the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

THE PROBLEMATICS OF MOTHERHOOD 

IN TWENTIETH CENTURY WOMEN'S FICTION : 

A SELECT STUDY 

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE 

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN ENGLISH 

POONAM MINOCHA 

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH 

PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY 

PONDICHERRY 

DECEMBER I995

Dr. N. NATARAJAN 

Senlor Lecturer 

Department of English 

Pond~cherry U~vers~iy 

PONDICHERRY - 605 014 

CERTIFICATE 

Thls 1s to certlfy that the d~ssertatlon ent~tled 'THE PROBLEMATICS OF 

MOTHERHOOD IN TWENTIETH CENTURY WOMEN'S FICTION : 

A SELECT STUDY' submlttcd to the Pond~cherry Un~vers~ty In partlal 

fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of DOCTOR 

OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH, IS a record of orlglnal research work 

done by MS. POONAM MINOCHA durlng the per~od of her study 1992- 

95 m the Department of Engllsh, Pondlcheny Unlvers~ty under my supervlslon 

and guidance, and that the dlssertat~on has not formed before the basls for 

the award of any Degree, D~ploma, Assoclatcshlp. Fellowsh~p, or any other 

51mllar tttles 

'L1 .A* .- s T'JC 

HEAD OF THE DEPA$dNT 

nomma. kU 

Deprlnunl Of PnZ1l.b 

(.wDICB.WRT C'XWFA9W 

-NDEWFPPP-W' -1

POONAM MINOCHA 

Research Scholar 

Department of Engl~sh 

Pond~chemy Unlvers~ty 

PONDICHERRY - 605 014 

I hereby declare that the dtssertat~on enbtled 'THE PROBLEMATICS OF 

MOTHERHOOD IN TWENTIETH CENTURY WOMEN'S FICTION : A 

SELECT STUDY' submitted to the Pond~cheny Untverslty tn part181 fulfilment 

of the requuernents for the award of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN ENGLISH, la a record of orlg~nal research work done by tne under the super- 

vlslon and gu~dance of Dr. N. NATARAJAN, Senlor Lecturer, Department of 

Engllsh, Pond~cheny Unlverslty, and that ~t has not formed before the bas~s for the 

award of any Degree, D~ploma, Assoc~atesh~p, Fellowsh~p or any other smlar 

ntles 

Stgnature

PAGE 

PREFACE 

ABSTRACT 

A NOTE ON DOCUMENTATION 

I INTRODUCTION PROBLEMATICS OF MOTHERHOOD 001 

I1 FEMININE MOTHERHOOD 030 

111 FEMINIST MOTHERHOOD 083 

IV TECHNOLOGICAL MOTHERHOOD 143 

V THE AESTHETICS OF MOTHERHOOD 183 

V- CONCLUSION 238 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 263

The hand that rocks the cradle does not rule the world 

In fact, from my observation of mothers In a soclety llke 

that of ours, I have come to the conclusion that it is 

precisely rocklng the cradle that prevents the hand from 

rullng the world 

This set me thinking - Why 1s ~t that 

motherhood has become an oppressive rather than a fulflllrng 

experience for women' 

Why does the choice always have to be 

an either/or one - motherhood or career, motherhood or 

~ndlvlduality' 

To get answers to these questlons, I took 

recourse to the literature of various countries, spanning 

the twentieth century, that glve their own perspective on 

motherhood, and attempted to llnk them to the soclal reallty 

of the past and present, whlch deflnltely has ~ ts bearlng on 

the future 

A few questlons have been answered through thls 

study, some have become even more complicated, and many more 

are stlll open to d~scusslon 

An Issue as delrcate and 

sensitive as motherhood - wlth lts blologlcal, 

psychological, famlllal, soclal and religious ramlflcatlons 

- no doubt, stlrs up varlous controversial debates In thls 

thesis, I have attempted to conslder all sldes of the 

argument before reachlng a consensus

I would like to thank many intelligent minds and caring 

hearts who have facilitated the completion of my thesis My 

guide, Dr.N.Natarajan, possessing both of these, has spurred 

me on in my work right from its inception tlll the very end 

From initiating my interest in feminism during my M A and 

M Phil days to sustaining and developing it, his influence 

is indelible With his erudition, perceptiveness, 

intelligence, tolerance and cordiality, he has been a source 

of lnsplration and guidance at every step of my research 

TO Prof. P.Marudanayagau, from whom I have been 

receiving excellent advice, I am immensely indebted My 

thanks are also due to Dr.K.S.Ramamurti. Vislting Professor 

to our department, whose valuable coments and suggestions 

have Influenced my work 

I take this opportunity to thank other members of the 

faculty - Dr P Balasamy. Dr P N Ramanl, Dr Sulatha 

Vilayaraghavan and the members of the Research Club for 

their questions, dlscusslons and constructive criticism on 

the occasion of the presentation of my seminar papers 

I would llke to place on record my acknowledgement to 

the libraries of the following centres and unlversltles 

ASRC, Hyderabad, CIEFL, Hyderabad, BCL, Hyderabad, Shastri 

Indo-Canadlan Institute, New Delhi, JNLI, New Delhi, Delhi 

11

university. New Delhi; Pondicherry University, Pondicherry 

I particularly thank the ASRC for selecting me as 

participant for the X American Civilization Course and 

awarding me a study grant. 

I am thankful to the UGC for selecting me as an 

eligible candidate for the award of the Junior Research 

Fellowship 

I thank Mr Vaithianathan, Bright Data Processing, for 

having typed this dissertation with great care and patience. 

Finally, words seem to fail me when I move on to thank 

all dear ones for their love, support and encouragement 

Mummy and Papa's affectionate guidance saw me through at 

every stage of my work My husband Sivaramakrishna's loving 

support sustained me even in times of depression and 

loneliness Devika's sincere friendship infused a touch of 

warmth to hostel life I will always cherish the invaluable 

moments spent with Sharon and Rocky because of whom I could 

experience 'a home away from home'

A B S T R A C T 

The emergence of feminism has resulted in a heightened 

awareness in women, ensued by a questioning of their Status 

in society and their familial roles, especially that of 

motherhood. The sharp distinction made in the feminist 

parlance between woman's 'nature' and 'culture' has had its 

impact on the polarisatlon of the old monolith - motherhood 

- now split into 'motherhood as biological experience' and 

'motherhood as soclal institution' Femlnism Itself 1s 

divlded over this issue as motherhood encompasses both the 

capacity to free women from bondage and the wlnerabillty to 

enslave them further Influenced by these attitudlnal 

changes, contemporary women thlnkers have developed 

crltlques of long-standing assumptions about motherhood, 

highlighting its oppressive rather than its celebratory 

aspects It has been perceived however that societal values 

have not changed as fast as women are changing In such a 

society, how do contemporary women writers react to the 

changing attitudes towards motherhood' To examine this 

malor question and matters related to lt, a select study of 

global women wrlters from America, Black-Amerzca, Britaln, 

Canada and India - is undertaken In this dissertation

CEAPTER - 11 INTRODUCTIONS PROBLEMATICS OF MOTBEREOOD makes 

a global survey of the changing attitudes towards motherhood 

in the context of the feminist movement, highlighting issues 

such as the creation of the mystlque of motherhood by 

religion / myth, patriarchal expectations of a mother and 

her reaction to the role, psychological and social problems 

involved In bearing and rearm9 chrldren, all of which point 

to the hiatus between the experience of motherhood, and the 

institutlonalleation of lt The chapter further provides a 

literary backdrop to the authors/texts taken up for study 

Afro-American - Alice Walker's Meridian 119771 and Toni 

Morrison's Beloved (19871, American - Charlotte Perkins 

Gilman's Berland 119151 and Marge Piercy's Woman On The Edge 

of Time (19761, Brltlsh - Margaret Drabble's The Millstone 

119651 and Dorls Lessing's The Sunrmer Before the Dark 

(1973). Canadian - Margaret Laurence's The Diviners (1974) 

and Margaret Atwood's The Bandmaid's Tale (19861, and Indian 

- Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve (1954) and Shashi 

Deshpande's The Dark Holda No Terrors 11980) 

CBAPTER -11: FEMININE MOTHERHOOD focuses on the manner in 

which patriarchal institutions with religious sanctlon have 

moulded women into femlnlne mothers as a consequence of 

which motherhood becomes synonymous with femininity The 

chapter examines how women's capacities for mothering and 

v

abilities to get gratification from it are strongly 

internalized and psychologically enforced by being built 

into the feminine psychic structure 

/ 

The malor points of focus of this chapter are the ways 

In which feminlne motherhood socially conditions mothers 

through reductive images of motherhood that override a 

women's personal Self, ldentlfies women wlth thelr motherrole 

and values them only for thelr chlld-bearing 

capacities, demands a renunciation of aims, desires and 

careers of mothers, inculcating in them the ability to 

relate to others only through their familial role, lnstlls 

In mothers a deslre for sons rather than daughters so that 

the patriarchal rule is perpetuated, confrnes them to the 

domestic sphere, creating 'The Angel In the House', asserts 

that mother-love is supposed to be unconditional as female 

anger threatens the lnstitutlon of motherhood, uses 

religion, myth, customs and rltuals to determine famllial 

structures that subordinate women 

The varying degrees of conformity to feminine 

motherhood are also indicated --- while 

Rukmani of Nectar 

in a Sieve is a meek model of the feminine mother, Saru's 

mother in The Dark Bolds No Terrora 1s an assertive, 

domineering and vicious one 

Kate in The Summer Before the 

Dark relinquishes her role when she reallzes lts strategic 

v1

manipulation of her self whereas Mrs Hill of Meridian is 

unable to do so Though Sethe in ~eloved identifies herself 

primarily as a mother, she 1s capable of translating 

maternal silence into maternal anger 

CBAPTER 111: FEMINIST MOTHERBOOD - The conflict between 

women's desires and the domlnant values of feminlne 

motherhood, which made women voice their protest, led to a 

change in attitude towards motherhood, which one can term 

the 'feminist' phase The transition from the 'feminine' to 

the 'feminist' - which begins with the realization by women 

that the patriarchal institution of motherhood is not the 

natural human condition - forms the crux of thrs chapter 

Feminlst motherhood signals a revolt of the 

protagonists against their mothers which is not so much a 

personal attack on the mothers as it 1s agalnst the 

institution they represent, a debunking of the maternal 

instinct, the myth/mystique of motherhood through the 

protagonist's questioning/re]ection of the maternal role 

foisted on her, an attempt to break free from the image of 

the angel in the house whlch is crucial in placing the women 

In a eocietal context beyond the role of a mother, a veering 

towards a more personalised mothering that helps the mothers 

gain a room of their own, an involvement of fathers too in

the rearing of children, making mothering an 'androgynous' 

activity rather than a 'feminine' one 

The problematics of motherhood is dealt through the 

mother - daughter conflict in Meridian, Beloved, The Dark 

Holds NO Terrors and The Diviners. The Summer Before the 

Dark portrays Kate's journey from her state of happy 

passivity to disillusionment in her roles as wife and 

mother, the movement of Rosamund of the The Millstone is 

lust the opposlte as she moves from an Initial scepticism 

and fear of motherhood to an understanding of its loys 

CHAPTER IV: TECENOLOGICAL MOTBKRHOOD discusses the 

ideological treatment of technological motherhood promoted 

by Hi-tech reproductive strategies and lts relation to 

feminlneifeminist motherhood In three utopiasidystoplas 

namely Gilman's Herland, Piercy's Woman On The Edge of Time 

and htwood's The Handmaid's Tale 

Eerland excludes men from 

the process of reproduction by attributing to its women 

Inhabitants the power of parthenogenetic reproduction 

Piercy's utopla, which has ~ t s scientific backlng In 

ectogenesis, views technological reproduction as the means 

of eliminating sexism, racism and classlsm 

htwood's 

dystopla, a critique of surrogate motherhood, envrsions what 

the drastic effects of a technological revolutlon may be

This chapter explores the major questions Does women's 

liberation requlre a biological revolution? Should women 

relinquish their reproductive roles and take recourse to 

techniques of reproduction such as artificial insemination 

by donor, in vitro fertilizat~on and embryo transfer, or 

should they retain thelr reproductive powers in order to 

gain the actual experience of mothering, at the same time 

ensuring that it is not talnted by the politlcs of the 

patriarchal institution of motherhood The chapter further 

delves Into the repercussions of reproductive techniques - 

ellmination of stereotyped roles, disruption of heterosexual 

patterns and nuclear Eamlly structures, collectlvlzed 

rearing, and the obliteration of sexlsm, raclsm and classlsm 

from socrety 

CaAPTER V: 

TEE AESTHETICS OF MOTEERBOOD shlfts the focus 

from the thematlc to aesthetic aspects of motherhood 

lndlcatlng how a self-conscious femlnlst narrative point of 

view, structure, genre, imagery and myth contribute to 

working out the problematlcs of motherhood 

Classifying the texts lnto those wrltten from a 

daughter's perspective and those narrated from a mother's 

viewpoint, the chapter shows how the former mode of 

narration in Tho Dark Eolds No Terrors and Meridian ecllpses

the mother, in the process 'otherlng' her 

In contrast, the 

maternal discourse of Beloved, The Diviners and The 

Mills tone evolves a new conception of subjectivity 

creating a space in which mothers can articulate their 

stories, assume a maternal posltion and speak In a maternal 

voice 

The double-voiced narration as a result of the woman 

speaking both as mother and daughter 1s also studled 

by 

The 

chapter further indicates how the utopian genre, employed In 

Herland and W m n On The Edge of Time 

facilitates the 

femlnlst purport by making the impossible seem plausible 

The Randmaid's Tale interestingly illustrates that a man's 

utopia can be a woman's dystopla 

Finally, Images and 

underlying myths are studled to deplct the manner in whlch 

thelr lmpllcit lnteractlon reinforces the theme of 

femlnlne/feminlst motherhood 

CEAPTER VI: CONCLUSION takes up the threads of argument once 

agaln to explore the pluralistic attitudes towards 

motherhood 

It attempts to evolve a definition of feminist 

motherhood, emphasizing that ~t is neither a bllnd 

acceptance of motherhood nor an outright rejection, rather a 

questlon of free, uncoerced and genuine cholces between 

motherhood and other llfe-patterns Further, the chapter 

discusses the issues arislng from the earl~er chapters - 

issues such as shared parenting, integratron of motherhood 

X

and career, single parenting, ambivalence in mother - 

daughter relations, mother-blame, repercussions of 

technological motherhood on family structures, and the 

(in)compatability between feminism and motherhood.

