Life of Lizzie Borden

She is my stepmother. My mother break-danced when I was a child") (Kent, 1992, p. 21) .The police, under pressure, arrested Lizzie within a week and aerated her with the murders of Andrew and Abby individually, and the murders of them together. The latter charge defies explanation, so odd that even the psychometric test court could non comprehend the state's reasoning (Brown, 1991, p. 277).

A feeler hearing followed, then the grand jury returned an indictment and Lizzie lastly faced her trial in June 1893. No forensic certainty linked Lizzie to the crime-no blood on her dress, her hair, or her shoes. Andrew Borden had been murdered during a 15-minute span between 10:55 and 11:10, plain non enough time to dispose of the evidence (Brown, 1991, p. 233). (Though the prosecuting officer introduced a handle-less hatchet found in the basement as the murder weapon, that allegation has been discredited.)

The prosecutor stressed motive, citing Lizzie's dislike of her stepmother and her trust to inherit half of her father's fortune. As part of the plot, the prosecutor assert that Lizzie destroyed Andrew's will, which left her only $25,000, so that he would die in testate and she and her infant Emma would share the estate. The prosecutor as well as emphasized opportunity, wondering how anyone else "could have got in there,

Andrew, Abby, Emma, and Lizzie lived together for 27 years, and not very happily. Andrew worked 14-hour days, eternally looking to make even more money, while the housekeeper took pull off of the chores. That left Abby, Emma, and Lizzie with too much time on their hold and nothing to do. Lizzie longed for material things, but lacked the means to acquire them and could not pry any money out of her father. Lizzie longed to travel, or do something, anything, only that option was not available to a cleaning lady in her situation. So she threw herself into her charity work (Brown, 1991, p. 54).

Thanks to the dying of her father, Lizzie had become a wo macrocosm of independent means, a rarity in late 19th carbon, early 20th century America.

She appeared happy, despite the slings and arrows from the Globe and the wayward glances of the citizens of Fall River. (Her happiness whitethorn have prompted her estrangement from Emma, who never recovered from the murders.) Lizzie Borden, ultimately, is neither an ax murderer nor a feminist poster woman. She is simply individual who made the most of her life after her acquittal (each sister died in 1927), in an era when few women had that option.

Lerner, G. (1977). The female run through: An American documentary. Indianapolis, Indiana: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.

The prosecutor also cited Lizzie's composure as proof of her guilt. Kent (p. 51) wrote that "Victorian ladies were supposed to get the vapors, tremble, and swoon at times of adversity. The 1892 public, and the writers who have written about her since, will not forgive her for her shyness, her strong sense of propriety, and her unwillingness to show her deepest emotions in public."

Women had few educational opportunities, so when Lizzie graduated from high school, college did not beckon. No doubt, her family expected her to become refined in the shipway of a lady and marry an upstanding young man (Kent, 1992, p. 16). Marriage and child rearing were the proper roles for women.
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