Life In The Iron Mills Analysis

In Rebecca Harding Davis’s novella, Life in the Iron Mills, select days of an iron mill worker are examined. The novella carries a prominent theme of want and desire. This theme is developed through Davis’s use of imagery and characterization and is best represented by two of the main characters, Deborah and Hugh. Deborah is the character who is characterized to have a hunched back and supports Hugh day to day. Davis’s first display of desire in the novella is with Deb when she went out of her way to bring dinner to Hugh. She had to walk through the cold rain across town to the iron mill. Deb desires to please Hugh as it’s seen evident in a short exchange upon her arrival, “‘Is’t good, Hugh? T’ ale was a bit sour, I feared.’” (7), to which Hugh responded, “‘No, good enough.’” (7), to express a minimal amount of gratefulness. Hugh keeps the conversation brief as to minimize his time away from working but Deborah desires to please him anyway with a meal she provided. Davis’s characterization of Deborah from the beginning of Life in the Iron Mills is as a woman who wants to do her best to “[P]lease the one human being whom she loved” (7) even when she does not receive an expression of gratitude back. This characterization becomes an important part as more of Hugh’s personality becomes revealed.
Davis’s use of imagery to describe Hugh structures more to the development of Hugh’s desires. As Hugh’s shift transitions into the night, he is revealed to have constructed a very well