or keeping husbands by wearing hats. Being anti-social and a rascal is something Mrs. Williams creates during her life or carries around with her. She is Dora's mother. Mrs. Williams expresses as, “Mother of Dora (line 3).” Dora's reputation is a fortune hunter, so that implies that the mother, Mrs. Williams, taught dirty manners to her. Just for that, she is judged and because she is solitary for not being part of the social life and keeps her thoughts all to herself, nobody knows how she really is, so she is “Talked about, lied about (line 2).” The town makes up Mrs. Williams personality due to their visualizing and then assuming. Therefore, she says about herself “Whose strange disappearance / Was charged to her rearing (lines 4, 5).” Rearing is how one raises their child. The town is asserting she disappeared because of how she raised Dora, so she felt ashamed. On account of, Mrs. Williams’ actuality of an anti-social life and being mother of Dora conceives misinterpretation as a ridiculous and weird person. Throughout the poem, Mrs. Williams is interpreted as observant and perceptive. “My eye quick to beauty / Saw much beside ribbons/ And buckles and feathers/ And leghorns and felts, / To set off sweet faces/ And dark hair and gold (lines 6, 7).” She sees that the materials of hats and hats themselves are not just to be fancy or elegant. There is much more to a hat. She observes, but never says what she has until the end, when she polishes off. “The stealers of husbands / Wear powders and trinkets / And fashionable hats (lines 14, 15, 16).” Wives and women wear fashionable hats to look pretty for husbands and men. She says, “Wives wear them yourselves (line 17).” Wives wear hats to impress their husbands, so that they will stay with them. Some wives, however, wear this like other women to steal husbands. It's a game. The woman or wife with prettiest hat, which frames the best impression on man or husband wins because the man or husband fell for the woman or wife in behalf of the beauty and elegance the hat gave her, so then this woman or wife has the opportunity to keep this man or husband. Hats are not all. Powder and trinkets help in this too, to look prettier and catch attention faster. It all falls under Mrs. Williams being a hat maker. She builds on her anti-socialites and observance at work. At her job, Mrs. Williams being anti-social makes her pay careful attention to what she is creating, hats. This makes observant and perceptive strengthen as part of her personality. Then, she uses it as advice. Hats are more than an object, so she reveals, “Hats may make divorces - / They also prevent them (lines 18, 19).” A wife will keep her husband faithful if she impresses him with her looks, but she will lose him if another wife or woman makes a greater impression. Now, Spoon River could not be any worse, if “fathers and mothers had been given their freedom / To live and enjoy, change mates if they wished (lines 23, 24).” She, an outsider, who does not harm others physically, and wives and women who play husband games and do harm others physically and emotionally are misread; in that case, Mrs. Williams will still be judged wrongly for being anti-social because she will still be considered an outsider and changing mates will then be part of having freedom. Both ways wives and women are stealing and keeping husbands faithful, which is Mrs. Williams point. There is the mystery left of what happened to Mrs. Williams and how her relationship went with her husband, but for now some of her secrecy has been let out. Being a hat maker made her become observant and perceptive because she was anti-social. Mrs. Williams is a mother of a gold digger, an outcast, and a hat maker, but with an interesting and engaging individuality.

Works Cited: Masters, Edgar Lee. “Mrs. Williams.”  __The Spoon River Anthology__ . New York; MacMillan, 1946. 72, 73.