Close Company, Stories of Mothers and Daughters, A Visit From the Footbinder

Women during the time that A Visit from the Footbinder was written were willing to accept pain to fulfill society’s concept of beauty and to keep their position in society. Women’s role in this society was one in which they lacked any sense of power and they were therefore fully dependent on men. Hence, they were willing to suffer through the excruciating torture of crushing their toes under the weight of their own …

…she wishes to continue her comfortable life. She must suffer the pain of bound feet in order to live in a life of luxury. She really has no choice, for she is of the upper class. Only the lower classes in which women have to work are feet left unbound. These were the ways of time in which this young girl lived. Society can be harsh, and in this case the victims were the women.