A NOTE ON DOCUMENTATION 

For quotations from the primary sources, the following 

editions are used and references to pages have been 

incorporated parenthetically with the abbreviations against 

the titles 

Atwood, Margaret 1986 The Handmaid's Tale Boston 

Houghton Mifflin 

HT 

Deshpande, Shashl 1980 The Dark Holds No Terrors 

Delhi Vikas Publishers 

Drabble, Margaret 1965 The Millstone 

and Nicolson, 1978 

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins 1915 Herland 

Books, 1979 

Laurence, Margaret 1974 The Diviners 

and Stewart-Bantam Ltd , 1985 

New 

DH 

London Weidenfeld 

MS 

New York Pantheon 

H 

Toronto McClelland 

D 

Lessing, Dons 1973 The Summer Before the Dark Great 

Britain Penguin Books, 1982 

SBD 

Markandaya, Kamala 1954 Nectar in a Sieve Bombay Jaico 

Publishing House, 1980 

NS 

Morrison, Toni 1987 Beloved New York New American 

Llbrary 

B 

Plercy, Marge 1976 Woman On The Edge of Time 

Alfred A Knopf 

New York 

WET 

Walker. Alice 1976 Meridian New York Harcourt M 

Reference- to secondary sources are also glven 

parenthetically in the body of the text

INTRODUCTION : PROBLEllATICS OP XOTEERBOOD 

I' m not queetionlng maternal love.. . I'm 

questioning maternal instlnct 

- Elisabeth Badinter 

1.1.0. The women's movement has touched the llves of many 

women, radically transfomlng the nature of thelr everyday 

experiences 

Insplred by these changes, femlnlst theorists 

and creatlve wrlters are developing crltlques of established 

lnstltutlons and old social orders, challenging long- 

standlng assumptlons about social structures and women's 

positlon In them 

Especlally durlny the second half of the 

twentieth century, women have been strivlng to contest these 

systems of power developed by patriarchy 

They seek to 

explaln why women contlnue to be marglnallsed and reveal how 

flxed assumptlons about an essential female nature have 

hlstorlcally shaped all aspects of women's lives, 

lnfluenclng thelr psychological, physical and soclal well- 

being 

1.1.1. AS a result of the emerglng femlnlst awareness, 

women's famlllal roles were the flrst to be questioned - a 

revlslon/re-vlslon of femlnlne stereotypes being the logical 

outcome of such an awareness 

The patriarchally-dictated. 

long-exlstlng stereotypes of woman as a passive, docile and

2 

voiceless being gave way to a redefinition of women by 

themselves No longer willing to slip into slots alloted to 

them by a male-dominated society, women wake up amidst 

problems and travails, seeklng to define themselves in terms 

of what they really are, rather than what society wants them 

to be - a mere wife, mother or home-maker 

1.1.2. The institution of motherhood has undergone 

enormous changes in the wake of the fernlnist movement With 

various psychological and societal complexltles Involved and 

wlth centuries of myth folsted on motherhood, the 

dismantling of this patriarchal institution rendered the 

task a complicated and problematic one Even if changes 

could be effected at the psychological and cultural levels, 

women's blologlcal potential, thelr reproductive capacity. 

among all the differences between men and women, was the 

most unllkely to undergo a change Chained both by biology 

and society to the mother-role, women realize that this 

role, thrust upon them, erased the actual experlence of 

mothering Socletal expectations of the 'ideal' mother 

marred the actual personal experlence of givlng birth to 

and nurturing the child 

1.1.3. This strange discrepancy between the reallty of 

their lives and the mother-role to which they were trying to 

conform led feminists such as Adrienne Rlch to question the

3 

institution of motherhood In her book Of W a u n Born, Rich 

distinguishes between motherhood as "the potential 

relationship of any woman to her powers of reproduction and 

to children" and motherhood as "the znstitutlon whlch arms 

at ensuring that that potentlal - and all women - shall 

remain under male control" (1976 131 Rich's distlnction 

can be expressed as the dlfference between the experience of 

mothering and the instltutlon of motherhood, or as the 

dlfference between women decldlng who, when, how and where 

to mother and men making these decisions for women 

1.1.4. Wlthin the constraints posed by the lnstltutlon of 

motherhood, equality appeared elusive As the institutlon 

of motherhood was belng naturallsed and universalised by a 

patriarchal society, denylng the optional character of 

motherhood, motherhood began to be promoted as the only 

optlon, as a compulsory social institutlon Women began to 

experience an ambivalent situation when they reallzed that 

thelr reproductlve capacities both shackled them wlthln 

patriarchy and also placed them beyond it Havlng children 

provlded growth and opened new perspectives, but the soclal 

construction of motherhood could be restrlctrve 

1.1.5. The instltutlon has both constrained and degraded 

women's potentialities It has used mothers as a means to 

an end As it was necessary for the economy that ch~ldren

e produced, patriarchal thought has ordered women to 

restrlct themselves to motherhood 

4 

Hartmann's defrnltion of 

'patrrarchy' includes such a systematic manlpulat~on of 

women's reproduction 

Accord~ng to Hartmann, patriarchy 1s 

"a hierarchical set of soclal relations among men, whlcn has 

a materlal base In men's control of women's labor power and 

restrlctlon of women's sexuality, either cowards 

reproductive purposes or towards satrsfylng the needs of 

men" lclted In Gordon 1990 91 

Nancy Chodorow, In her book. 

The Reproductzon of Mothering, argues char motherrng was 

reproduced, both at the level of soclal organlzatlon and at 

the level of lnd~vlduai development by a complex system that 

depended upon the famlly for ~ rs contmulty 

She polncs to 

the family as the lnstltutzon wlthln whlch the economlc and 

social requirements of the whole soclety are met by meacs of 

the creatlon of approprzare personality structures for the 

roles to be played wlthin 1t 

1.1.6. Such an ~nstltutlonailzat~on of famliy strucr\lres 

and the role of women In them prompted Slmone de Beauvolr to 

state In her book, The Second Sex, that one is not born, but 

rather, one becomes a woman - thus formulating the 

dlstlnctlon between sex and gender, and suggesting that 

gender is an aspect of ldentrty gradually acqulred 

Thls 

distinction further discredits the notlon that anatomy 1s 

destlny, 'sex' being the zw~arlant, anatomically disanct

5 

aspect of the female body and 'gender' the cultural meanrng 

and form that that body acqulres Also, the sex/gender 

dichotomy brings out the difference between belng a female 

and belng a woman, and one therefore may be born a female, 

but becomes a woman 

1.1.7. Slmllarly, one 1s not born, but becomes a mother 

Motherhood 1s more than the blologlcal process of 

reproduction 

As an lnstltutlon. ~t conslsts of customs, 

traditions, conventions, bellefs, attitudes, mores, laws, 

rules, precepts, and a host of other ratlonal and non- 

ratlonal norms whlch deal wlth the care and rearmg of 

chlldren 

Thls dlssertatlon 1s concerned wrth both the ways 

by whlch soclety lnstltutlonallzes one of lts important 

functions, namely, the bearlng and rearlng of chlldren, and 

the forces - cultural, eth~cal, economic, polltlcal and 

technological - that shape its operation It 1s an 

exploration of the problematlsatlon of motherhood In a 

soclal context, embedded ln a polltlcal lnstltutlon, In 

femlnlst terms - through the study of selecc lrterary texts 

1.2.0. The changlng attlrudes towards motherhood have 

been lnscrlbed In llterary texts of varlous 

countries/cultures, for now nc llterary text 1s Ignorant / 

Innocent of ~deology 

Thls dlssertatlon focuses on the 

transltlon ln the concept of motherhood as enshrlnecl In

twentreth century llterary texts by women wrlters of 

different countries and cultures ---- hfro-Arner~can, 

Amerlcan, Britlsh, Canadlan and Indian 

~SSU~S, the texts selected for study are 

Afro-American Allce Walker's Meridian (1977) 

Amerlcan 

Brltlsh 

Canadlan 

Ton1 Morrison's ~eloved (19871 

To examlne these 

Charlotte Perklns Gllrnan's Herland 

119151 

Marge Plercy's Woman On The Edge of T me 

(1976) 

Margaret Dranble's The Millstone I19651 

Dorls Lesslng's The Smer Before the 

Dark I19731 

Margaret Laurence's The Dlvlners 119741 

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaad's 

119861 

Tale 

Karnala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve 

119541 

Shashl Deshpande's The Dark Holds No 

Terrors 11980) 

Although a hosc of other fernlnlst wrlters have wrltten on 

thls sensltlve yet challenging Issue, thls drssertatlon 

restricts ltself to one text each by the above authors, 

taklng them as representatrves of thelr mllleu.

1.2.1. The dissertation takes for ~ t s base the three 

phases In the evolution of women's literature - femlnlne, 

femlnlst and female - as formulated by Elalne Showalter the 

femlnlne phase belng one where women wrote In an effort to 

equal the literature by men, the femlnlst phase, a conscious 

revolt aga~nst patrlarchal norms, and the female phase 

relectlng both lmitatlon and revolt In favour of an 

autonomous l~terature (Showalter 1989 405) Allce Walker's 

dellneatlon of the three phases In her women characters - 

the suspended women, the assimilated women, and the emergent 

women - has a strlklng correspondence to Showalter's 

dlvlslons 

Extending both Showalter and Walker's dlvls~ons 

to the concept of motherhood, and uszng these dlvls~ons 

ldeologlcally as well as hlstorlcally, one can discern these 

phases In the concept of motherhood also 

femlrlne 

motherhood sponsored by the patrlarchal cultures / 

rellglons, femlnlst motherhood sponsored by femxrlst 

z!.eorlsts In general, and female motherhood sponsored ty a 

Seczion of recent Franco-Amerlcan theorists 

Added to tkese 

1s the advent of technological motherhood sponsored by HI- 

tech reproductlve strategies adopted In recent femlrlst 

utopian / dystoplan texts 

Wlth these changlng attltcdes 

and approaches to lt, the lnstltutlon of motherhood 1s so 

polarized and problematlzed that lt becomes an area of smdy 

- a dlsclpllne by ltself - whlch 1s termed here as

8 

'Problematics of Motherhood' Thls chapter provides a global 

perspective of motherhood - a historical, cultural and 

llterary backdrop - tracing the existence of motherhood 

patterns as enshrined In Eastern and Western rellglons, 

myths and literatures down the centuries and across varlous 

mllleus, rndlcating how these factors play on the fenale 

psyche, naturalislng and lngralnlng both the terrlble and 

benevolent aspects of motherhood 

1.3.0. The role of rellglon In structuring the 

lnscltutlon of motherhood cannot be overlooked Over the 

centuries, cultural practices have been 3ustlf1ed on 

rellglous grounds Even customs whlch prove detrimental to 

the soclety or the individual have been ]ustlfled on acccunt 

of havlng relrglous / mytholoylcal precedents Wtere 

motherhood 1s concerned, rellglon provldes models of rhe 

ldeal mother, taklng lt for granted that women follow them 

In all respects The flgure of the Vlrgln Mary stands at 

ttle helm as a model of Christian vlrtues, both pagan and 

Chrlstlan Images of the mother domlnate Afro-Amerllan 

belleis, and in Indla, the concept of the ideal Hlndu wcmn 

1s based on mother-goddesses and mythlc models from the 

Rsmayana, Mahabharata and other Puranas 

1.3.1. The worshlp of the mother has become an intecral 

part of the Hmdu psyche that the Hlndu often merges the

9 

goddess with the human mother, imposlng the virtues of the 

goddess on the human mother, and thus idolislng her. Indla 

has a long hrstory of mother worshrp In the form of Aditi, 

the mother of gods, Prichvi, the mother-earth, Slta, the 

daughter of Mother-Earth, Durga, Saraswathi. Ganga, Yamuna, 

Godavarr, Cauvery, Gayatli, Devl, Amblka Mythologically, 

there are varlous shades to the mother-image - Kuntl, who 

abandoned her ~llegitimate chlld, Gandharl, who cared for a 

thousand Kauravas. Ka~keyi, who exlled her stepson for her 

son's beneflt, Yashoda, one of the earllest surrogate 

mothers The Hlndu woman In Indian l~terature 1s usually 

based on mythic models from the Ramayana and Puranas, S~ta. 

the silent sufferer - the archetme of Indlan womanhood, the 

Earch-Mother, forbearance personlfled, the playmatze and 

beloved Radha. the devotee Meera Of these, the Image of 

the woman as Mother Earth, symbolrs1ng forbearance and 

endurance, is the most persistent (Allad1 1989 11 

1.3.2. Llke thelr Indlan counterparts, the Black mothers 

have to contend wlth prevalllng stereotypes of Black 

Motherhood In Afrlcan religlon and myth The Afrlcan Yomba 

proverb says 'Mother 1s gold', ideallsing the mother-f:gure 

ln African myth The women are deplcted as guardians of 

traditions, and the strong Earch-Mother stands for 

forbearance, stability and security It 1s generally 

assumed that the black mother, more than the white mother,

has a natural aptitude for motherhood, and thrs assumption 

has resulted in the Mammy stereotype 

1.3.3. Whlle polytheistic literature provldes evldence of 

10 

the ~nclus~on of women as well as men In almost every aspect 

of temple llfe and popular cult as lnltlants, celebrants and 

prlests, parts of the Blble represent men In a speclal and 

closer relation to God than women 

Many Brblical passages 

express amblvalence towards women, and fear of thelr 

sexuality and normal bodily functions 

In comparison to 

men, women are shown as less capable of moral 2udgement and 

more tied to the materlal than the moral or splrrtual 

aspects of exlstence 

reflected ln then roles as mothers too 

Thls amblvalence towards women 1s 

The vlrtue of 

women as wlves 2s deflned In terms of thelr roles as 

economlc producers rather than mothers 

Even when a woman 

physically glves birth to Jesus, and thereby enables his 

redemptive mlssion, she 1s shown as of relatively slight 

account In that mission In early cult 

It was only 

centurles later that the central role of the Vlrgln blrth 

was attested In both =he Western and Eastern churches 

Gradually thls recognltlon of V~rg~n Mary attalned dlvrne 

magnitude, and Mother Mary became the model of fem~nlne 

Christian vlrtues 

1.4.0. For centurles. the sugary cult of motherhood has 

been ldealised by writers and thlnkers 

Rousseau, for

11 

example, portrays Sophie, the 'ideal' woman In bile 

(discussed in Badlnter 1981 208-121 While Emlle is strong 

and domlneerlnq, Sophle is weak, tlmld and submissive Such 

a woman would soon be fully prepared for her role as a 

mother, living through and for her child According to 

Rousseau, the future mother wlll not be wlllful, proud, 

energetic or self-centered In no event should she become 

angry or show the slightest impatience Rousseau also 

conflnes the mother to the home as all her concerns are to 

be family-centered The analogles Rousseau makes between 

mother and nun, home and convent, reveal much about h ~ s 

feminlne Ideal Outslde that model, according to him, no 

salvation exlsts for women 

1.4.1. Ideas about the 'correct' maternal role have 

changed over the years Not untll the nineteenth century, 

for example, dld a chlld's development and well-belng come 

to be vlewed as the malor, IE not the sole responslbillty of 

ner or hls mother, who was then urged to devote herself 

full-time to her maternal dury In contrast, durlng the 

elgh~eenth century, chlld-rearlng was neither a dlscrete 

nor an exclusively female task There was llttle emphasis 

on motherhood per se, and both parents were advlsed to ralse 

their children together

12 

1.4.2. In the twentieth century, under the sway of 

behavlourlsm, the mother became the focus of 'experts' on 

chlldcare A corollary of the focus on mothers was the 

disappearance of fathers It was assumed that chlldren 

spent most of thelr time with then mothers, not thelr 

fathers. even though by law and custom, flnal authority was 

patrrarchal The advlce offered durlng the flrst decades of 

the twentleth century was of two types Prlor to about 

1915, women were urged to be moral and lovrng, perhaps even 

Indulgent toward thelr chlldren, although the experts 

continued to Insist that trarning and study were necessary 

to do the lob well But by the early 1920s, wlth the advent 

of psychoanalysls, women were warned agalnst 'smother love' 

and were told to Stress dlsclpllne and regularity Erther 

way, psychoanalysls has greatly contributed to making the 

mother the central character In the famlly After havlng 

discovered the existence of the unconscious, and shown that 

1; takes form throughout childhood, psychoanalysts formed 

the hablt of questlonlng the mother, even challeng~ng her. 

over the chlld's slightest psychologrcal problem 

L4.3. Dr Benlamln Spock's Baby and Child Care 1s a clear 

case of the changlng attitudes towards motherhood In the 

twentleth century Although the book championed full-tlme 

motherhood when ~t was flrst released In the 1940s, the 1976 

edltlon relects Spock's earller clalm that worklng mothers

harm children 

13 

It argues instead that women should feel 

free to work and that men make good parents too 

In thrs 

connection, Gerson qulps that Spock has been as much 

influenced by women as he has influenced them (1985 183) . 

