The Lamp at Noon

Ellen is a young married woman who has survived on her husband’s failing farm for five grueling years. She grew up with more wealth than Paul can provide now, and this background, which included more education than her husband received, sometimes make her seem somewhat disdainful of farmers. She feels deeply lonely and trapped, and she longs to leave the farm and return to a more prosperous life in the city.

Ellen’s perspective does not flinch away from the bitter reality of their situation. Unlike Paul, Ellen sees the land for what it is. The dry and lifeless environment where she currently finds herself mirrors her internal state of despair and entrapment. She no longer possesses some vision of the future powerful enough to distract her from the reality of their present circumstances, if she ever did. She has no illusions into which she can escape; quite literally, she struggles to close her eyes. She feels no loyalty to the land.

Ellen, at times, seems the subject of some scorn in the story. She suffers from “the fretful weakness of a woman” (8). Her face is that “of a woman that had aged without maturing, that had loved the little vanities of life, and lost them wistfully” (4).