The Birth House

Once married and in her new house, Dora brings “all the memories” she can from Miss B.’s house (171). Archer is upset by this and is “especially mean when he found me filling a cupboard with jars of remedies and herbs” because he told her to give up midwifing (171). Even when she protests that someone might need help, he dismisses this as a doctor’s job and says that Miss B. never helped anyone anyway. He thinks that “half the time a person’s sickness is all in the head, especially with women” (172). He relents when Dora almost cries but makes it clear that he expects her to be a wife, not a midwife to the women of the town.

Archer expects sex every night and “feels a wife should be willing and happy to take her husband in any time he likes,” even when Dora is in pain from menstruating (172). He feels this is his right as a man. Dora was unprepared for “the shame that comes from not wanting to give him whatever he wants, not knowing how to be a wife, wishing he’d just leave me alone” (172). Despite this, Dora gives into him every time. She tries to ask her mother for help but is too embarrassed.