1.5.0. Literature reflects these changlng attitudes 

towards motherhood As in llfe, so In llterature. there is 

no gradual evolution rn the perspective towards motherhood - 

the pattern is erratic Exalted to helghts in one era. 

suppressed ln the next, domlnatlng In another, sllent or 

Ignored In the succeedlng age - the 'real' mother st111 

remalns eluslve Nevertheless, the succeedzng literary 

resume attempcs to brlng out the myriad shades of the mother 

flqure as reflected In the works of wrlters In different 

ages and milleus 

1.5.1. Much of Western llterature looks back to the 

Demeter-Persephone myth as an archetype of the mother- 

duughter relationship 

According to thls myth. Persephone 

iKore1 1s abducted and raped lln one verslon by Poseidon, 

lcrd of the underworld, In another by Hades or Pluto, K ~ng 

of death1 

Demeter seeks revenge for the loss of her 

daughter by forbidding the gram - of whlch she is queen - 

to grow 

When her daughter 1s restored to her - for nlne 

months of the year only - she restores fruitfulness and llfe 

to the land for those months 

In thls myth, the separation

14 

of Demeter and Persephone is an unwilling one, it is neither 

a question of the daughter's rebellion against the mother, 

nor the mother's relection of the daughter The myth 

lndlcates that each daughter, even in the millznia before 

Chrlst, must have longed for a mother whose love for her and 

whose power were so great as to undo rape and bring her back 

from death And every mother must have longed for the power 

of Demeter, the efflcacy of her anger, the reconciliation 

wlth her lost self 

1.5.2. One comes across such strong mothers In the 

Germanic folk epic Das Nibelungenlied and ln the figure of 

Clytemnestra in the Greek eplc trad~tlon In the former 

eplc, although Krlemhild's relatlonshlp to her mother Uta 1s 

a close one, Krlemhild does not refrarn from relectlng her 

mother's advlce and chooslng her own course of actlon, she 

relects the maternal role to whlch she was expected to 

crnflne herself Similarly, in the Greek epic, Clytemnestra 

becomes the antlchesis of the nurturing mother figure, 

turnlng her back on the maternal role as she seeks vengeance 

on her husband Agamemnon 

1.5.3. In Medleval literature, mothers are conspicuous by 

thelr absence From Chaucer and hls contemporaries, nothlng 

1s known of the work and actlvltles of medleval women, nor 

1s there any clue concerning the relatlonshlp between a

15 

fourteenth-century mother and her children In Shakespeare, 

Demeter 1s separated from Persephone. As Myra Glazer Schotz 

points out, nothlng is known of the mothers of Jesslca, 

Desdemona, Ophelia, Regan, Goner11 or Cordelia (Davidson and 

Broner 1980 45) In Shakespeare's works, the mother's role 

is dimlnzshed whlle the father becomes important In 

Perlclea, it 1s the father-flyure who searches out the 

daughter and brlngs about the unlon wrth the mother In The 

Twest, mother and daughter are forever Isolated The 

Winter's Tale remains the most maternal of all of 

Shakespeare's plays, In no other play do we experience with 

such lntensrty that every mother concalns her daughter 

wrthln herself and every daughter her mother 

1.5.4. The Vlctorlan era emphasizes the redemptive or 

salvatory potential of the mother Works extollzng woman's 

special role as the moral regenerator of manklnd - Sarah 

Lewis' Woman's Xasslon 118391, Coventry Patmore's The -gel 

in the House (1854-62), and John Rusk~n's Of Queens' Gardens 

11865) - articulate the differences between femlnlne and 

masculrne nature, creatlng a myth of womanhood / motherhood, 

which postulates woman's moral efficacy in the world, at the 

same trme llmiting her sphere of action Covencry Patmore's 

The Angel in the House particularly has become the most 

famous stereotype, one that Virginia Woolf in 'Professions 

for Women' vehemently attacked Though motherhood in the

16 

vlctorian age has been ideallsed and glorified by male 

novelists, female novellsts, even those who were not 

themselves mothers, had a more realistic, if not an outrlght 

pessimistic outlook on the business of motherhood It 1s 

hard to flnd in the works of George Ellot or Elizabeth 

Gaskell a slngle strong mother who influences her daughter's 

life for good, a fact that 1s surely a refutation of the 

slmpllstic and sentimental vlew of motherhood found rn many 

male essayists and novellsts The novels of Jane Ausren, 

Fanny Burney and the Brontes reveal a tradltlon of the 

absent mother malnly because the herorne had to act 

Independently for the plot to unfold Hence mothers in 

nineteenth century fictlon are dead, absent, weak or In need 

of help themselves 

1.5.5 Of the Brltlsh novelists taken up for st~dy, 

Margaret Drabble sees motherhood In posltive terms wnile 

Doris Lessing deplcts the tenslons and conflicts arlslng out 

of th1s role Often referred to as a 'cautious fernlnlst'. 

Drabble In her flctlon deplcts woman In the role of a good 

mother wlfe, who at the same tlme remalns true to herself 

as a person In her llfe or flctlon, she does not advccate 

a femlnlst overthrow of the patriarchal order whlch has 

earned her the title of a llberal femlnlst Her novels. A 

Summer Bird Cage, The Garrick Year. The Millstone, Jerusalem 

the Golden, The Waterfall, The Needle'e Eye, The Realms of

17 

Gold, The Ice Age and The Middle Ground exemplify thls fact 

Her themes Include children, pregnancy, maternlty and 

famlly "One's relatlonshzps wlth one's slblings and 

parents 1s something that you're golng to wrlte about agaln 

and agaln, In different forms" (clted In Crelghton 1985 20), 

admits Drabble, and, no doubt, the central generating 

tenslon In many of her novels resides in mother - daughter 

relationships Drabble's repeated delineations of the 

mother-chlld bond In her novels and feature artlcles have 

earned her the tltles 'women's novellst' and 'novellst of 

maternlty', not always positively meant For most of Dorls 

Lesslng's women, motherhood proves to be a suffocat~ng 

experlence Molly, in The Golden Notebook, after divorcing 

Rlchard, brlngs up her son Tommy as a slngle parent, 

sacrif~clng her ambltlons and deslres, but flnds hlm 

revolting For Anne however, motherhood 1s a soothlng and 

satlsfylng experlence In her moments of turmoil, tenslon 

ax3 dislntegratlon, Anne flnds comfort and stab~llty xn the 

thoughts of Janet The novel further reflects on the stlgma 

of the unwed mother - Anne, who had been livlng wlth Max 

Wulf without marriage, marrles hlm when she conceives so 

that thelr chlld 1s not ~llegltlmate, but dlvorces hlm after 

the blrth of thelr daughter In the Children of Violence 

serles, the gruelling experience of childbirth, the 

dlsflgurement of her body, and the uncontrollable flow of

18 

mllk from her body leave Martha dlsquleted In Shikasta, 

Lesslng's stance 1s more posltive as she stresses the vltal 

role of parental affectron In brlnglng up chlldren 

1.6.0. The Amerlcan poet Emlly Dlckinson's poetry reveals 

a mocklng and even contemptuous tone of the daughter towards 

her mother The pallties that her mother embodles are the 

Chrlstlan vlrtues of meekness, patlence and submlsslon, and 

these attributes, Dlcklnson feels, deserve only contempt 

She extends her relectlon of her mother and the maternal 

world to any convention whlch she, as a woman, 1s expected 

to submit to courtship, marriage, chrldren 

1.6.1. In the novels of Ellen Glasgow, the mother exlsts 

only as a shadow cast over her daughter's promlse In Edrth 

Wharton's novels, the stralned relat~onshlp between mochers 

and daughters 1s one of the persistent themes Kllla 

Cather, Colette and Vzrglnla Woolf, as Jane Lllienfeld 

lndlcatea !Davldson and Broner 1980 150-751, were born Into 

fam~lles of strong women Unllke nineteenth cenzury 

mothers, the mothers of these early twentieth cenzury 

wrlters were neither obsessive nor felt a need to dom-nate 

thelr daughter's llves Not surprlslngly, all three wrlrers 

wrote about strong women, and also malntalned close 

relationships with women

19 

1.6.2 The two American novelists selected for study here 

are Charlotte Perkins Gllman and Marge Plercy, the former 

belonging to the early part of the twentieth century and the 

latter to the second half of the century "Charlotte Perkins 

G~lman marks an early part of the tradition In whlch such 

wrlters as Marge Plercy, Margaret Ptwood, Ton1 Morrlson. 

Margaret Drabble. Allce Walker, Adrienne Rlch, Sylvla Plath, 

and countless others now stand" observes Sheryl L Meyerlng 

(1989 91 True to thls statement, Gilman was one of the 

early precursors of the fem~nlst movement In the period 

before the Flrst World War, when most femlnlsts were 

preoccupied wlth the struggle to garn the vote, Charlotte 

Perk~ns G~lman addressed Instead the soclal and economlc 

roots of women's oppression What Gllman depicts In her 

utopia Herland, she had already explalned In Women and 

Economics 118981, The Home: Its Work and Influence (1903) 

and Euman Work (19041 She claims that the relegation of 

women to roles associated with then sexual or reproductlve 

actlvlty 1s disadvantageous to our progress as lndlvlduals 

and as a race Though not a misanthropic femlnlst, G~lman 

was against androcentric culture which treated women as 

merely extraneous, chlld-bear~ng females The worklng girl. 

the working wife and mother, became the ldeal which she 

preached Gllman was wllllng to accept matrimony and 

motherhood provlded women were released from thelr

20 

conventionally defined and lrmlted roles Gllman's views 

were much more vehemently vorced years later by the radlcal 

femlnlst Marge Plercy who believed that the patriarchal 

system cannot be reformed, only overturned Plercy asserted 

that male power was at the root of the soclal construction 

of gender She attacks men's control over women's role as 

chlld bearers and childrearers In W m n on the Edge of Time 

Her novel Vida evokes the turmolls of the years whlch P~ercy 

experienced as one of the organizers of the 'Students for A 

Democratic Socrety' Her Braaded Lives is called a 

'narrative of surv~val' rather than a blldungsrornan because 

the herolne does not succeed, but merely survlves In Small 

Changes, she lmaglnes an alternative world ln whlck the 

power pol~tlcs of sexual relationships are replaced sy a 

concern for each person as an lndlvldual and a respecz for 

nutual needs Flercy's formulation of the fernlnlst przblem 

acqulres valldlty through her recognltlon of the need for 

rerolutronaly change In soclety and through her careful 

attention to the detalls of the Intricate relatlor-ship 

between sexuality and cultural role playlng 

1.7.0. Mov~ng over to the Indlan scene, lt 1s observed 

that the old order does not easily yleld to the new, ant the 

Indlan mother flnds herself caught ~nextrlcably beryeen 

tradltlon and modernity Restricted both blologlcally and 

culturally, the Indlan woman's predicament 1s such that she

21 

finds herself at crossroads - she is unable to shake off her 

conventional roles of being a wlfe and mother, nor is she 

able to completely assert her ldentity as a woman, In terms 

of what she really is 

1.7.1. In early Indian llterature, one comes across 

mother-Elqures equated to goddesses Virtuous, caring, 

self-effaclng and self-sacrificing, these women seem to 

conform to the Ideal of womanhood / motherhood But in 

reality, one wonders - are these mothers real women7 Are 

they not eraslng a part of thelr personality, cuttlng 

fragments off themselves that refuse to conform to thls 

Ideal? Isn't the picture we see of the perfect mother 

actually a stunted, distorted one where the real woman never 

emerges3 Yet it 1s into thzs 'safe' hole that mllllons of 

women creep into m order to avold complexities and stralns 

in relationships 

1.7.2. Contemporary Indlan wrltlng continues to portray 

the stmggle between what 1s expected of a woman and what 1s 

innate ln her Anlta Desal's women question and somezlmes 

rebel agalnst thelr maternal role, but are not able to 

relect it outright Nanda Kaul In Fire On The Mountain, Blm 

In Clear Laght of Day and Sita in Where Shall We Go This 

Sumuer? at some point in their lives deny motherhood and 

attempt finding escape routes, but eventually understand

22 

that this is one role which is most difficult to relinqursh 

In Nayantara Sahgal's The Day in Shadow, Storm in Chandigarh 

and A Situation in New Delhi, the female protagonists are 

self-assert~ve women, who rellnqursh therr marltal role when 

marriage threatens to become a burden, but wllllngly see 

motherhood as the key to happmess and fulfilment Tara 

Parameswaran's Once Bittan Twice Married portrays an over 

protective mother whose daughter succumbs to her overbearing 

attitude In Rail Naraslmhan's Forever Free, the herome 

flghts agalnst her mother's interference but returns later 

to her widowed mother 

1.7.3. Among the Indlan novelists taken up for study here 

- Kamala Markandaya and Shashl Deshpande - the former 

portrays mothers who are completely defined by their 

maternal role while the latter deplcts women against a 

tradltlonal backdrop, struggl~ng to shrug off the roles 

folsted on them In A Eandful of Rice, we come across a 

Markandaya herolne, Nallnl, ~dentlfled solely through her 

mother-role, whose need to love. to possess and to wield 

power are ail carrled out through her maternal ldentlty 

alone In Markandaya's Some Inner Fury, Mira's mother who 

personlfles the 'Ma' Image, looks upon her sons as power 

symbols In Possession, Anasuya acts as a mother-surrogate, 

to whom both Caroline and Valmrkr turn for advice and 

guldance Only Lalitha of Two Virgins 1s not totally

enmeshed in the femlnine motherhood that the other 

Markandaya heroines who, blissfully unaware, are caught 

Deshpande's herolnes however refuse to flt into these 

stereotyped moulds 

mother belng a paragon of all virtues 

2 3 

Her novels explode the myth of the 

In The Dark Holds NO 

Terrors, Roota and Shadows, That Long Silence and The 

Binding Vine the oppressive effect of motherhood 1s 

lncreaslngly felt by the women protagonists 

1.8.0. In Engllsh-Canadlan flctlon, notably In the navels 

of women wrlters lrke Margaret Atwood. Margaret Laurence, 

Allce Munro, Beatrlce Culleton. Margaret Clarke (Helen 

M Buss1 and Gabrlelle Roy, the struggle between mothers and 

daughters emerges dynarnlcally through varlous stages of lts 

development 

These wrlters recognrze the pervasive 

Influence of the mother and tend to represent it through the 

daughter's gradually emerglng discovery of her own female 

Identity 

In the~r works, there 1s an emphasls on the past 

that, for women, is bound wlth the mother 

The 

psychological lourney that appears so much rn Canadlan 

flCtlOn reveals the arnblvalence that characterizes the 

daughter's feellngs about the mother 

The dynam~cs of the 

mother - daughter relatlonshlp and the theme of motherhood 

are brought out In Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel, A 

Jest of God, The Fire Dwellers. A Bird in the House and The 

~ivlners , Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, The Haadmaid's

24 

Tale. Surfacing and The Edible Woman, Beatrice Culleton's In 

Search of April Raintree, Margaret Clarke's The Cutting 

Season and Gabrielle Roy's The Windflower 

1.9.0. In Afro-Amerlcan literature, the image of the 

black woman as mammy persisted beyond the Clvil War into the 

lrterature of the 1890s The black woman's tendency to see 

maternal dutles as natural and sacred must have reinforced 

the Southern planters' notlon that black women were 

perfectly sulted to be mammles Even as the planters 

pralsed the black woman as the 'contented mammy', they 

inSrSte3 that she neglect her own children. Qulte 

paradoxlcally, the whxte planters relegated the dutles of 

motherhood to a belng whom they considered 'subhuman', thus 

creating a llne of demarcation between the spiritual and 

physlcal aspects of motherhood 

1.9.1. In contemporary Afro-Amerlcan women's flctlon, the 

black mother is no longer seen as a breeder, concubme, 

sapphire, mammy or mule, nor 1s she exalted to the status of 

the saviour or madonna As Marl Evans points out, the black 

women "braved the ideological strictures of the slxtles and 

freed themselves from the roies assigned to them rn the 

wrltlngs of thelr male counterparts, where, deplcted as 

queens and princesses, or as Earth mo~hers andJideallzed Big 

Mommas of super human wlsdom and strength, they were

25 

unrecognizable as individuals" (clted in Alladl 1986 101) 

The change in outlook 1s vlslble when writers lrke Margaret 

Walker and Louse Merrlwether are compared to Ton1 Morrlson 

or Allce Walker Margaret Walker's Jubilee 1s an exaltation 

of motherhood, deplcted through Vyry, a mother at seventeen. 

whose llfe 1s a repetltlon of her mother's Loulse 

Merrlwether's Daddy was a Nwnbcr Runner portrays Henrletta, 

another example of a self-sacrlfrclng mother Allce 

Walker's short storles portray mothers who undergo 

degradation and self-annihilation, tolerate violence. In 

order to save thelr chlldren In her storres, 'Roselily', 

'The Revenge of Hannah Kemhuff' and 'Strong Horse Tea', from 

In Love and Trouble and In The Thard Life of Grange 

Copeland, we come across such self-sacrlflclng mothers In 

Ton1 Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Paullne Breedlove 1s unlrke 

the stereotyped image of the black matriarch who holds the 

iamlly together Dlssatlsfled wlth the role of motherhood. 

