Eva as a Woman
As the time goes, Eva also gets more confident in terms of fighting David’s expectation on herself. Technically, she is now a very old grandmother.
She no longer feels obligated to do her duty as a housewife and a mother. However, she still yearns for freedom.
Enough . Now they have no children. Let him wrack his head for how they
would live . She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again
to be forced to move to the rhythms of others .
For in this solitude she had won a reconciled peace .
Olsen, 1976: 77 Eva tries to take the advantage of her current situation and have the time of
her life as a woman . She yearns for freedom and she never stops fighting for it.
Especially, now that she has no duty as a mother . She fights for her freedom and
she finally wins . She is not giving up on her solitude nor is she going to let herself
being told what to do . As she is shown to have sacrificed her free spirited self in
the past to be the woman expected by the society, she does not want to that person anymore
. However, researcher notices that Eva develops anxiety issue when she is faced with her old tasks
. A new baby
. How many warm seductive babies. She holds him stiffly, away from her, so that he wails
. And a long shudder begins, and the sweat beads on her forehead
. “Hush, shush,” croons the grandfather, lifting him back. You should
forgive your Grandmamma, little prince, she has never held a baby before, only seen the in glass cases
. Hush, shush. ”
“You’re tired, Ma?” says Vivi. “The travel and the noisy dinner. I’ll take you to lie down
. ”
A long travel from, to, what the feel of a baby evokes .
Olsen, 1976: 91
Eva used to put others before herself and she wants solitude and silence in her old days as a remedy. She finally reaches her golden age at that time and
freedom is her big achievement. She wants to live her life without any limitations because she is not able to do so in her days while being a housewife and a mother.
She cherishes the freedom and she is determined to keep it safe. As the result, she becomes anxious when she meets
Vivi’s son. Her anxiety shows how much she does not want the history to repeat itself. David also
does not help much as he claims that Eva never holds a baby before .David is also shown to degrade Eva by his words. Again, does not acknowledge
Eva’s ability as a mother as she is the one who raises seven children. Researcher then realizes that
Eva is unable to be the grandmother figure in the first place. She wants to be free after she is done with her duties. The proof can be seen from the following.
Cannot what? Unnatural grandmother. Not able to make herself embrace a baby.
It was not that she had not loved her babies, her children. The love – the
passion of tending – had risen with the need like a torrent; and like a
torrent drowned and immolated all else. But when the need was done – oh
the power that was lost in the painful damming back and drying up of what still surged.
Olsen, 1976: 92 Here, it can be seen that Eva loves her children and she gives her best.
However, she does it out of the gender roles given by the society. Once she feels that her duty is done, she just cannot bring herself to do more motherly duty. She
does not even have the heart to hold the baby as it reminds her of her past days of being a mother. She loves and supports her children, but she is done. She does her
best for her children, and her grandchildren are not her business. She wants to put herself as the priority this time.
Eva grows older and she is shown to develop a hearing problem. She wears a pair of hearing-aids to help her hearing things. However, she makes use of
the fact that the hearing aid can be turned on and off. There are multiple occasions where she turns it off to her advantage whenever she does not want to hear others.
The proof can be seen from the following part. “And she turned off her ear button, so she would not have to hear.”
Olsen, 1976: 75 This happens when Eva finds out that David has been hearing her words of
a better mankind, but David chooses to ignore it. David urges Eva to move into Haven. Eva has had enough. She turns her hearing aid off so she cannot hear
David’s voice. Another example of the same act can be seen from the following part.
“Turn on your ear button – I am talking. And stubbornly she resisted – so that from wheedling, reasoning, manipulation, it was bitterness he now
started with. ”
Olsen, 1976: 78 On one of those times, David and Eva have another quarrel on selling the
house. David keeps repeating the same talks about moving to Haven and Eva does not want to hear it as her decision has been made from the beginning. She does
not want the house to be sold.In response, she turns off her hearing aid only to see David being mad, claiming that there will be a way to make her sign the
documents. Eva is no longer forced to listen to what people say, especially David. She now has a choice, to listen to David’s words or to turn off her hearing aid.
Eva shows an attempt to stand up for herself and rebel by choosing the second option.
From the proofs provided, it can be concluded that Eva uses the hearing aids to her advantage. Whenever she does not want to hear others, she turns it off.
This act actually indicates that she has been oppressed the whole time. She has to hear her husband’s orders and opinions since her marriage. She finally gets her
freedom through the hearing-aids. It becomes her escapade. If not for the hearing problems, she will not have any other choice but to hear David’s ramble. As
explained earlier, the act of turning off the hearing-aids can be considered as her rebellion of not listening to David’s word as a man. If David can ignore her words
when he can clearly hear it, she can do the same thing. Eva tries to stand up on her own
and seek for equality to David’s action. In conclusion, Eva fights for her own freedom. She goes along with what
the society expects her to be in the beginning of the story. However, she only gets stronger and more confident in standing up for her rights to David towards the end
of the story. She is an independent woman and she wants to be free as she finishes her duties. It is also revealed that Eva has been putting up with the pressure
addressed towards her and she grows tired of being told what to do.