In an essay by Mary Wilkins Freeman Reflecting on her story “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” she wrote that:

In the first place all fiction ought to be true and “The Revolt of ‘Mother’ “ is not true . . . . There never was in New England a woman like Mother. If there had been, she certainly would have lacked the nerve. She would also have lacked the imagination. New England women of that period coincided with their husbands in thinking that the sources of wealth should be better housed than the consumers. (qtd. in Gassler)

The above quote reveals Freeman’s understanding that the dominant views of how society and the family are structured are rarely challenged or even seen as a problem. In the patriarchal farming society of New England, women understood their place and did not think to challenge it. Yet, this untruth as Freeman sees it is exactly the thing that makes her story so compelling and allows it to illuminate the plight of woman in an oppressed society. In “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” Freeman, by comparing Sarah Penn’s personality and actions to historical revolts involving men, places Sarah’s female act of domestic diso

bedience in the context of important patriarchal revolts and shows how Sarah revolts against three male-dominated structures.

Of course, it is obvious that Sarah herself foreshadows one of the great historical revolutions of all -- the modern feminist movement. In the story, Sarah is actually carving out of a male-dominated society a new lifestyle for women. She is setting a norm for women in being decisive, independent, and intelligent, all characteristics that society traditionally thought to be male.

Once Freeman establishes the masculine dominance of the New England society, she begins to place Sarah’s domestic actions in the context of male-dominated history. The first example of this comes when Freeman describes Sarah as having an “expression of meek vigor which might have characterized one of the New Testament saints” (170). At first, it appears that Freeman is simply describing a stereotypical view of woman as being “meek” or passive and that the saints she is referring to must be women. However, when one considers how the allusion to the “New Testament saints” fits within the other historical allusions in the story, it becomes apparently clear that Freeman is talking about male saints. The first New Testament saints were the apostles. The apostles were all men and were part of a revolt that led to a revolution. These men revolted against the religiosity and legalism of the Jewish hierarchy. Freeman uses this allusion to position Sarah’s future actions as a revolt against the patriarchal hierarchy.

Sarah even states thoughts very similar to those of the Pilgrims concerning God, such as "I’ve got my own mind an’ my own feet an’ I’m goin’ to think my own thoughts an’ go my own ways, an’ nobody but the Lord is goin’ to dictate to me unless I’ve a mind to have him" (176). This statement obviously relates to the same independent and confident spirit that caused our forefathers to cross the ocean for the New World.

The second structure that Sarah revolts against is the patriarchal religious structure. Her confrontation with the preacher reveals her rejection of the belief that woman are inferior to men. By telling him that she is doing what she feels is right and what the Lord has told her to do, Sarah subverts the power of the religious establishment to dictate what

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