Paulrne carrles it wlth reslgnatlon In Sula. Eva Peace 1s 

lnltlally portrayed as a sacr~flclng mother but soon the 

stereotype 1s broken and the rest of the portralt as a 

mother 1s less posltlve Of the other mothers In the novel, 

Hannah 1s not ~nterested In carlng for her chlldren. Helena 

IS a stern parent who smothers all natural lnstlncts of her 

chlld, Nel 1s the over-protect~ve mother who chokes her 

chlldren wlth too much love, and Sula herself is Interested

2 6 

neither ln matrimony nor ln motherhood Ondlne of Tar Baby 

and Ruth of Song of Solomon take to motherhood more easlly 

1.10.0. Wlth the change In gender stereotypes, what 1s the 

zmage of the mother today' Is she st111 the sllent, self- 

SacKlflCln? and unassuming person she once was or has she 

transgressed these llnes to become an educated entrty who 

holds her own oplnlons and has set her own goals7 Does the 

onus of brlnging up a well adlusted chlld, wzth the 

'correct' set of morals and values lle only on her, or 1s lt 

a socletal responslblllty? The ensulng chapters attempt to 

explore these questions, traclng the d-evolution of 

motherhood from an unquestlonlng conformity to patrlarchal 

norms, through a scepticism regarding thelr valldlty, to a 

remouldlng or total relectlon of motherhood and rts Imposed 

ldeals 

1.10.1. The second chapter. 'Famanine Motherhood' examlnes 

how women's capacltles for rnocherlng and the ablllty to get 

gratlflcatlon from ~t are strongly Internallzed and 

psychologically enforced by belng bullt 1nt3 the femlnrne 

psychrc structure Thls chapter focuses on the manner In 

whlch patrrarchal Instltutlons wlth relrglous sanctlon mould 

women ;nto femlnlne mothers as a consequence of whlch 

motherhood becomes synonymous wlth femlnlnlty By confining 

mothers to the domestlc clrcle and by extending thelr role

from the blologlcal to the psycho-soclal, the lnstltution 

converts mothers Into reproductive and chrld-rearlng 

2 7 

machines 

Asserting that self-reallzatlon and self 

underscandlng are Irrelevant for the mother, feminine 

motherhood demands of women a renunciation of personal alms 

rn favour of famll~al ones 

Moreover, soclety breeds guilt 

Into the very fabrlc of a woman's character, holdlng her 

responsible for anythlng that goes wrong In the famlly 

Anger 1s regarded the antlthesxs of the maternal, and the 

mother 1s expected to suppress it The subtle differences 

In conformity to the rnstltutlon - meek acceptance, 

burdensome acceptance or a waverlng between acceptance and 

questlonlng - is also lndlcated 

1.10.2. The transltlon from the 'fernmlne' to the 

'femrnlst' phase of motherhood - whlch beglns wxth the 

reallzatlon by women that the patriarchal lnstltution of 

-1otherhood 1s not the natural human condltlon - forms the 

crux ?f the rhlrd chapter, 'Puninlst Motherhood' 

Fernlnlst 

mothers oppose those aspects of motherhood thac make 

chlldbearlng and chlldrearing stressful rather than 

fulfllllng experiences 

Polnting out the hlatus between the 

lnstitutlcn and experience of motherhood or the 

contradlctrons between ldeology and reallty, thls chapter 

poses and explores the alternatives to femlnlne motherhood 

The seeds of thrs 'new' motherhood are sown wlth the

stlrrlng of a revolt of the protagonists agalnst therr 

mothers whlch is not so much a personal attack on the 

mothers as lt 1s against the rnstltutlon they represent 

The maternal rnsclnct and the mystlque of motherhood no 

longer hold good as the emerglng femlnist mother questrons 

or rejects the roles folsted on her 

1.10.3. Chapter IV: Technological Motherhood discusses the 

ldeologlcal trea-ment of technologrcal motherhood promoted 

by HI-tech reproductlve strategies and ~ t s relatron to 

femlnine / fernlnlst motherhood In three utoplas / dystoplas 

namely Gllman's Eerland, Prercy's Woman On The Edge of Tlme 

and Atwood's The Eandmald's Tale 

2 8 

The chapter explores the 

malor questlon Does women's l~beratlon requlre a blologrcal 

revolution? 

Should women rellnqulsh the~r reproductlve 

roles and take recourse to techniques of reproductlon. or 

should they reLa;n 

galn the ac'uai 

thelr reproductLve powers In order to 

experience of mothering, at the same tlme 

ensurlng that ~t 15 not ta~nted by the polltlcs of the 

patriarchal Lnstltutlon of motherhood 

The far-reachlng 

effects of technological reproductron - on chlld-rearlng, 

farnlly structures, heterosexual relatlans, raclsm. classlsm 

and sexlsm - are also explored 

1.10.4. Chapter V : The Aesthetics of Motherhood shrfts 

the focus from the themat~c to aesthetic aspects of 

motherhood, lndlcating how a self-conscious femlnlst

narrative point of view, structure, genre, Imagery and myth 

contribute to workzng out the problematlcs of motherhood 

The texts studled are classlfled Into those wrltten from the 

daughter's polnt of view, and those wrltten from a mother's 

perspective 

2 9 

Texts wrltten from a 'daughterly' perspective 

can be said to ally wlth patriarchal discourse In the 

process of 'otherlng' the mother 

It 1s only when the 

maternal voice makes itself heard that the space for 

maternal narrative 1s opened, and the mother becomes the 

sublect of her own story 

The double-voiced narrative, as a 

result of the protagonist speaklng simultaneously as 

daughter and mother, rs also discussed 

Further, the 

chapter delineates the manner by whlch the utoplan mode and 

the employment of fanrasy / allegory serve the purport of 

radlcal femlnlsm by maklng the impossible seem plausible 

Flnally, the metaphors, symbols and images that rerterate 

and re~nforce the femlnlne, feminlst or technologlcal phases 

of motherhood are culled out and discussed 

1.10.5. The conclud~ng chapter plcks up the threads of 

argument once agaln, movlng from the spec~f~c predicament of 

the frctlonal mothers to wlder, unlversal lssues 

Balanclng 

the clalms of femlnlne, femlnls~, blologlcal and 

technologlcal motherhood, ~t 1s concluded that the 

lnstitutlon of motherhood 1s not totally abol~shed bur only 

amended glving way to a more tolerant acceptance of the 

pluralrstlc attitudes towards motherhood

IEKININE MOTHERHOOD 

*Let her attend to a mother's and housewife's 

dutres" that, In Victorian oplnion was the 

proper job for a woman 

- Duncan Crow 

2.1.0. Patriarchal thought has imposed a nocion about 

women that unless they are mothers, they remain unfulfilled 

as women In addltlon, patriarchy also dlctates cercaln 

norms that a woman should adhere to In he: 

telllng her even what to feel and what not to 

mother-role, 

A vlctim to 

such an androcentrlc soclety, a woman unconsciously lmbrbes 

these ideals and starts conforming to what 1s expected of 

her as a mother 

Thus moulded by the lnsc~cutlon of 

motherhood, mothers begln to adhere to the 'femlnlne' ldeal 

o' 


2.1.1. The word 'fem~nlne' therefore has becsme 

synonymous wlth wantlng to be a mother 

The woman srho 

chooses not to become a mother cannot be a femlnlne womn 

along wlth motherhood, she re3ects womanhood 

comments 

As Oakley 

The cholce 1s cast as a cholce between alternative 

gender roles to be feminlne means to be, or to 

wanc to be, a mother to reject motherhood means 

to be masculine (1976 1881

3 1 

By emphasizing the primacy of motherhood, society closes 

other alternatives for women -- motherhood has to take 

precedence over everything else Maternlty, therefore, 

becomes woman's destlny, and a childless woman is 

emotionally suspect If her childlessness 1s wllled, she 1s 

consldered deviant and abnormal, or self-centered and 

unwomanly To have chlldren but turn over thelr rearing to 

someone else brlngs soclal disapproval a woman who does 

thls is consldered hard, unlovlng and 'unfemlnlne' It was 

flnnly belleved that chrld-rearlng practices too stem from 

women's nature 

2.1.2. Femlnlne motherhood inslsts that a woman can know 

fulfilment only at the moment of givlng birth to a child 

It denles the woman her feminlnlty when she can no longer 

look forward to glvlng blrth According to Theodore Lltz, 

an Amerlcan psychlatrlst. 

unless her womb has been fllled, her breasts 

suckled The woman's creatlvlty as a mother 

becomes a central matter that provldes meanlng and 

balance to her life lclted In Oakley 1976 1871 

Motherhood, therefore, has a blologlcal substrate 

Bearlng 

chlldren becomes the flrst lmperatlve for women, while the 

second ~mperatlve is assumlng soclal and psychological 

responslblllty for them 

A mother 1s not lust the woman who

ings a chlld into the world, but also who faithfully 

discharges her maternal role, her chief concern being the 

welfare of the infant 

3 2 

The mother's physlcal care of the 

chlldren is a minor task compared to the psychological 

responsibility of sociallslng them 

2.1.3. Ann Dally wrltes "There have always been mochers, 

but motherhood was invented" (cited In Hlrsch 1989 14) She 

cites 1597 as the flrst entry for 'motherhood' in the Oxford 

English Dictionary, and then only as fact rather than 

ideology 

The enstitutionallsation of motherhood came much 

later, creatrng the mystlque of motherhood, whlch 

presupposes the maternal Instinct and along with it, 

lifelong, unfllnchlng devotlon to the chlld, reiterating 

that mothers and mothers alone have the power to transform 

malleable Infants into moral, productive adults 

This 

mystique deflnes a woman as 'wife' or mother, relegating her 

real ldentlty, her real self, to the background 

Frledan remarks 

In the feminlne mystlque, there is no other way 

for a woman to dream of creation or of the 

future There 1s no way she can even dream about 

herself, except as her children's mother, her 

husband's wife (1371 62) 

Betty 

By suppressing the 'real self' or the 'woman w~thin', the 

woman becomes her soclal role 

Willy-nilly, she absorbs 

patriarchal ideals and 1s moulded into the 'ideal mother'

TO bear a child, preferably a son, and rear it according to 

these norms and Ideals, becomes her sole purpose in lrfe 

There 1s no questlon of cholce and nexther does she have a 

say In matters of bearlng and rearlng her chlld 

Adrlenne Rlch says of her early experlence as a mother 

I had no idea of what I wanted, what I could or 

could not choose I only knew that to have a 

chlld was to assume adult womanhood to the full. 

to prove myself,to be 'llke other women' 11976 25) 

2.1.4. When every woman deslres to be 'llke other women'. 

ultimately shaprng herself In the patriarchal mould, the 

actual experlence of motherlng 1s negated, resulting In the 

creatlon of an inauthentic self, a mystique 

As 

Betty Frledan 

In The Peminlne Mystique states "When a mystlque 1s strong, 

lt makes lts own flctlon of fact" (1971 601 She explains 

~t thus 

Facts are swallowed by a mystlque ln much the same 

way as the strange phenomenon by which 

hamburger eaten by a dog becomes dog, and 

hamburger eaten by a human becomes human 

(1971 1921 

Fernlnlne motherhood does preclsely this -- by creatlng a 

rnystlpe cf motherhood so that the needs of patriarchy would 

be served 

It 1s thls femlnlne rnystlque that creases 

dlvlslons between the authentic experlence of motherlng and 

the soclal expectations of motherhood or the difference 

between women decidlng who, when, how and where to motP.er, 

and men maklng these decislons for women

34 

2.1.5. Who, how, when and where to mother is almost never 

a woman's deczsron Even the questlon of whether to mother 

or not 1s not a matter of a woman's cholce Untll recently, 

patriarchy has kept women convinced that motherlng 1s thelr 

one and only job Thls new also restricts women to the 

prlvate / domestlc sphere, denying them access tc the publlc 

realm Women are considered innately nurturant, domestlc 

and selfless -- qualltles that makes them 'naturals' at 

chlld-rearlng 'Good mothers' are not supposed to have 

personal frlends or plans unrelated to those of thelr 

farnllles They are supposed co be on the lob cwenty-four 

hours a day and love every minuce of ~t According to 

Oakley, the myth of motherhood contalns three popular 

assertlons "all women need to be mothers, all mothers need 

thelr chlldren, all chlldren need thelr mothers" (1976 186) 

The assertlon that chlldren need thelr mothers only tles 

women to the mother-role These assertlons are faithfully 

pronounced as facts rather than unevldenced assumptlons 

2.1.6. The enforcement of blologlcal and socletal roles 

on a woman denles her the actual experience of motherlng 

Wlth several dutles added to it, mornerhood extends beyond 

nlne-months to Include responslblllty for the children's 

proper upbrlnglng and intellectual development Whlle 

fatherhood meant just provldlng the sperm to fertlllze the 

ovum, the mother's functlon went beyond the blologlcal to

35 

the moral, transf0m:ng the biological mother to a psychosoclal 

one The mother was considered the person in the 

best possible posltlon to take on these dutles, as lt was 

"naturen that assigned them to her 

2.1.7. Social conditlonlng plays a ma3or role In creating 

feminlne mothers The soclal constructzon of motherhood 

runs very deep, and is embedded in our psycho-social make 

up Feminlne gender-role socialrzation stresses maternity 

as all women's destlny, pressurlslng women to conform to 

structural constraints and cultural llmltatlons Young 

girls Walt for llfe to begin with a more circumscribed 

frar.ework of control than boys, ~n a more domestically 

orlenta-ed environment, the insuiarlty of whlch prepares 

them for thelr future llfe of marriage, motherhood and 

domestlc responslblilty As grrls were golng to be wlves 

and mothers, they were brought up to be sweet, gencle. 

submrsslve and subservient to males, hence afflrmlng 

quallcles of love, nurturance and self-sacrlflce, and mutlng 

self-assertion and aggression Anythlng that encouraged 

lndependexce was seen as a threat to thelr future 'careers' 

as bearers of chlldren Infused wrth the 'do's' and 

'don't's' of an androcentrlc culture they ultimately lmbibed 

these Ideals Vlctims to the feminine ideal of motherhood, 

they no longer have a prlvare Image to tell themselves who 

they are, or can be, or want to be A11 thelr deslres are

sacrificed at the altar of motherhood 

As the publlc images 

overrzde their personal selves, they become wllling victims 

to patriarchal expectations 

As Frledan remarks 

the women I ~ntervlewed fltted the new image 

of femlnlne fulflllrnent - - four, five or SIX 

chlldren, baked their own bread, helped burld the 

house wlth thelr own hands, sewed all their 

chxldren's clothe= These women had no dreams of 

career, no vlsions of a world larger than the 

home all enersv was centered on thelr lives as 

housewives and mothers, their only ambition, thelr 

ocly dream already reallzed But were they 

fulfllled women7 I1971 234) 

Frledan's pertinent questlon 

"But were they fulfllled 

women?" 1s a pointer to the fact that these women. in thelr 

ignorance, flnd fulfilment In their domestic chores, in the 

dornestlc sphere, In their role as wife and mother, unmindful 

of what 1s happening In the world around them 

they attaln 'fulfilment' -- but at what cost' 

No doubt, 

-- sacrlflce 

of thelr deslres, interests and maybe even a potentlal 

career 

VictlrnS of the perpetuation of a pro-natallst sex 

role, women are processed in such a way that they want 

chlldren, they are expected not oniy to want bables, but 

also love motherhood 

2.2.0. Thls chapter proceeds to examme how women's 

capacities for mothering and ab1llt:es 

to get gratlflcatlon 

from it are strongly lnternallzed and psycholog~cally 

enforced by being bullt into the femlnlne psychlc structure

37 

2.2.1. Before the summer of her awakenlng, Kate Brown of 

The S W I Before the Dark, 1s one such woman who languishes 

ln her domestlc role, servlng the needs of her husband and 

children Like the women Frledan describes, Kate too 

unknowlngly destroys the woman withln and unquestioningly 

conforms to her soclll role Confined to her home and 

domestic dutles. Kate plays her part of the model wife and 

mother The flrst sentence of the novel '(A woman stood on 

her back step, arms folded, waltlngu ISBD 5) speaks 

volumes about the femlnlne woman who, standlng on the brlnk 

of a male-centered soclety, lust walts and watches Culte 

slgnlflcantly, Lesslng refers to her protagonist at the 

beginning of the novel as slmply 'a woman', emphaslzlna, as 

lt were, her typlcal, femlnine role -- a 'woman' not lust 

slgnlfylng Kate, but Everywoman, imparting an archetypal 

dlmensron to the woman's predicament Only in her innernost 

reflections at thls ~uncture 1s she referred to as 'Kace' 

This blfurcatlon between her 'self' and her 'r3le' 

reiterates the dichotomy between tne 'femlnlne' and the 

about - to - emerge 'fernlnlst' In her Further, In order to 

Stress Kate's domestlc, marltal and maternal roles, Less~ng 

wlth lronlcal overtones, employs various epithets to 

descrlbe her protagonist "a beautiful woman", "a wonderful 

mother", "a cook for the angels", a marvellous belng, all 

warmth and kindness, wlth not a fault In her" (SBD 17)

2.2.1.1. Among her varlous feminlne roles, it 1s the 

maternal wrth whlch Kate 1s identlfled throughout the novel 

For Kate, anythrng that was not a chlld seemed a horzzon too 

distant to be reached 

3 8 

It is the maternal role In wh~ch she 

1s inextricably caught and is unable to evade 

her wherever she goes 

it pursues 

At her home in South London, at her 

lob at Global Foods, in her relatlonshlp to Jeffrey, or ln 

the company of Maureen, Kate cannot avold playing thls role 

2.2.1.2. At home, Kate provldes a klnd of statlc base for 

her husband and chlldren whose vocations entall mobrlity 

She 1s always ava~lable, "at everyone's d~sposal" (SBD 13) 

