Sorting Laundry

"Sorting Laundry"
Elisavietta Ritchie
p841

"Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie presents an extended metaphor used to describe the relationship between the speaker and her lover. The reader is able to decipher that the speaker is a female because she describes her own articles of clothing, "blouses, panties, stockings, bras," which are all feminine articles of clothing (Ritchie, 842). Each item being sorted represents a different aspect of the couple's relationship. For example, the pillowcases and the bedsheets represent the time spent in bed with each other, both conversing and expressing their love. The gaudy towels suggest the quirkiness that exists within the relationship; their reluctance to fade, the couple's resistance to conform. Furthermore, the descriptions of the various articles of clothing serve to describe the relationship even more. The wrinkles in the clothing offer an insight into the "wrinkles" of the affair, some chosen to be smoothed out while others are overlooked. "[W]hat's shrunk" suggests that the love is not all that it was at its inception, yet it is still hard to discard (Ritchie, 842).

Lastly, the "strangely tailored shirt" and its consequential memory tell the reader that the speaker is uncomfortable with the thought of being alone (Ritchie, 842). Although she holds on to mementos from her past, she cannot see herself with another man, and thus she folds the laundry and folds her lover "into [her] life," (Ritchie, 841).