“Marks” by Linda Pastan: A Critical Analysis

Introduction: “Marks” by Linda Pastan

“Marks” by Linda Pastan, first appeared in her 1978 poetry collection, The Five Stages of Grief, yet impactful poem explores themes of domestic life, self-worth, and societal expectations, examining how a wife and mother’s worth is often measured through a series of “grades” assigned by her family members. Each family member, from her husband to her children, evaluates her in various roles—cooking, mothering, and being a spouse. The poem resonates because it captures the often-unspoken exhaustion and frustration felt by many women who juggle multiple roles and are judged, sometimes unfairly, on their “performance” in each. Pastan’s use of school grading as a metaphor to express emotional fatigue and the pressures of domestic expectations has made the poem widely relatable and popular, offering insight into the complexities of identity and personal validation within family dynamics.

Text: “Marks” by Linda Pastan

My husband gives me an A
for last night’s supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait ’til they learn
I’m dropping out.

Annotations: “Marks” by Linda Pastan

Line	Annotation
“My husband gives me an A”	The speaker introduces the metaphor of grading, where her performance as a wife and mother is assessed. This “A” implies approval and satisfaction in her role of providing a meal.
“for last night’s supper,”	Specific praise for preparing a meal, suggesting that her household contributions are quantified, with each task evaluated independently.
“an incomplete for my ironing,”	The “incomplete” grade implies criticism or a sense of failure. Ironing is a traditional domestic chore, highlighting an unmet expectation or perceived inadequacy.
“a B plus in bed.”	This line implies that her sexual performance is also evaluated. The “B plus” suggests mild satisfaction but an implicit standard that she hasn’t completely met.
“My son says I am average,”	Her son assesses her as “average,” which can be hurtful. This reflects a lack of appreciation for her efforts and a casual, dismissive evaluation of her as a mother.
“an average mother, but if”	Repetition of “average” emphasizes the mediocrity assigned to her, underscoring that her efforts, in her son’s eyes, don’t stand out.
“I put my mind to it”	The son implies that her role as a mother could be improved, suggesting that her shortcomings are a matter of effort or motivation, which may feel dismissive or unsympathetic.
“I could improve.”	The phrase echoes societal expectations for constant improvement, implying that her current efforts are insufficient, fueling her sense of being undervalued.
“My daughter believes”	Her daughter’s viewpoint is introduced, showing that each family member has a unique way of “grading” her contributions and role within the household.
“in Pass/Fail and tells me”	The daughter’s “Pass/Fail” approach is simpler and less critical, indicating that she views her mother’s efforts as either acceptable or not, without nuanced grading.
“I pass.”	“Pass” suggests acceptance, though it’s hardly a strong affirmation. This conveys a bare minimum of approval, further underscoring the mother’s feelings of being judged.
“Wait ’til they learn”	A shift in tone occurs here, with the speaker expressing a sense of impending action or rebellion, hinting at her dissatisfaction with being constantly evaluated.
“I’m dropping out.”	This line concludes the poem with a powerful assertion. “Dropping out” symbolizes her rejection of the roles and expectations imposed upon her, choosing self-liberation over judgment.