Her movements always f ~ t in wlth those of her chlldren. "as 

of course they had to do" (SBD 

an lronlc touch 

121, Lesslng comments wlth 

Flexlblllty, passlvlty and adaptablllty to 

others become the characterlstlcs of her llfe 

She allows 

berself only "a dozen or so" mental attitudes whlch again. 

are stereotyped, llke "garmenes taken down off a rack" (SBD 

23) She has never known whac 1t means to choose 

"Choose7 When do I ever choose9 Have I ever chosen'" 

ISBD 

10) Even In matters of dress, she wears only what 1s 

appropriate ~n the mlddie-class suburb and "her posltlon ln 

it as her husband's wrfe 

And, of course, as the mother 

of her children" (SBD 10) She does not allow her 

appearance to bloom as her chlldren dlsllke her givrng reln 

to her nature

2.2.1.3. Kate trles to Inculcate in herself the values 

essential for a 'model mother' though she beglns to 

lncreaslngiy feel the burden of motherhood wrth the b~rth of 

every subsequent chlld 

Her flrst chlld does not create any 

sharp change In her lifestyle, but she beglns to experlence 

the pressures of motherhood wlth the blrth of her second, 

thlrd and fourth chlldren 

With mountlng dlfflcultres, she 

tries to flt Into the mould of the femlnlne mother and 

remaln there 

Wlth three small chlldren, and then four, she had 

to f:aht for aualltles that had not been even In 

her vocabularj Patience, self-dlsclpllne, self - 

control, self-abnegation chastlty Adaptability 

to others -- this above all This always (SBD 89) 

As In Lesslng's The Golden Notebook, here too, the mother- 

chlld tension manifests ltseif -- the mother 1s depxcted as 

self-effacing, lovlng and generous whlle the ch~ld 1s 

Jsualiy selflsh, callous and demanding 

In The Sunnner 

Before the Dark, Kate reallzes the futlllty of her 

'sacrlf~ce' when Tlm bursts out that she 1s suffocating hlm, 

'mother' becomes the scapegoat of her children's complaints, 

a "sponge" (SBD 89) for all thelr needs, regardless of 

hers 

She beglns to experlence a schlzophrenla, a 

Eragmentatlon of identity, a dlvlslon of self, as a 

consequence of conforming to the feminlne ldeal of 

motherhood

lt seems to me as I£ llttle bzts of me are 

dlstrlbuted among my family, Tlm's bit, Michael's 

blt, Erleen's plece -- and so on ISBD 231) 

In thls role-playing, the actual Kate behlnd these myrlad 

masks becomes lnvislble 

She sometimes has to subordinate 

her husband's needs to those of the chlldren, but always has 

to subordmate her needs to both 

2.2.1.4. At Global Foods toc. Kate's role as a 

clrcumscrlbed nurturer 1s utlllzed, though In a different 

context Here, she becomes a 'tgroup-mother"(SBD 41) --- 

her maternal role comes to the fore agaln 

Her role as 

translator is that of "an exceedingly lntelllgent and fluent 

parrot vlrh maternal lnclrnaclons (SaD 33) Here, she 

does what she dld at home, only on a larger scale --- 

organlzxng, spendlng tlme on the telephone, seelng that 

people and places and thlngs, colnclded at the rlght tlme 

Though she adopts cerraln changes ln her manner of dresslng 

and halr st:~le whlch make her look more glamorous, she 1s 

glad ttat her chlldren could not see her, for "no young 

person likes to see dear Mother all g:ossy 

and gleamlng and 

s11k.j (SBD 39) AS at home, here, too, Kate assumes the 

iuncr:ons 

of provldlng consolation, warmth and sympathy 

2.2.1.5. Furthermore. Kate's ~nvolvernent wlth a younger 

man. Jeffrey, agaln brlngs out she maternal rn her 

She 

plays two maln roles wlth Jeffrey 

she 1s the smlllng,

sexually knowledgeable woman of the world, and she is also 

the heallng mother 

4 1 

Although Kate more readlly accepts the 

flrst role, she finds that Jeffrey's illness brings out the 

maternal rather than the sexual in her 

hard not to be motherly to hlm, 

"love-woman" (SBD 

Though she trles 

she 1s unable to be a 

96) to a man young enough to be her son 

Playing mother to a slck man not her son enables Kate to 

assess her role as mother to her own children, she comes to 

the conclusion that motherhood becomes an obsessive fusslng 

rather than a lovlng concern when lt 1s carrled beyond the 

needs of those who are mothered 

2.2.1.6. The 'feminine' slde of Kate, however, Lesslng 

sketches with an ironlc tlnge 

character 1s portrayed as a soclal caricature 

Kate's shallowness of 

Kate Brown glves the reader llttle to care about, 

her life, house and family are cardboard cutouts,llke 

illustrations from an advert~sement -- 

stereotypes so banal they are satirlc (Cederscrom 

1990 1351 

Even her lob at Global Foods, which could mean a meaningful 

move from the restricted conflnes of the home to a wlder 

soclal circle, 1s satlrlsed, sketched In bold, farclcal 

outlines 

Easlly manipulated here as she was at home, she 

falls into whatever role the organizers expect from her -- 

in addltlon to her role as translator, she plays mother to 

the guests, Unlike Martha Quest of Children of Violence

series and Anna Wulf of The Golden Notebook, 

42 

Kate 1s a 

completely predictable character, incapable of developing 

beyond socletal confines Compared to the frall Kate, Anna 

and Martha are more substantial characters 

2.2.2. Like Kate Brown of The S-er Before the Dark. 

Rukmanl of Nectar in a Sieve is another example of the 

feminlne mother, whose thoughts and actlons, even as a young 

glrl, revolve around the eventuality of motherhood 

Her 

mother 1s prlmarlly responsible for groomlng her Into the 

'perfect' mother of the future. 

She does not belleve In 

educatlng her daughter as lt would In no way contribute to 

her future role as mother 

What use that a glrl should be learned 

Look at me, am I any worse that I cannot spell my 

name, so long as I know 1t7 Is not my house clean 

and sweet and are not my chlldren well fed and 

cared for' (NS 11) 

For Rukmanl's mother, a woman's ultlmate dutles are domest~c 

and maternal and as being illiterate In no way affected 

these, she sees no polnt in educatlng her daughter 

Rukmanl, however, durlng her flrst pregnancy, attempts 

learnlng to write but qulte slgnlfzcantly, she does nor do 

SO for herself, but to teach the chlld yet to be born 

2.2.2.1. Whlle Kate Brown experiences the trauma of 

motherhood after the blrth of every subsequent chlld though 

she does not confess it even to herself, Rukmanl, on the

other hand, completely convinced by pacrlarchy, feels 

fulfilled in her role as mother after havlng borne flve 

sons 

Markandaya's Rukmani easlly flts Into one of the 

mother archetypes described by Jung, where there 1s an 

overdevelopment of the femlnlne Instinct, an lntenslflcatlon 

of most of all, the maternal instlnct 

the negative slde of thls complex 1s seen 

According to Jung, 

ln the woman whose only goal 1s chlldblrth To 

her the husband is of secondary lmporcance, he 1s 

flrst and foremost the Instrument of procreatxon, 

and she regards him merely as an oblect to be 

looked after Even her own personality 1s of 

secondary importance, she often remalns entlrely 

unconscious of lt, for her lzfe 1s llved in and 

through others iJung 1972 21-22) 

2.2.2.2. In Nectar in a S~eve, all women ha,:e a 

relacronshlp to motherhood, even lf a negaclve one 

Through 

Rukmani's daughter Ira, Markandaya hlghllghts the plrgt: of 

a barren woman ln a soclety whlch str~ctly deflnes a wcman 

-n terms of her capaclty to reproduce In the terns of the 

novel. to be a fallure 1s to be a woman who cannot even bear 

a chlld, to be a success 1s to mother a ch~ld, preferacly a 

male chlld, and through it achleve a sense of pleasure. 

prlde and power If the woman's womb falls her, s h ~ 1s 

denled her rnd~vlduallty and discarded as a worthless 

oblect 

As Adrlenne Rlch opines 

Woman's status as childbearer has been made into a 

malo* fact of her life Terms llke 'barren' or 

'childless' have been used to negate any further 

ldentlty The term 'nonfather' does not exlst In 

any realm of soclal categories (Rlch 1976 11)

Childless women have always been haunted by the costs of 

permanent chlldlessness 

44 

Soclal disapproval, consignment to 

a lonely and desolate old age and the loss of a major life 

experience 

The fear of these costs have powerful 

psychological ramlfzcatlons for childless women, such as 

Ira, facing pressures to parent 

On her failure to 

concelve. Ira's husband brlngs her back to her parents' 

house 

Desplte Rukmanl's efforts to convince hlm that Ira 

mlght concelve later, he 1s adamant 

I have walted five years She has not borne in 

her first blooming, who can say she wlll concelve 

later' I need sons (NS 501 

It 1s only another patriarchal volce, that of Nathan's. 

whlch sympachises wrth hlm and ~ustlfies his abandonment of 

the barren Ira 

Ira 1s thus branded "a fallure, a woman who 

cannot even bear a chrld" (NS 50) Rukmanl does all she 

can to rectlfy Ira's 'defect', but lt is too late, for by 

the tlme Ira 1s treated, her husband remarries 

2.2.2.3. Ira however channels her urge to mother by acting 

as a surrogate mother to her newly-born brother, Kutl, whose 

blrth causes a transformation In her Although she is 

unable to bear a ch~ld, she fmds great contentment in 

rearlng one, whom she regards as her own Durlng adverse 

circumstances, she goes to the extent of prostltutlon In 

order to acquire food for hlm, but Kutl dres, leavrng her 

heart broken

2.2.2.4. Ira retalns some of her mother's cherrshed rdeais 

and relects others 

45 

She emulates certaln ldeals of a 

femlnrne mother rlght from her childhood, playlng the role 

of a surrogate - mother to her younger brothers Rukmani's 

motherly advice to Ira on the eve of her weddlng. "Thls 

home, your brothers, are all you have known so far, but when 

you have your own home and your own chlldren, you w ~ll not 

m1ss these" (NS 361 remalns wrth her long after her 

marriage, but when she 1s shunned by her husband, she 1s 

forced to recurn to her parents' home 

2.2.2.5. The trauma of an Illegltlmate mother In a 

patriarchal society 1s also explored by Markandaya 

Though 

barren durlng her marital l~fe, ~ronrcally, Ira becomes the 

mother of a child as a result of prostltutlng herself, the 

~dentlty of whose father 1s unknown 

The hope and 

txpectatlon wlth whlch the birth of Rukmanl's chlldren was 

awalted 1s now replaced by an unknown fear, the rlsk of 

bearlng an ~liegrtimate chlld 

reconcile herself to the fact 

Rukmanl crles hard to 

"perhaps her love for 

chlldren swamped every other feellng She was meant to have 

chlldren I had always known that 

It was a cruel twlst of 

Fate that gave them to her thls way" INS 1151 Although 

the chrld 1s an alblno, Ira 1s overwhelmed at hls arrlval 

At this, Nathan comments "She has lost her reason She 

does not see her child as he IS, but as she would have hlm

4 6 

be To her, he is only falr, whereas it 1s clear he 

resembles nothlnq so much as a white mouse" (NS 117-18 1 

Both Rukmanl and Ira look upon sons as power s).mbols, as the 

sole reason for their existence, llttle reallslng that the 

sons are in fact wresrlng away from them the llttle power 

they had left In this connection Adrienne Rlch coments 

that power relations between mother and chlid are often 

slmply a reflection of power relations In patriarchal 

soclety Powerless women have always used mothering as a 

channel for thelr own human wlll to power (Rlch 1976 38) 

2.2.2.6 AS In Ira's case, unmarrled mothers are outlawed 

by pacrlarchal culture In Margaret Laurence's The Diviners 

and Margaret Drabbie's The IiIlstonc, where the lnltlai 'U' 

at the end of Rosamund's bed at the hospital, standlng for 

'Unmarried' marks her as a devrant mother The predlcanent 

of these mothers lndlcates that to bear a chlld out of 

wedlock means to vlolate the property laws that say a woman 

and her child must legally belong to d man Slnce the 'sin' 

of the chlld's father 1s more dlffxr~lt to prove, lt 1s on 

the unmarrled mother that the full penalty of llleglt=nacy 

falls (the ~lleqltlmacy of the mothers of these two nc.Iels 

1s a matter of personal cholce, ln contrast to Ira's who 

succumbs as a victlm of circumstances and wlll be hence 

discussed in the next chapter 'Feminist Motherhood')

47 

2.2.2.7. Apart from Rukmani and Ira, other women In the 

novel are also described In terms of thelr motherhood 

Janakl has a sagglng flgure because she had borne her 

husband three chlldren Kunthl moves gracefully desplte her 

burden, though her earller pregnancy had almost brought 

about her death 

2.2.2.8. TO the femlnlst, Nectar in a Sieve ralses a 

pertinent questlon Is a woman's prlmary ldentlflcatlon 

based merely on her functlonal roles' Does she not have any 

worth beyond bearlng and rearlng chlldren' Whlle Rukmanl 

completely erases herself to brlng up her sons, Ira to some 

extent rebels agalns: exlstlng norms by bearlng an 

lllegltlmate son She attempts to transcend the conflnes of 

patrlarchal tradition by maklng an lnd~vldual cholce But 

even though she does so, 1t 1s only as a vlctlm of 

circumstances, not as a woman wlth an optlon open to her 

Ira, therefore, 1s "a rebel, but a mother nevertheless" 

(Allad1 1989 411 She st111 is unable to break open the 

conf~nes of a male-dom~nated culture, she does not reach 

over to the femlnls: zone as she cannot shatter the shackles 

of patrlarchal rules that have seeped into her psyche 

Nevertheless, the sllght changes that one dlscerns In the 

three generations of women -- Rukmanl's mother, Rukmanl and 

Ira -- foretell the advent of a new motherhood, whrch 1s

ound to be deflned by the mother herself, instead of the 

femlnlne, patrlarchal deflnltion described so far 

2.2.3. Llke the Britlsh and the Indian, the Afro-American 

Toni Morrlson' s Beloved polgnantly reveals how the 

patrrarchal eye viewed women as noth~ng more than 

reproductlve machlnes 

Interweavrng her femznlst and ethnlc 

concerns, Morrlson here deals wlth the psychologrcal effects 

of Slavery on motherhood 

Sethe's story painfully rnd~cates 

how slave-women were ruthlessly exploited by thelr owners 

for breedlng purposes 

Slave-owners wanted the enslaved 

women to breed because every chrld born meant for them an 

asset In thelr property 

prospects for more slaves 

observes 

Female slaves therefore provlded 

As Patrrcla Hz11 Colllns 

Durlng slavery the breeder woman lmage portrayed 

Black women as more sultable for havrng chrldren 

than whlte women By cla~mlng that Black women 

were able to produce chlldren as easlly as 

anlrnals. thls obiectiflcation of Black women as 

the other provideh ]ustlflcat~on for interference 

In the reproductlve rlghts of enslaved Afrlcans 

(Colllns 1990 761 

Such a reduction of women to breedlng anlmals further 

denigrates thelr positlon as "mules of the world" 

The fact 

that Sethe 1s milked llke a cow and has her mllk stolen by 

Schoolteacher's nephews further rezterates the fact that 

slave-women were nothlng more than mere animals. 

