Madam and Her Madam
Summary of Madam and Her Madam
The poem Madam and Her Madam is about the disjunction that can occur between a person's ideas and their behaviour. The madam in this poem loves the maid but does not translate this love into a fair work arrangement. She expects the woman to take on the work of three people and, when questioned, responds with surprise to the idea that she is overworking her beloved maid. This poem shows how a loving demeanour can often belie an unquestioned abusive outlook. This poem is told in the voice of a woman who works as a maid, cook, and nanny for a woman who is not mean but makes excessive demands of her.
Like all Langston Hughes’ “Madam” poems, he has caught the reader’s eye once again. “Madam and Her Madam” comes off as a simple poem, but its true meaning is insightful and packs a punch of emotion. The whole poem is narrated by a black woman, confined to being a slave to a rich white woman. The slave is trying to explain the harsh labour she must go through. But she would be fine with it all, only if she could get respect from her employer. The poem starts off with the slave attempting to explain her employer.
“I worked for a woman,
She wasn’t mean,
But she had a twelve-room
House to clean.”
In this stanza, what the slave is really trying to say is that she doesn’t mind her employer, as much as she does the extensive work. The tone of this poem is set to be comical and fun, but the true meaning is spiteful and angered. Hughes wrote “Madam and Her Madam” to show his view of the relationship between slave and slave-owner. His outlook on this topic is, obviously, one of, mainly, resentment, sprinkled with a little entertainment and humour.
The poem “Madam and Her Madam” is an astounding poem to share with the class. It helps the students have just that much more of an understanding of the time period of slavery. Many people don’t really understand the actual severity slavery had on America. The genuine relationships between employer and employee stand clear in this deep and endearing poem.
Slavery wasn’t only working for low pay. It was, actually, a demeaning and awful time that brought injustice and destroyed the black’s hope forever regaining their pride. That is why Hughes wrote this poem in the first place. He was fed up with people thinking they knew it wasn’t that bad for blacks. But with all murders and hate towards blacks, being a slave was as great as it could be.
The title of this poem is “Madam and Her Madam”. This title is supposed to show the reader that the woman is worked to death because she is not respected even though her boss says she loves her. This shows that she is pretty much still treated as less than a person.
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