The Cottagette

The story “The Cottagette”, the narrator Malda shows to be reliable. In the beginning of the story, she talks about the love she has for Ford Mathews. She shows her love for Mr. Mathews by doing things she does not normally do. She likes music and art. However, she starts to do housework such as cleaning and cooking to please Mr. Mathews. Lois, Malda friend give her advice on things she need to do to attract Ford Mathews attention.

“Don’t be foolish, child,”said Lois, this is serious. What they care for most after all is domesticity. Of course they’ll fall in love with anything; but what they want to marry is a homemaker. Now we are living here in an idyllic sort of way, quite conductive to falling in love, but no temptation to marriage. If I were you–if i really loved this man and wished to marry him, I would make a home of this place.”

Malda seems to think that Lois has experiences due to the fact that she has been married before, however also has been divorced. She feels that she knows what to look for in a man and what a man wants. So Malda starts to do this things to impress Mathews to please him. Towards the end of the story when Ford Mathews takes her out to Hugh’s Peak and brought lunch that he prepared for them, he proposed. However, Mathews had one condition which was Malda to stop cooking. He knew that her being a homemaker was not her cup of tea. He fell in love with the women who was an artist soul. He wanted to married the women he knew from the beginning who sees beauty and giving it to others. After she started to cook and clean, she stop paying attention to her true gift which is being an artist.

Utopia is an imagined place where everything is perfect, there’s happiness and joy. In “The Cottagette” the narrator Malda found love. Even though she thought she would have to do certain “roles” to keep her relationship from being at stake. The man she loved, loved her for exactly the person she is and did not want to change anything about her. He proposed, as long as she does what she love as an artist, while he’ll take over the cooking. Malda did not have to follow the stereotypical way of what roles women she play in a relationship. Mathews was able to explain that to her as stated,

“It is not true, always, my dear,” said he, “that the way to man’s heart is through his stomach; at least it’s not the only way…”

This settings shows utopia because Malda fell in love and was proposed to without changing anything about herself. In addition, she was able to follow her dreams in what she want to do in life. “It is not true, always, my dear,” said he, “that the way to man’s heart is through his stomach; at least it’s not the only way…”

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