Mildred Pierce cleverly articulates the lack of value placed on 'women's work'. This is despite the fact that she has been a perfectly capable housewife for many years. Her guilt is huge, but is made even harder to bear in that Mildred was taking some time out for herself, indulging in flattery and self-esteem for one afternoon out of a thousand. Maybe this is why as women, we find it so difficult to have time for ourselves, the worry and guilt that lays on our breast is easier to bear if we keep ourselves busy with looking after others. This in fact is a double-edged sword, meaning we can never admit, even to ourselves, that we might actually be doing something for our own pleasure or enjoyment.
Women often have to disguise their choices as something that is done for an others benefit.
We can see this in Mildred, who explains the need to work and earn money as being for Veda, her talented, spoilt elder daughter. Mildred Pierce is a classic of its time in which we can compare representations of similar women today. Mildred Pierce, like many other women, has a life controlled not only by the responsibility of her own actions but also that of her children. Each are used to tell their own specific stories of murder and suspicion and the rise and fall of Mildred Pierce. I was far more fascinated to see how Mildred was going to deal with the universal dilemmas and problems that women have to deal with.