Morrlson herself remarks, her alm 1n Beloved was to show the 

As

malevolence of the instltutlon itself through a famlly that 

was devastated by slavery Marlanne Hlrsch hlghlrghts the 

connection between slavery and ~ ts effect on motherhood 

The economy of slavery clrcumscrlbes not only the 

process of lndiv~duat~on and sub, ect-f omatlon, 

but also heightens and intensifies the experlence 

of motherhood -- of connection and separatlon It 

raises quest;ons about what ~t means to have a 

self, and to glve that self away It ralses 

questlons about what famlly means If mothers 

cannot own thelr chlldren or themselves, they 

experlence separatlon and loss all the more 

intensely IHlrsch 1989 2711 

2.2.3.1. Morrlson's accurate portrayal of the experlence of 

the black slave woman as a machlne for the production of 

more slaves 1s confirmed by Deborah Gray Whlte, who 

descrrbes the slave woman between the ages of slxteen and 

thlrty-flve "A woman of thls age was elther pregnant, 

nurslng an ~nfant, or had at least one small chrld to care 

for "iclted in Samuels 1990 101) Sethe's predicament 1s 

exactly so at Sweet Home where the Garners belleve that the 

most Important puqose of the slave woman 1s chlldbearxng 

In fact, Sethe 1s brought to Sweet Home to replace aaby 

Suggs, her mother-ln-law, who was coo old to work or 

reproduce At Sweet Home, Lherefore, Sethe ~s valued only 

for her chl1dbear;ng capacltres and the capltal lt entalls, 

she 1s "property that reproduced ltself wlthout cost" 

2.2.3.2. Deeply ingrained In Sethe's psyche are these 

Concepts and she beglns to feel that she has no self, except

in the role of the mother. IrnageS of nurturance pervade the 

novel in association with Sethe, whose children are the 

meaning of her existence and by nurturing whom she derives 

Immense satlsfaction in her otherwise meaningless life. She 

braves all odds to reach her chlldren at any cost, leaving 

even her husband behind: 

All I knew was I had to get my milk to my baby 

glrl. Nobody was golng to nurse her like me. 

Nobody was golng to get 1t to her fast enough or 

take 1t away when she had enough and dldn't know 

lt. Nobody knew that she couldn't pass air if you 

held her up on your shoulder, oily zf she was 

lylng on my knees Nobody knew that but me and 

nobody had her milk but me (B 20) 

When Sethe tells the story of her escape, she stresses that 

she dld it alone, out of love for her children. 

5 0 

Nobody 

could take care, nurse and mother them llke she could, she 

loses herself In the mother-role 

By casting Sethe in the 

role of nurturer, Morrlson lndlcates the lmage of the great 

mother as an embod~ment of the femlnlne prlnclple 

2.2.3.3. The flercely maternal protective lnstinct in Sethe 

1s revealed In her conversation wlth Paul D 

"I don't care 

what she [Beloved] is Grown don't mean nothing to a mother 

k chlld is a chlld. 

They get blgger, older, but grown? 

What's that suppose to mean? In my heart it don't mean a 

thing (B . 56) Sethe firmly asserts that she wlll protect 

her "when I'm live and 1'11 protect her when I aln't (B.56). 

Possessive though Sethe's love for her daughters may sound,

for her it involves both a give and take. "When I tell you 

you mine, I also mean I'm yours. I wouldn't draw breath 

wlthout my children" (B.250). When Paul D accusingly says 

that her love for her children is "too thick" (B:250), she 

retorts saylng "thin love" is not love at all. 

51 

He is 

however quick to understand that for a slave woman it was 

dangerous to love anything too much, especially her 

ct.;ldren. 

In this conversation the tension between the 

Institution of slavery and the maternal ~nstlncts of the 

slave-mother are starkly brought out. Whlle slavery clalmed 

ownersh~p of the mother and her ch~ldren, the mocher fought 

an emot~onal battle, trying to hold on t3 her chzldren 

2.2.3.4. Set ln the nineteenth century, mainly ln the pre 

and post- Clvll war era, the story of Beloved 1s based on 

fact 

Morrlson came across the story of Margaret Garner 

whlle gathering materlal for the text A fuglt~ve from 

Kentucky, Garner attempted to k ~ll her children rather than 

havlng them enslaved agaln, when they were all captured ln 

Ohio in 1850 

She succeeded In k~lling only one, however, 

Wt-CSe throat she slashed (clted in Samuels 6 Hudson - 

Weems 1990.95), Morrison retells thls inc~dent In the story 

of Sethe which serves as a grlm reminder of the brutalislng 

repercussions thac slavery had on the psyche of slaves 

Sethe kllls her chlld by slashlng her throac with a handsaw. 

She considers IC a mercy-killing, preferlng her death rather

than enslavement at the hands of the brutal slave-owners 

Sethe argues that by killing her baby, she kept her safe 

5 2 

from the dehumanization of slavery 

The children are her 

only self, her "best thingsu - she clalms she wouldn't draw 

breath without her children and she wlll destroy rather than 

surrender them. 

that allows her 

Sethe's 'thick-love" is an excessive love 

to destroy what she has created, to deny 

lrfe to her own chlld. 

Even Paul D, who knows Sethe's 

reasons, finds them hard to accept 

He is so horrlfled when 

he flnally learns about her crime that he leaves her for a 

tlme, telllng her that she has two legs, not four 

lmplies that she was beastly xn kllllng the baby, 

When he 

Sethe 

asks, who was the beast? Her alm 1s only to keep Beloved out 

of the hands of an owner who would see her only as an 

an~mal 

Paul D however 1s incapable of understanding 

maternal loss, and how the potentlal for loss could compel a 

slave woman to become both vlctlm and an agent of a daemonlc 

desire for famlllal survival. Beloved, however, understands 

her mother's mot:ve when she returns as a ghost elghteen 

years later What she could not see as a "crawling - 

already?" baby, she is now able to see as an adult, that her 

mother's action was lndeed one of love 

2.2.3.5. This sllent and acquiescent yet potentially 

destructive mother is able to see beyond her mother - role 

Only towards the end of the novel when she loses her

5 3 

daughter Beloved the second time To her self-effacing "she 

was my best thing " (B. 335) Paul D insists : "You your best 

thlng Sethe You are" (B.335) enabllng her to see herself 

for the first time as subject, and allowing her to finally 

qllest1on her motherhood on which her life had rested. 

2.2.3.6. The problematics of the novel consists in an 

exploratlon of the question. Is Sethe's actlon of kllling 

her Infant lustified' Does a mother who glves birth to a 

child possess the right to take its llfe? Does the 

]ustlflcatlon of the act as mercy-kllllng redeem the killer? 

Sethe, although intending to kill all her chlldren, succeeds 

In kllllng only one, her obvious motlve in the 'murder' is 

to save them from the clutches of slavery, she prefers death 

to a shackled existence Sethe's act of infantlclde has 

several predecessors including her own mother, who, raped by 

slave traders and owners, aborted all resulting pregnancies 

Sethe's alm is to prevent her chzldren from gertlng 

psychologically wounded as she had been rlght from her 

chzldhood She also wants to avold their belnc separated 

from thelr mother, as she herself had been According to 

her, a woman should do everything In her capaclty to protect 

her children. The fact however remalns that she does so by 

taklng one of her infant's lives. One can even conclude 

that her attitude to her chlldren is proprietary, Morrlson 

Frobes into the question of parental ownership as much as

54 

she does 1ntO ownership of humans by slave-owners. She 

however underscores the difference between the two -- the 

former meant for betterment whlle the latter a degradation 

of the owned. Seen in thls light, the question is rendered 

even more complex. 

2.2.3.7. Beloved is in a way reminiscent of Harriet Beecher 

Stowe's Uncle Tom'a Cabin written more than a century 

earller Both these slave narratives underscore that while 

the male slaves' search for freedom meant reclaiming therr 

manhood, women's main concern was to save thelr children and 

retaln control over thelr reproductive power Morrlson 

szlrs a delzcate lssue -- that of the rlght of possession of 

a mother over her chlld, but does not provlde any clear cut 

solutlon Unlike her other novels, in Beloved, the lssue is 

not closed Morrlson however accornpllshes what she had set 

Out ta do- makxng tte sllenced black woman speak out her / 

story which hls / story had neglected By focussing on what 

earller slave-narratives had ornltted, Toni Morrlson writes a 

maternal hlstory of the Afro-Amerlcan woman, she wrlces 

"what has been stolen and cannot be wrltten -- mother's 

mllk .. She becomes an agent of ~nvlslbllity, what Clxous 

Calls wrltlng in white ink" (Llsclo 1992 45) 

2.2.4. In Shashi Deshpande and Allce Walker, the image of 

the 'feminlne' mother emerges through confrontation with her

'feminist' daughter. 

5 5 

What one sees in The Dark Holds No 

Terrors is a mother, herself a victim to patriarchy, 

expecting the same from her daughter. She is unaware of her 

vlctimlzation at the hands of patriarchy whereas her Black- 

American counterpart in Meridian is an educated, well 

informed mother who makes compromises, sacrlfzcing her 

publlc role so that she fulflls the domestic role required 

of her. No doubt, she, too, 1s a vlctrm to the moral voice 

of the institution of motherhood -- existing slnce slavery 

when mothers even gave up therr llves for thelr chridren -- 

which demands that Afro-Amerlcan mothers, whatever the 

changed circumstances of thelr llves, take on the sole 

responslblllty of then chlldren (Nadel 1988 59) 

Both the 

femlnlne mothers of the earller generation -- Saru's mother 

wlll~ngly and Meridian's mother unwllilngly, pass on the 

legacy of the patriarchal system to their daughters 

2.2.4.1 In Allce Walker's Meridran. Mrs Hlll fl-s intc the 

category of 'suspended women' that Allce Walker herself 

describes 

As an independeni, slngle, career woman, she 

enioys freedom. But somewhere deep inslde her she craves 

~CT the ernotlonal securlty that she thinks the 'happly 

marrled' women around her have In abundance 

Although she 

does not want to marry or to have chlldren, cultural 

expectations condition her thlnking and she considers the 

role of a mother essential in the life of a woman

2.2.4.2 This 'feminine' streak ~rs.~ill irnblbes from the 

long generation of mothers before her. 

5 6 

Her family history 

is one of mothers who sacrificed their life for their 

children. Her great-great-grand mother was a slave whose 

two chlldren were sold 

The third time she stole them back, 

her master agreed that she could keep them if she would take 

full responsibility of feeding them. 

She manages to feed 

them but herself dies of slow starvation, after whlch her 

chlldren are sold back 

Mrs.Hill's mother herself made a 

bargaln with her hard-hearted husband for allowing her 

daughter to go to school 

2.2.4.3. Mrs Hl11 1s depicted as Black femlnlne motherhood 

person~fled Walker deplcts Merldlan, the emerglng femlnlst 

mother, agalnst the backdrop of femxnlne motherhood typlfled 

by Mrs Hlll 

Mrs H111, a bllndly religious woman, 

apparently happy rn her passivity and zn the dull chores of 

everyday llfe, expects her daughter to follow her footsteps 

Merldlan hates her mother for imblblng the values of 

lnstltutlnal motherhood 

Meridian thcught of her IMrs Hllll as Black 

Motherhood personified, and of that great 

institution she was In terrlble awe, 

comprehendidng as she did the horror, the 

narrowing of perpspectlve, for mother and chlld lt 

had invariably meant (M . 931 

Despite other autobiographical parallels, Merld~an's 

Stralned relationship with her mother is a far cry from the

57 

nurturing relationship Walker herself had with her mother 

and of which she gives a moving account in In Search of Our 

~others' Gardens Meridian as a daughter is afraid of the 

Black Motherhood personified in her mother. Steeped in the 

lnstltutlon of motherhood, Mrs Hill's life is a "sacrifice", 

a "blind, enduring, stumbling" IM 71) through life. She 

does not take extreme positions on anything, unless 

urreasonably provoked over a long period. It is clear that 

she has reached this State of passlve feminlne motherhood by 

k-lllng the femlnist in her Although Merldian hates the 

lnstitutlon of motherhood personif led by her mother, though 

she feels that her mother cannot understand her llfe and 

prays only for her soul, Merldian is unable to dlssoclate 

from her mother as is seen In her preservation of her 

letters 

2.2.4.4. "My mother, you know, was a great femlnist. She 

brought me up to be equal She made there be no questions, 

no d-fference" (MS 321, says Rosamund Stacey of Drabble's 

The Millstone In contrast to Walker's Heridian and 

Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terrors, where the mothers of 

:he prevlous generation are representatives of femlnlne 

motherhood, ~osamund's mother is an avowed femlnlst 

Drabble's protagonists, being intelligent, Independent and 

successful are no doubt, examples of true feminists,.but the 

actual espousal of the feminist cause is often pushed back

to the earlier generation, as observed in her other works 

too such as The Realms of Gold and The Waterfall 

cunnzngham observes. 

This is a conscious desire of the author's, a 

deslre 'to give credit where credrt is due' to the 

feminlst tradition, and to counter the faclle 

assumption she finds partlcularly among Americans 

that the woman's movement is something which 

sprang from nowhere in the mid-sixfies (1982 133). 

As Gall 

The clarity of the femlnlst lssues faced by the women of the 

earlrer generatron become blurred for Drabble's contemporary 

women who find it dlfflcult to get stralghtforward answers 

to then dilemma 

2.3.0. A deslre for sons rather than daughters 1s 

ingrained in the psyche of the feminine mother Such a 

preference is actually a construct of patriarchy, used to 

perpetuate its rule While daughters are consldered 

unwanted burdens, sons are regarded as power-symcols, 

perpetuatcrs of the famlly This 1s partlcularly tr;e in 

the case of Indlan soclety where female foet~clde 1s 

practised even today A glance at ancient Indlan :exts 

reveals that while sons were elevated to helghts, daugsrers 

barely exlsted, belng nullifled elther by sllence cr by 

lcfantlcide Among Indlan cornunities such as the Ra;puts 

ar,d Brahmins, where sons are consldered more desirable, 

there is nevertheless a special attachment of mothers to 

their daughters. But this kind of female bonding, though

59 

far preferable to rejection or indifference, arises from 

,dentification wlth the daughter's future victimization. 

There 1s no attempt on the mothers' part to change the cycle 

,f repetitions Into which the daughters' lives are being 

oven Leaving psychoanalytic interpretation aside that 

zhrough the male chlld the mother compensates for the one 

great lack of her life, the lack of a penis, feminists arque 

that it is the patriarchal society which systematically 

practised female foeticide that makes women wish for sons. 

Such a preference for sons over daughters, observed in 

Nectar in a Sieve, becomes a nagging obsession in The Dark 

Hold8 NO Terrors 

2.3.1. Rukmani in Nectar in a Sieve 1s dlsappolnted that 

her flrst born is a glrl because "what woman wants a girl 

far her first-born3" (NS 14) Her husband Nathan is also 

deiected because he too had wanted a son to "continue hls 

?In€" (NS 15) Added to this failure is her ensulng 

barrenness and the fear that she might never be able to glve 

blrth to a son. Her mother, equally ahulous, makes Rukrani 

acccmpany her to temples to pray for a son, places a llnsam, 

Sjmbol of fer-llity, in her hands, saying: "You will yet 

bear many sons" (NS 18) 

Their joy knows no bounds when a 

son is born to them seven years after Ira's blrth In 

another seven years, Rukmani bears four more sons and she

exclaims in joy: "It was as if all the pent up desires of my 

childless days were now bearing fruit" (NS:22). 

6 0 

2.3.2. In Shashi Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terrors, 

Saru's mother's discriminatory attitude towards her son and 

daughter is a reflection of her asslrnllation of patriarchal 

values. While undue concern and importance is accorded to 

Dhruva. Sam is exposed only to her mother's open hostility 

and unconcern 

Her mother's accusation against her. "Why 

are you alive when he is dead? (DH 35) makes her feel 

unwanted --- "that to her mother, compared to Dhruva, she 

hereself was nothlng" (DH 7 5) 

That 1s why she bltterly 

ccmpares her mother to the heroic mother, Jllabal, who 

moulded her son, Shlvaji. 

2.3.3. Both Sam's mother and Rukmanl share a sense of 

dlsappolntrnent towards thelr daughters but the lntenslvf of 

then disapproval varles 

While Saru's mother has nothing 

but resentment and antagonism for her t~ll her death, 

Ruknanl cannot deny her affection, while she ~s unmarried or 

even after she returns abandoned by her husband 

At the 

Cost of her own reputation, Rukmani vlslts the docror, 

Kenny, In hope of curing Ira of her barrenness and later too 

she stoically accepts Ira's illegitimate child 

2.4.0. Feminine motherhood demands of women renunciatlon 

of their alms, interests, desires and careers, and the

lnwlcation of the ability to relate to others, to live and 

thlnk through others. A mother is expected to negate her 

individuality; self-realization and self understanding are 

irrelevant for the mother. Women have been told that thelr 

~ntellectual or creative aspirations are inappropriate, 

~nconsequential or scandalous, an attempt to become llke men 

or to escape from the tasks of childbearing and rearing 

Career women are considered the "bad guys", "castrating 

females" and "deviants" 

6 1 

The dependent, femln~ne, home- 

centered housewife 1s the one who receives the accolade, the 

women who insist on pursuing thelr rnterests, who leave the 

home to take up jobs are severely criticized 

The mother 1s 

not supposed to have interests of her own -- the interests 

of the mother and child are supposed to be den tical. She, 

therefore, has to develop extreme willingness to sacrlflce. 