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Marks” by Linda Pastan

Device	Example	Explanation
Alliteration	“My mind”	Repetition of the “m” sound in “My mind” creates a rhythm and emphasis on the speaker’s reflection on her roles.
Ambiguity	“I pass”	“Pass” can mean success, but it also implies merely meeting the minimum standard, highlighting a sense of underappreciation.
Anaphora	“an average… an average mother”	Repetition of “an average” emphasizes the son’s dismissive view of her, heightening the emotional impact of feeling unappreciated.
Anthropomorphism	“believes in Pass/Fail”	Giving the grading system (“Pass/Fail”) a personality through the daughter’s belief as if it were a system of faith or ideology.
Antithesis	“Pass/Fail” vs. “A, B plus, incomplete”	Contrasting grading systems illustrate varying perspectives on her worth, with the daughter’s binary view opposing her husband’s more complex system.
Apostrophe	“Wait ’til they learn”	Addressing “they” directly when they are not present emphasizes her internal monologue and decision to “drop out.”
Connotation	“dropping out”	“Dropping out” usually refers to quitting school, but here it signifies rejecting her family roles, with connotations of rebellion and liberation.
Contrast	“A for supper” vs. “incomplete for ironing”	Highlights her fluctuating value in different tasks, showing the arbitrary and fragmented nature of her family’s judgments.
Defamiliarization	Grading her roles as a wife and mother	By using academic grading for household tasks, the poem invites readers to view domestic life in an unusual, critical perspective.
Diction	“average,” “incomplete,” “dropping out”	Words like “average” and “incomplete” carry negative tones, while “dropping out” evokes a strong statement of rejection.
Double Entendre	“dropping out”	The phrase suggests both quitting her family roles and abandoning societal expectations, adding layers of meaning.
Enjambment	“My son says I am average, / an average mother”	The line break emphasizes the phrase “an average mother,” isolating it for greater impact and drawing attention to the son’s indifference.
Extended Metaphor	Grading system applied to domestic roles	The whole poem uses grading as a metaphor for family evaluation of a woman’s domestic contributions, critiquing how society values her efforts.
Hyperbole	“Wait ’til they learn”	This line exaggerates her family’s possible shock at her “dropping out,” emphasizing her growing frustration with her domestic roles.
Imagery	“last night’s supper,” “ironing”	Concrete images evoke familiar domestic scenes, helping readers visualize the tasks she is graded on.
Irony	Receiving grades in domestic roles	It’s ironic that domestic tasks, often undervalued, are graded like academic subjects, highlighting the absurdity of judging personal relationships by performance.
Juxtaposition	Husband’s grading vs. daughter’s Pass/Fail	Placing these grading methods side by side underscores different attitudes within the family, illustrating varied perspectives on her worth.
Metaphor	Grading as a metaphor for judgment	The grades represent the family’s evaluation of her as a wife and mother, serving as a metaphor for how her roles are quantified and judged.
Personification	“My son says I am average”	The family members act as judges, assigning her value in each role, almost personifying their evaluations as if they have authoritative power over her self-worth.
Tone	Mix of resignation and defiance	The speaker’s tone shifts from passive acceptance to assertive rejection (“dropping out”), reflecting her growing dissatisfaction with constant judgment.

Themes: “Marks” by Linda Pastan

1. Judgment and Evaluation: The central theme in “Marks” is the constant judgment the speaker faces within her family, where her roles as a wife and mother are scrutinized as though they were academic performances. Each family member evaluates her contributions, as seen in lines like “My husband gives me an A for last night’s supper” and “a B plus in bed.” These “grades” symbolize how the speaker’s family views her contributions in quantifiable, transactional terms, reducing her complex roles to simplistic evaluations. This judgment leads her to feel objectified, as though her worth depends on meeting others’ standards, emphasizing the theme of external validation and its impact on self-worth.
2. Domestic Expectations and Gender Roles: The poem critiques traditional expectations placed upon women in domestic spaces, where their value is often tied to fulfilling household tasks and caregiving roles. Lines like “an incomplete for my ironing” illustrate these domestic expectations, reflecting how her family notices and critiques every domestic detail. The poem thus reveals the pressure women face to excel in household duties, which are often thankless and invisible until unmet. This theme explores the broader societal expectations placed on women in family settings, underscoring the persistent pressure to maintain a “perfect” home.
3. The Search for Identity and Self-Worth: The speaker’s frustration with her family’s evaluations reveals her struggle for identity beyond her family-defined roles. Her son’s remark, “My son says I am average,” dismisses her as merely sufficient, intensifying her desire to assert her self-worth outside of familial judgments. By the end, she decides, “Wait ’til they learn I’m dropping out,” expressing a wish to detach herself from these roles to preserve her identity. This statement represents a turning point where she no longer sees herself as just a mother or wife judged by others but as an individual deserving of self-worth beyond these limiting labels.
4. Rebellion and Liberation: The poem’s conclusion hints at the speaker’s desire for freedom from her family’s constant grading system. The line “Wait ’til they learn I’m dropping out” suggests a rebellion against the expectations her family imposes on her. This decision to “drop out” symbolizes a rejection of the roles she’s confined to, highlighting her need for liberation from the household duties that define her. This theme illustrates the courage it takes to break away from confining social roles, portraying the speaker’s journey toward self-empowerment and autonomy.

