Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life

Domesticity generally refers to the sphere of life that occurs in the home. While the word generally carries positive connotations, Anna Funder shows that an idyllic picture of domesticity ignores the very real labor of the women who are charged with maintaining the domestic sphere. She says that “a woman can be buried by domesticity” (23), and that is partially what happens to Eileen. The other specific use of domesticity is in reference to men and comes from Cyril Connolly, and English literary critic and writer, who claims that a new child supposedly stunts a writer’s creativity; as Funder observes, “Connolly is saying that domesticity curtails a man’s freedom […] and so it deadens his creativity” (350). A child, therefore, may require a man to attend more closely to the domestic harmony of his household—which, in Connolly’s perspective, hinders the man’s ability to pursue professional or creative aims. The subtext of this discussion is that the woman’s desire to pursue creative aims is never offered as an option, because she is automatically required to attend to the duties of domesticity.