Character Analysis: I Love Lucy Ricardo

I Love Lucy Too In the classic show “I Love Lucy”, Lucy Ricardo was the title character that everyone adored. While she was a housewife and later, a mother, Lucy was also a humorous character that naively believed she would be in show business and become a star. This plot device was used to show women, in a comical way, that they should stop having ambitions and remain at home. Lucy is always getting into shenanigans, dragging her friends and husband into the mess as well, and the message the show sent was to avoid being like her. Though the show is well-loved and surprisingly modern for the time it aired, Lucy Ricardo is still seen as someone an everyday 1950’s housewife should not aspire to be. Lucy had some similarities to common housewives on television. She was, in fact, a housewife and later became a mother. Her husband wanted her to be the stereotypical housewife that knows her place, despite her wacky ambitions and

While she is quirky and different from the common housewife, it is used as a thematic device to not be like her. Women who were watching back in the 1950’s were essentially told that it was naïve and foolish to have ambitions and dreams. It was seen as the right thing to stay at home, to be the ideal wife and mother like Lucy would end up realizing. Yes, her character was funny and ambitious and even independent, for the 50’s, but she was also a bit dim and always needed Ricky to rescue her. She was submissive, timid, and does not know better than her husband.

Lucy Ricardo is a well known and well loved icon from the 1950’s to now. Before, she was first seen as a symbol of what a housewife shouldn’t be and then grew into the prime example America wanted. Now, in 2017, she is seen as a woman who had ambitions and dreams. If “I Love Lucy” was a show right now, it would have grown to have more character development for her. No matter what, however, we all will still love