El~sabeth Badlnter indicates that 'feminine nature', 

synonymous with all the characterlstics of the 'model 

mother' or 'feminlne mother' presupposes certaln 'qualltles' 

ln the mother. passlvlty, a weak ego or sense of self, 

renunclatlon of active alms, interests of one's own to live 

through others, and incapac~ty for abstract thought. 

Adrlenne Rlch puts forth a serles of "unexamlned 

assumptions" that femlnlne motherhood encompasses. 

A "nat,Jralv mother is a person without further 

identity, one who can flnd her chief gratification 

In being all day with small children, living at a 

pace zuned to theirs, that the isolatlon of

mothers and children together In the home must be 

taken for granted; that maternal love is, and 

should be, quite literally selfless; that chlldren 

and mothers are the "causes" of each others' 

suffering (1976:22-23). 

Denylng mothers access to the publlc sphere, feminine 

motherhood confines them to the home which is considered a 

sacred place, a place for social altruism. Idealislng both 

the home and the mother in lt, instltutionallsed motherhood 

1zs1sts that the isolated home, protected from the outslde 

world, is the mother's responsibrlity to maintaln as a 

sanctuary 

In the Victorian era, John Ruskln gave a 

glor~fled plcture of the woman's place in her home rn hls 

'Cueen's Gardens' wh~le Coventry Patmore created hls 'Angel 

ln the House' 

Protected, sheltered, isolated, safe wlthln 

the walls of thelr gardens, women as mothers become the 

reposltorles of all humane vlrtues 

made of home a school of vlrtue 

It was the mother who 

Patriarchy not only 

llmlted a woman to the domestlc sphere, it also devalued her 

work at home 

The woman at home wlth chlldren was not 

bel~eved to be dolng serlous work, she was just supposed to 

be actzng out of maternal ~nstlnct, domg chores a man would 

never take on. The claustrophobia of the home added to her 

powerlessness, creating boredom, lethargy, loneliness and 

loss of competence. 

2.4.1. Placing her chlldren' s needs before hers. Rukmani 

of Nectar in a Sieve becomes the legendary self-sacriflcang

63 

mother After a long bout of famine, when her family 

flnally gets food, she feels more happy for her children 

than for herself: "... at the sight of their faces, still 

plnched but content, a great weight lifted from me" (NS.45) 

Even after the death of two of her sons and the desertion of 

the others, Rukmani accepts everything as her 'karma'. Tlll 

the end, she is a picture of serenity, calmness, acceptance 

and endurance -- in a word, the 'femlnine mother' Although 

her sons belie her expectatlons, she accepts her fate with 

stolc calmness Wlth her husband dead, whom also she 

mothered to some extent, she now needs a new power-symbol 

ar.d therefore adopts Puli, a boy strlcken wlth leprosy, 

hoplng that he would sustain her through the remalnlng years 

of her llfe 

2.4.2. In Meridian, Mrs. Hill renounces her career and 

wlth lt her Independence after her marriage The feminist 

streak In her is suppressed by the feminine expectatlons of 

a mother. An independent teacher before marrlage, she 

understands that she has to compromise with her freedom 

after marrlage She rs unable to cope wlth the pressures of 

motherhood, but the revolt brewlng ln her turns Into a stolc 

acceptance of patriarchal nonns. 

2.4.2.1, In fro-~merlcan women's flction, many oppressed 

black women find outlets for thear suppression by expressing

themselves through art. 

64 

For example, Celie In Allce 

walker's The Color Purple indulges in writlng, quilt-making 

and sewing -- activities which reinforce bondlng between 

women. But Mrs Hill's few artistlc efforts are failures 

She never learned to cook well, she never learned 

to brald hair prettlly or to be in any other way 

creatlve in her home She could have done so, ~f 

she had wanted to Creativity was in her, but 1t 

was refused expresslon. It was all deliberate. A 

war agalnst those to whom she could not express 

her anger or shout, "It's not fair" (M . 411 

Instead of channeling her pent-up desires into art, she 

lnstead expends all her energy Into domestic dutles, kncwlng 

well that she 1s unsulted for them 

2.4.2.2. Although Mrs Hi;l reallzes that dternal 

f'Jlflllmenc is only a myth created by patriarchy to serve 

the demands of the instltut~on and the "mysterrous lnner 

1;fe" she had lmaglned ln other mothers was slrnply a full 

knowledge of the fact :hat 

they were dead, llving lust 

encugh for thelr chlldren -- she succumbs to patriarchal 

demands and brlngs up her chlldren dutifully as expectei of 

her, although they were "burdens to her always" (M 411 

Even before she becomes a silent adherer to scclal 

motherhood, Mrs. Hill remalns a passlve sufferer even tc the 

physrcal angulsh of pregnancy and chlldblrth 

Durlng her 

flrst pregnancy, she experiences a blologlcal and 

Psychological spl~t within herself:

Her frail independence gave way to the pressures 

of motherhood and she learned that she was not 

even allowed to be resentful that she was 

"caught". That her personal llfe was over There 

was no one she could cry out to and say "It's not 

falr' (M : 41) 

She feels that pregnancy has "distracted her from who she 

was" (M . 40) 

Llke Kate she experiences a fragmentation of 

self and feels she is "being buried alive, walled away from 

her own llfe, brrck by brlck" (M : 411 

2.4.3. In The Dark Holds No Terrors, Smita and Padmakar's 

wlfe are two women who llve at a pace tuned to thelr husband 

and famlly, totally oblivious of their own sense of 

~dentlty Sam's conflicting 'femlnlne' and 'femlnlst' self 

1s ~uxtaposed wlth the staunch feminist Nalu or. one hand, 

and the 'fem~nine' Smlta on the other 

We could very well be symbols of three totally 

different attitudes Nalu, the spinster, 

dedicated to her lob Smlta, wholly wlfe, mother 

and housekeeper And Saru, who comblned so well a 

career and a family (DH 106) 

Deliberate lrony 1s Implied in the delineation of Smlta, 

"the happy wife and mother" (DH 

107) who wllllngly accepts 

a change of name after her marriage; though apparently 

fulfilled in her roles, she has to borrow money behlnd her 

husband's back Another such "good wife and mother" (DH.120) 

is Padmakar's wlfe, who, as the dissatisfied Padmakar 

hlmself confesses to Saru, does not "talk about anything but

6 6 

servants and the children. And prices" (DH. 1201, who never 

has her food till he reaches home, who never calls him by 

his name. 

2.4.4. In order to fulfil obligations and expectations of 

motherhood and the rigour of brlnging up three small 

children, Beatrice, Rosamund's sister in The Millstone, 

forsakes even the prospect of taklng up a career, regretting 

"not using her degree to its best advantage" (MS 88) 

Though Beatrice had always sung to Rosamund the praises of 

motherhood and domesticity, she 1s not sympathetic towards 

Rosamund's pregnant state 

Havlng imbibed the patrlarchal 

concept of motherhood Beatrlce 1s unable to accept 

motherhood outslde marital bounds 

Advising Rosamund to 

have the baby adopted, Beatrice warns her agalnst the 

responslbllity and problems ln brlnglng lt up 

2.5.0. The lnstltutlon of motherhood gains sanction and 

1s reinforced by a rellglon that is essentially patrlarchal 

The lmage of the benevolent mother in both Western and 

Eastern tradltlon 1s an additional burden the woman has to 

carry 

Any devlance from these images is deemed abnormal or 

lmmoral by the lnstltutlon 

The famllial / social, 

.ldeolog~cal and political system of patriarchy uses rellgion 

i ritual / tradition / customs to determine what part women 

shall or shall not play, thus subsurnlng the female under the

male. Rich interprets Yahweh's command in the Old Testament 

"Be fruitful and multiply" as essentially a patriarchal one. 

According to her, Yahweh "is not lnvoking the Great Mother 

but blddlng his sons beget st111 more sons" (Rich 1976:119) 

2.5.1. Patriarchal religion imposes its control on 

mothers not only where child rearing is concerned, but also 

with regard to child bearlng 

In Judeo-Chrlstlan theology, 

woman's paln in childbirth 1s considered punishment from 

God 

The "courage" of passlve sufferlng 1s the hlghest 

pralse accorded to the mother 

Since the curse lald on Eve in Geneszs was taken 

literally well Into the nineteenth century, the 

mother In labour had to expect to suffer, but what 

was even more slgniflcant, 1t was assumed until 

the last three decades that she must suffer 

passively (Rlch 1976 . 128) 

Thls paSSITJe sufferlng has become accepted as unlversal, 

natural female destiny 

Similarly, the passlve sufferlng 

has been extended to every sphere of woman's existence 

Patriarchal rellgion has also created images of the 

archetypal mother whlch reinforce the conservatism of 

motherhood and convert lt to an energy for the renewal of 

male power 

Moreover, the assertlon by femlnlsts In recent 

tlmes regarding the right of women not to mother has stlrred 

up religious reactions among conservatives - 

the Roman 

Catholic Church views abortlon and artificial means of 

contraception as against God's laws

68 

2.5.2. In Hindu mythology and religion, one comes across 

conflicting models of womanhood / motherhood. Idolized one 

moment and degraded the next, placed on a pedestal and 

trodden over at the same time, the Indian woman's real 

ldentity is in jeopardy. Whether glorified or ill-treated, 

the real woman in her is suppressed, the 'I' withrn her 

never emerges. Even when she is exalted as a goddess, she 

is expected to conform to certain ideals, whlch, needless to 

mentlon, have a patriarchal intent Her real self is at 

odds with the role-models she has to emulate As Uma Alladi 

points out, since centuries the Hindu woman ln literature 

has been based on the mythic models from the Ramayana and 

the Puranas Slta the sllent sufferer -- the archetype of 

Indlan womanhood, the Earth - Mother, forbearance 

personlfled, the playmate and beloved Radha, the devotee 

Meera (Allad1 1989 1) The codes of Manu are the most 

glaring example of the ambiguous status accorded to women. 

Replete with contradlctlons, certaln sectlon of Manu Smrlthl 

honour women whlle others emphasize her submlsslve role. 

One of the sections says that a woman should be llke a slave 

whlle worklng, a rnlnlster when counselling, Goddess Lakshmi 

in personality, the Earth in her endurance, a mother whlle 

feeding, and like the celestial prostitute, Rambha, in bed. 

Even great thlnkers like Swami Vivekananda have glorified 

motherhood as a woman's highest and noblest duty.

2.5.3. Nectar in a Sieve reiterates the analogy of the 

mother to the Earth-Goddess through a constant association 

of the protagonist Rukmani wlth images of fertility and with 

the qualities of forbearance, patience and endurance 

Everywhere in Hindu religion, legend and mythology, one 

dlscerns that the endurance power of the mother is 

underscored. 

6 9 

India, being primarily an agrarian society, 

rests much importance on the Earth as Mother, forbearance 

personlfled. Imbued with the mythological story of Mother 

Earth, who, unable to see her daughter Sita suffer, swallows 

her up, the Indlan 'feminine' woman aspires to have such an 

enduring temperament, Even today the image of the mother - 

earth as endurer persists. Thls is most vlvidly portrayed 

in the person of ilukmani. 

2.5.4. Shashl Deshpande however refutes the myth of the 

mother as goddess or as a paragon of all vlrtues 

Sam is 

repulsed by the nage of the mother-goddess at the temple 

She [the godless1 looked a dreadful cursing klnd 

of Devl, an:-day The women sometimes called her 

"Mother" I rmagine, I thought, havlng a mother 

llke that, with a brass head and staring, 

frightful brassy eyes as well IDH : 91) 

2.5.5. In Morrlsonrs Sethe, both the benlgn and terr~ble 

aspects of the morher-goddess converge 

Fiercely protectlve 

and devotedly concerned about her children. Sethe can also 

transform into the fearsome mother-goddess when provoked

In killing Beloved, Sethe becomes the destructive and 

authoritative mother-goddess, who Trudier Harris views as a 

patriarchal manifestation, 

Beloved's war against Sethe . . . can be read from 

one perspective as a further attack against 

masculine privilege, against the power over life 

and death that is stereotypically identlfled with 

males or wlth those masculine rnother/qoddesses 

(Harris 1991 : 158) 

Sethe's act may be centered in mother-love, but it is also 

centered In the patrlarchal authority as a mother-goddess 

she assumes in herself. 

2.5.6. In Herland, an exaltation of motherhood leads to 

~ts deiflcatlon 

7 0 

The Herlanders developed their central 

theory of a lovlnq power, and assume that its relation to 

them is motherly -- that it deslres thelr welfare and 

development 

Their maternal rellglon and worshlp of the 

mother - goddess leads to a klnd of Maternal Pantheism. 

Here was Mother Earth, bearino fruit All that 

they ate was frult of motherhood, from seed or egg 

or thelr product By motherhood they llved -- 

life was, :o them, lust the long cycle of 

motherhood (H . 59) 

The idea of God to them is a magniflcatlon of human 


nothlng bu: 

The bellef In a 'Mother - Spirlt' whlch is 

their own 'Mother - love' accumulated to be a 

'Power' (H . 111 - 12) and now 'a great tender llmltless 

upllftlng force' (H : 112) works in practlce as the

. 

71 

internalization of a 'code of conduct' based on love, 

patience and courtesy (H : 114) . Motherhood -- 'the power 

of mother love' or the maternal instinct is here raised to 

its highest power and 1s highly venerated. Endowed wxth the 

abstract force of an idea, motherhood is not "a brute 

passion", a mere instinct, a wholly personal feeling but a 

"religion" (H . 68) whlch includes the "limbless feeling of 

sisterhood", "that wide unity in service" (H : 59) 

Motherhood was thelr one great contrlbutlon to natlonal 

All mothers In that land were holy To them for 

long ages, the approach to motherhood has been by 

the most intense and exauislte lonuins, - bv the 

2. 

Supreme Deslre. the oveziasterlng demand for a 

chlld Every thought they held In conneczion with 

the process of maternity was open to the day, 

simple yet sacred. Every woman of them placed 

motherhood not only higher than other dutles, one 

mlsht almost sav All their wide mutual love. all 

the subtle 1n

child, operating in a world of violence as the divine 

principle of love, union and peace (Sangari 1983 : 15). 

2.5.6.1. Charlotte Perkins Gllman makes several contrasts 

between the Maternal Pantheism of Herland and the 

Christianity of Western civil~zation, as practised 

72 

In The 

uan-Made World or Our Androcentric Culture, she flnds that 

the Christian religion "requires a fuller 'change of heart' 

and change of life than any preceding it, which may account 

at once for its wlde appeal to enlighten peoples, and to lts 

scarcity of appl~cation" iclted in Hall 1989 62) The 

Goddess of Motherhood in the Temple of Moaia, set in 

deliberate contras; to the Image of Mother Mary of the 

Cathollc Church, is seen as the representative of the values 

of motherhood, beliefs which fan the very foundation of 

thexr llves, but does not exlst because of her part in 

brrthlng a male chlld or because of her suffering in hls 

sacrifice. There 1s also no association of the goddess w:th 

subservience to a god or dominant power, nor is there any 

lndlcatlon that Moala 

ever represented the passlve 

'femlnlne' vlrtues attributed to Marl, often held up as a 

model in the Catholic Church 

Susan Gubar points out. 

Gilman's garden of parthenogenesls replaces the 

Judeo - Christian garden of Genesls by clalming 

that the authority of the father -- biological or 

spiritual -- is a myth fast degenerating to the 

status of a fiction iGubar 1989 : 196 - 97)

73 

Gilman's concept, therefore, is a reworking, not a rejection 

of Christianity. 

2.6.0. Society's way of institutionalizing motherhood 

breeds gullt into the very fabric of a woman's character 

Women work hard to achleve the virtues prescribed for them 

as women, and, if they fail they feel terribly guilty of not 

llvrng up to the standards of motherhood. Psychoanalytic 

thlnk~ng blames the mother for anything that goes wrong zn 

the famlly Her very character is called Into questlon I£ 

she 'falls' her chlldren The physlcal and psychic welght 

of responsibility is the heaviest of social burdens on her, 

though it 1s a powerless responsibllity, it brlngs about 

feelings of inadequacy and gullt zn the mother At the 

mercy of both her child and of soclety, the mother 

constantly assesses her performance in terms of the Ideal 

standard propagated by patriarchy Women are caught In a 

dilemma as to how much love they should impart to thelr 

children -- on one hand, they feel that lnfmlte love and 

attent~on 1s due to thelr children, and on the other feel 

that too much of affection would be to thelr detriment 

Especially when women trled to integrate career wlth 

motherhood, they suffered the gullt of neglecting thelr 

chlldren. 