Literary Theories and “Marks” by Linda Pastan

Literary Theory	Application to “Marks”	References from the Poem
Feminist Theory	Examines how societal expectations place women in restrictive roles, often valuing them solely by their domestic and caregiving abilities. “Marks” critiques the traditional gender roles that confine the speaker to her roles as a wife and mother.	“My husband gives me an A for last night’s supper” and “an incomplete for my ironing” reflect the family’s judgment of her domestic roles.
Marxist Theory	Analyzes class structures and the value placed on labor, including unpaid domestic labor, highlighting how the speaker’s work is quantified and graded without real recognition or compensation, akin to a worker in a capitalist system.	The family’s grading of her domestic tasks, such as “a B plus in bed” and “an incomplete for my ironing,” treats her labor as transactional.
Psychoanalytic Theory	Focuses on the speaker’s inner conflict between her role in the family and her need for individual identity. Her decision to “drop out” can be seen as a reaction to the repressed dissatisfaction and desire for self-worth beyond her family’s approval.	“Wait ’til they learn I’m dropping out” indicates her subconscious drive toward autonomy and rejection of family-imposed evaluations.

Critical Questions about “Marks” by Linda Pastan

• How does the grading metaphor in “Marks” comment on the societal expectations placed upon women in domestic roles?
• The grading metaphor in “Marks” powerfully critiques societal expectations that measure a woman’s worth by her performance in domestic roles. Pastan uses language typically associated with school—”A,” “B plus,” “incomplete,” “Pass/Fail”—to illustrate how the speaker’s family treats her work as quantifiable and subject to assessment. This metaphor reflects the reductive way society often evaluates women’s domestic labor, emphasizing how their identities are frequently confined to being “good” or “bad” mothers, wives, and homemakers. By grading her household tasks, her family mirrors a broader societal attitude that undervalues and scrutinizes women’s unpaid labor within the home.
• What does the speaker’s tone reveal about her feelings toward the family’s judgments?
• The speaker’s tone in “Marks” shifts from resigned acceptance to assertive defiance, revealing a complex mix of frustration and empowerment. Initially, her tone seems passive, as she lists the grades she receives from her family members without apparent resistance, such as “an incomplete for my ironing” or “a B plus in bed.” However, the final lines, “Wait ’til they learn I’m dropping out,” indicate a tone of rebellion and self-assertion. This shift suggests that she feels both exhausted by the continuous evaluations and ready to take control of her identity outside her family’s judgments, underscoring a desire for liberation from restrictive roles.
• How does the poem explore the theme of self-worth in relation to familial roles?
• In “Marks,” Pastan explores the theme of self-worth by depicting a woman who is constantly evaluated based on her familial roles, leaving her personal identity and self-worth tied to these external assessments. The line “My son says I am average” reflects her sense of inadequacy as a mother, while the daughter’s “Pass/Fail” approach further reduces her worth to a simplistic evaluation. These assessments suggest that her value is dependent on how well she meets her family’s needs, not on her own sense of self. By the end, her declaration of “dropping out” signifies a critical moment of self-recognition and a choice to seek validation outside her roles, reflecting a shift toward intrinsic self-worth.
• What is the significance of the poem’s closing line, “Wait ’til they learn I’m dropping out”?
• The closing line, “Wait ’til they learn I’m dropping out,” is a significant assertion of agency and autonomy. After enduring a series of evaluations from her husband, son, and daughter, the speaker’s decision to “drop out” suggests a rejection of the roles and expectations imposed on her. This act of “dropping out” implies that she no longer wishes to participate in a system that constantly grades and devalues her efforts. The line encapsulates her desire to reclaim control over her life, signaling a move toward self-liberation and a refusal to be defined solely by the judgments of others. This ending serves as both a statement of empowerment and a critique of the way family roles can confine individual identity.

Literary Works Similar to “Marks” by Linda Pastan

1. “Daystar” by Rita Dove
   This poem examines a woman’s need for personal space and identity beyond her domestic duties, much like Pastan’s speaker who feels confined by familial expectations.
2. “The Applicant” by Sylvia Plath
   Through biting satire, this poem critiques societal expectations for women, particularly in marriage, echoing Pastan’s examination of gender roles and the pressures placed on women.
3. “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan
   Also by Pastan, this poem explores motherhood and the bittersweet emotions of watching a child grow independent, highlighting familial relationships and identity similar to “Marks.”
4. “Housewife” by Anne Sexton
   This poem critiques traditional female roles, portraying the housewife as an object tied to her home, resonating with the feeling of entrapment and judgment seen in “Marks.”

Representative Quotations of “Marks” by Linda Pastan

Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
“My husband gives me an A / for last night’s supper”	Context: The speaker reflects on being “graded” by her family on her performance as a wife and mother, likening household roles to academic tasks.	Feminist Critique: Examines societal expectations and patriarchal “grading” of women in domestic spaces.
“an incomplete for my ironing”	Context: Ironing, a typical household chore, is presented as a task left unfinished, one for which the speaker is also evaluated.	Social Criticism: Highlights how women’s domestic labor is undervalued and trivialized in daily life.
“a B plus in bed”	Context: The speaker shares her husband’s judgment of her sexual performance, revealing the reduction of intimacy to a graded task.	Sexual Objectification: Explores how intimate relationships can be reduced to metrics and evaluations.
“My son says I am average, / an average mother”	Context: The speaker notes her son’s blunt assessment, which implies a lack of exceptionalism and underscores the family’s judgmental perspective.	Generational Expectations: Reflects on the intergenerational transmission of normative roles and judgments.
“My daughter believes / in Pass/Fail and tells me / I pass”	Context: The daughter’s pass/fail assessment suggests a simpler standard, though still in keeping with the theme of familial judgment.	Binary Value Systems: Indicates that value judgments often ignore complexity, reducing roles to binaries.
“Wait ’til they learn / I’m dropping out.”	Context: The speaker concludes with a powerful declaration of rebellion, revealing her desire to reject these imposed standards.	Agency and Resistance: Represents the speaker’s resistance to societal expectations, reclaiming autonomy.

Suggested Readings: “Marks” by Linda Pastan

1. Battersby, James L., and James Phelan. “Meaning as Concept and Extension: Some Problems.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 12, no. 3, 1986, pp. 605–15. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343546. Accessed 10 Nov. 2024.
2. ROMADHONA, MINTAMI. THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN UNDER PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM IN LINDA PASTAN’S POEMS. Diss. UNIVERSITAS AIRLANGGA, 2012.
3. PASTAN, LINDA. “The Five Stages of Grief.” Chicago Review, vol. 42, no. 3/4, 1996, pp. 194–96. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40783779. Accessed 10 Nov. 2024.
4. PASTAN, LINDA. “LINDA PASTAN.” Contemporary Poetry: A Retrospective from the “Quarterly Review of Literature,” edited by T. Weiss and Renée Weiss, Princeton University Press, 1974, pp. 495–96. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x0t26.168. Accessed 10 Nov. 2024.
5. Pastan, Linda. “The Seven Deadly Sins.” Poetry, vol. 146, no. 1, 1985, pp. 19–21. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20600251. Accessed 10 Nov. 2024.