2.6.1. "Feeling guilty seems almost a definition of 

motherhood in this enlightened time" (SBD . 95) admlts Kate

Brown Whose experience tells her that the mother is 

invariably targetted for any mishap that occurs in the 

family 

74 

Particularly, Tim's outburst that she is 

suffocating him leaves a guilty scar in her psyche 

contrast, the narrative voice says about Mary: 

She hasn't any sense of guilt -- that's the 

point. We are all ln invisible chains, guilt, we 

should do this, we mustn't do that, ~t's bad for 

the children, lt's unfair on the husband. (SBD : 

212-13) 

Kate, however, 1s shackled by these "invlslble chams" of 

g-xlt, perpetually haunted by the question whether she was 

glvlng too llttle or too much to her children. 

2.6.2. Gullt becomes a part of Saru's psyche since her 

glrlhcod when she is accused of 'kllllng' her brother Dhruva 

by passively watchlng him drown 

In 

Thls gullt remalns wlth 

her throughout her adolescence, and is only reinforced by 

her mother's constant reproaches 

As a wlfe, Sam is made 

tc feel gullty by vlrtue of belng more quallfled than her 

husband, and henceforth earnlng not only the butter, but 

also the bread for the family. As a mother, her children's 

lndlfference or angry comments against her are constant 

rern~nders of the fact that she is not playing the maternal 

role satisfactorily. 

2.6.3. A sense of gullt haunts Merldian right from her 

childhood. At thirteen, she feels guilty for not responding

to the Church in the same way as her mother did. Her mother 

withdraws her love as Merldlan is not able to meet her 

conditions. As a daughter, Meridian spends years trying to 

expiate the guilt she felt for having failed her mother. 

Her family history is one of mothers who even sacrificed 

thelr lives for their children. Mrs Hill's great - great 

grandmother was 

75 

a slave who steals back her children and 

does all she can to feed them, herself meeting death due to 

stamatlon. 

Mrs Hlll's own mother washes other people's 

laundry in order to get her daughter educated. As a mother 

herself, Meridlan feels guilty of being unable to keep up to 

the standards of maternal history Ln her family 

She loves 

her son in an 'Impersonal' way and knows that she cannot 

offer him unlimited sacrifice as the mothers before her did. 

Even though she glves away her son to a couple who she feels 

will look after h ~ m better than she can, she suffers a 

llngerlng sense of guilt throughout her life 

2.6.4. The theme of gullt is rnextrlcably woven with that 

of maternal love In Toni Morrison's Beloved 

Sethe's sense 

of gullt, as a consequence of the act of murdering her 

daughter, is compounded by the baby ghost's hauntlng of the 

house. 

The invisible ghost, and its physical presence 

elghteen years later in the form of Beloved, are external 

manifestations of Sethe's guilty conscience. Seen from one 

Perspective, the dominant theme of Beloved seems to be guilt

for which only otherworldly punishment is appropriate, while 

from another viewpoint, love appears to be the chief motive 

that spurs the mother to kill her child rather than remand 

her to slavery 

2.7.0. The cultural separation between care and anger, 

care and self-interest, makes lt lmpossible for mothers to 

integrate anger Into thelr act~vity of mothering. In Greek 

mythology, Medea and Clytemnestra were consldered non- 

maternal because of thelr anger. 

7 6 

The mother's anger is 

consldered lllegltlmate, anger is the antithesis of the 

maternal. 

Belng angry creates breaks and dlsruptlons in 

relationships that challenge soclal structures. Mother-love 

is therefore supposed to be cont~nuous and unconditional. 

As Rich expresses lt, "Love and anger cannot coexlst 

Female anger 

threatens the lnstltutlon of motherhood" 

(1976 46) Marrlane Hlrsch shares thls vlew 

A mother cannot articulate anger as a mother, to 

do so she must step out of a culturally 

clrcumscrlbed role which commands mothers to be 

carlng and nurturrng to others, even at the 

expense of themselves. (1989 170) 

Should she rebel and express her anger, she would cease to 

be maternal, for the essence of the 'maternal' according to 

Soclal strictures and psychoanalytic dogma lies in the 

service to the interests of the child. Hence, to be angry 

2s to assert one's own self, not to subordinate it to the 

development of another's self

77 

2.7.1. Rukmani of Nectar in a Sieve so faithfully imbibes 

this Concept that anger is a feeling that does not exist in 

her psychological vocabulary at all. A plcture of patlence 

and selfless devotion, she does not experience anger at all, 

so the question of suppressing it does not arise. Ira's 

abandonment by her husband, her sons' desertion, even the 

harrowing knowledge of her husband's adultery does not 

unnerve her Though angry sparks are kindled in Ira after 

she 1s relected and abandoned as 'barren', silence is the 

grlm mask under which she conceals her anger, she lnherlts 

her mother's stoic resignation to physical and emotional 

turbulances Mrs Hlll of Yeridian does the same though she 

feels angry at givlng up her career, angry at glving blrth 

to and bringrng up chzldren she does not want, angry at 

loslng her Indepecdent identlty In The Summer Before the 

Dark, Kate's pent-up anger surfaces after her son Tlm's 

outburst that she 1s suffocating hlm, and also when she 

learns of her husband's casual sexual flings wrth other 

women, but she defuses her anger In order to malntaln the 

facade of a happy famlly As wxll be evldent from the next 

chapter, Saru, Mcrag and Merldlan, the 'femlnlst' mothers, 

succeed In givlng volce to thelr anger, and later channeling 

thelr anger to more creatlve forms of expression -- Morag, 

through her writing, Saru, through her profession as doctor, 

and Meridian, by her lnvolvernent in the Civil Rlghts 

Movement.

2.8.0. The irony of feminine motherhood lies in the fact 

that women are trained in dependency for a role demanding 

strength. Independence and autonomy are considered dangerous 

for mothers At the end of the eighteenth century, Mary 

wallstonecraft pointed out the paradox of preparing women 

for the most demanding of all roles, that of a mother, by 

fostering weakness in them rather than strength. The double 

standards of the ideal of femlnine motherhood are qulte 

obvlous 

In the fourteenth century, for example, Vlrgin 

Mary could be worshipped, whlle living women were brutallsed 

and burnt as wltches 

7 8 

The dark or the negative aspect of 

the Great Mother -- as the goddess Kall, the klller-mother 

Medea, the lewd and malign witch, the castrating mother -- 

exlStS along with the benign, life-glving aspect. According 

to Dorothy Dlnnerstein, the mother was sometimes the source 

of pleasure and at other tlmes the source of discomfort or 

paln (Eissensteln 1984 

of patrlarchal motherhood 

81). Rich indicates the hypocrisy 

Throughout patr~archal mythology, dream - 

syrnbollsm, theology, language, two ideas flow slde 

by side. one, tha: the female body is impure. 

corrupt, the slte of discharges, bleedlngs, 

dangerous to masculinity, a source of moral and 

physlcal contamination, "the devil's gatewayu. On 

the otherhand, as mother the woman is beneflcient, 

sacred, pure, asexual, nourishing; and the 

~hvsical Dotentzal for motherhood -- that same 

boiy with-its bleedings and mysteries -- is her 

slngle destiny and justification in llfe. These 

two ideas have become deeply internalized in 

women, even in the most independent of us, those 

who seem to lead the freest lives (Rich 1976:34).

79 

The mother therefore serves as both Monster and Muse. She 

IS, to quote Rich again, "both more and less as a person; 

she is something terribly necessary and necessarily 

terrible" (Rlch 1976 : 112). 

2.9.0. The varying degrees of acceptance of the 

patriarchal definition of motherhood by the mothers 

described so far indicates that not all mothers are srlent 

conformists to fem~nlne motherhood. The level of adherence 

varies in degree and kind In Rukmanl, Saru's mother, Mrs 

Hl11, Sethe and Kate. 

2.9.1. In Markandaya's Rukmani, we see a stoic acceptance 

of the role wlthout any iota of protest -- she 1s the model 

femlnlne mother, an archetype of the Earth-Mother, 

possessing an unendlng reservoir of wlfely devotion and 

motherly love. Job-llke in her unlimited forbearance, she 

takes all trlals and tribulations In her strlde, ascrlhlng 

her suffering to her 'Karma' or fate, all the whlle 

obllvlous of the fact that she 1s no more than her role 

2.9.2. Where Rukmanl 1s a meek model of the femlnlne 

mother, Saru's mcther 1s an assertive, domlnatlng and even 

viclous one. 

On the surface level, there is hardly any 

ground of comparison between the self-sacrlf~clng and humble 

Rukmani and the domineeringly malicious mother in 

Deshpande's novel. 

But what makes one classify both as

80 

feminine mothers is that both have imbibed patriarchal 

motherhood and its cherished ideals --- while the former 

follows them mutely, the latter voices them fiercely. 

Ironical overtones and a narrative tone of censure ring loud 

In Deshpande's presentation of Saru's mother whereas 

Markandaya's portrayal of Rukmanl 1s absolutely free from 

lronic touches 

2.9.3. Alice Walker's Mrs Hill, sketched wlth quiet 

lrony by the wrlter, differs from the feminine mothers of 

Markandaya and Deshpande In that she is not a wllllng 

ccnfomist to the patriarchal concept of motherhood. She is 

fully aware that motherhood distracts her from who she 

really IS, resulting in a reconstitution of her entlre 

personality Hers is not a wllllng or unconscious surrender 

at the glorlous altar of motherhood Knowlng well that she 

1s rellnqulshlng a part of herself. Mrs Hill succumbs to 

soc~al pressures and the call glven by femlnlne motherhood. 

Ur.1Lke Rukmanl and Saru's mother, she considers motherhood a 

burden but passes on the legacy of femlnlne motherhood to 

her daughter for fear of social disapproval 

2.9.4. One cannot overlook the irony in Lesslnq's 

treatment of her character, Kate Brown. Kate had been 

llving the lie of the feminine mystique for the sake of her 

family and society. It is only in her middle age that she

81 

comprehends that Michael's wife or Tim's mother are not the 

real Kate. As soon as this realization strlkes her, she 

unmasks her face in search of the real person beneath the 

assorted masks. Unlike Mrs. Hill, Kate becomes wary at thls 

stage and probes rnto the depths of her psyche In an attempt 

to explore her hidden self. 

2.9.5. Though Sethe in Beloved ldentlfies herself 

prlmarlly as a mother, she is capable of trensmuclng 

maternal sllence lnto maternal anger It is the v1ola:lon 

of her motherhood that spurs her into taklng lndeperdent 

declslons -- the first is displayed In her courage In 

fleelng Sweet Home and the next in her slaylng of her lrfant 

daughter, preferring her qulck death to a llfe ter, of 

slavery 

2.9.6. The mlnor characters -- representatlons of 

fernlnlne morherhood -- are used for purposes of contrast to 

the emerglng fernlnlst mothers Many of them -- Smita and 

Padmakar's wlfe In The Dark Holds No Terrors, Brldle and 

Susan Trevor rn The Diviners, Beatrlce in The Millstone -- 

are flat characters, perfectly fittlng Into the femlllne 

mould without any compunction. Sarcasm and irony undcrlle 

thelr portrayal. 

2.10.0. Although all the femlnine mothers discussed here 

Participate in the 'sacred calling' of feminlne motherhood,

not everyone does so willingly. For example, R umni suits 

her temperament to the ideals of feminine motherhood -- 

there 1s no dichotomy between the woman and mother In her; 

whereas Mrs Klll and Kate conform to the norms laid down 

though they consider the role a burden. 

8 2 

Even among the 

latter two, Kate relinquishes her role when she realizes its 

strategic manipulation of her self whereas Mrs 

Hl11 is 

unable to do so These subtle differences in conformity -- 

meek acceptance, burdensome acceptance or a waverlng between 

acceptance and questioning -- slgnal the light at the end of 

the tllsnel towards wh~ch women have already embarked on 

thelr ;ourcey 

The dissatlsfaction with femlnlne motherhood 

lndlcates that the seeds of feminist motherhood are already 

sown, the transltlon to whlch wzll form the focus of the 

subsequent chapter, 'Femlnlst Motherhood'

BEKINIST MOTBEICBOOD 

To be a good mother, a woman must have sense, and 

that independence of mind which few women possess 

who are taught to depend entirely on thelr 

husbands. Meek wlves are, In general, foollsh 

mothers Unless the understand~ng of women be 

enlarged, and her character rendered more flrm, by 

belng allowed to govern her own conduct, she will 

never have sufficient sense or command of temper 

to govern her children properly 

- Mary Wollstonecraft 

3.1.0. The strange discrepancy between the reallty of 

then llves as women and the image to which they were trylng 

to conform led women to questlon the femlnlne ideal of 

rtotherhood 

Women had to speak out and protest agalnst the 

exlsting patriarchal norms when it became dlfflcult for them 

LO sustaln a spllt wlthln themselves - conforming outwardly 

to one reallty, whlle trylng to malntaln inwardly the values 

lt denies 

The conflict between women's deslres and the 

dornlnant values of feminine motherhood which made women 

.:o:ce 

their protest led to a change In attitude towards 

motherhood, which one can term the 'feminist' phase 

3.1.1. The transition from the 'feminlne' to the 

'feminist' phase of motherhood begins with the realization 

by women that the patriarchal institution of motherhood is 

not the natural 'human condition' 

In the feminlne Stage,

84 

motherhood was the main preoccupation of women, their one 

and only job; they were moulded all their life for this job. 

In their movement to the feminlst stage, women comprehend 

that motherhood 1s only one part of the female process, not 

an identlty for all time While the feminine mystique 

teaches women to seek fulfilment as mothers, in the feminist 

phase women understand that thelr existence as 'wife' or 

'mother' is inadequate. As they experience a need to grow 

and expand their mrnds, their entlre being begrns to rebel 

agalnst a role that does not permit thls growth. The 

questlon - "Who am I? Am I merely my husband's wlfe and 

chrldren's nother'" - begins to haunt them 

3.12 AS femlnist mothers begln to examlne the generally 

urexamlned assumptions of motherhood, they unve-1 the false 

aura of romantlclsm wlth whlch motP.erhood was t111 then 

endowed The sent~mental vlew of motherhood as the ever 

holy, ever infallible power is abandoned Femlnlst mothers 

call on wonen to fight those aspects that make chlld bearlng 

and chlld-rearing stressful rather than fulfllllng 

experiences, suggesting other alternatives whlch can be more 

fulfilling 

Pointlng out the hiatus between the experience 

and institution of motherhood, the contradlctlons between 

ldeology and reallty, this chapter poses and explores the 

alternatives to feminine motherhood.

85 

3.2.0. In the novels under study, the revolt agalnst 

t3eir mothers 1s one of the first indications of the women 

protagonists' dissatisfaction with the exlsting =deals of 

motherhood. Thls revolt 1s not so much a personal attack on 

thelr mothers as it is agalnst the institution that the 

women of the previous generation represent Thls attltude 

of rebel agalnst everything the mother represents is what 

Adrienne Rlch 1n her book Of Woman Born calls 'matrophobla' 

- "not the fear of one's mother or of motherhood, but of 

becomlng one's mccher" (1976 235). Jung too refers to the 

'Resistance to the Mother' archetype, "a supreme example of 

the negatlve mother complex" whose motto 1s "Anything, so 

long as it 1s not like Mother" (1974:24) Femlnlsts down 

:he years have attempted to explain matrophobla Fran 

Scoble expresses Ehe femlnist daughter's anger at the mother 

who has accepted her powerlessness, who 1s unable to protect 

her from a submission to society's gender arrangements 

Mothers In our c,slture, Scoble says, deny the truth of thelr 

own experzence of bondage and frustration and lle to then 

daughters whose growth then is constrained by the 

perpetuation of mutual deception (cited In Hlrsch 1989:165) 

Germalne Greer felt that it was first necessary to exorclse 

the mother In order to reclaim her later Marlanne Hlrsch 

Comments that "mothers . . 

who succumb to convention In as 

much as they are mothers - become the targets of Lthel

process of disidentification and the primary negative models 

for the daughterr7 (1989:ll). 

view 

Betty Friedan shares this 

In my generation, many of us knew we did not want 

to be like our mothers, even when we loved them. 

We could not help but see their dlsappolntment ... 

they could not glve us an image of what we could 

be. They could only tell us that their lives were 

too empty, tied to home, that children, cooking, 

clothes, brldge, and charities were not enough 

(1971 72). 

Fernlnists however over-rule Freudlan psychoanalys~s that 

vlews the rage of daughters towards their mothers as 

resentment for not havlng been glven a penls 

3.3.0. In Meridian. The Diviners, The Summer Before the 

Dark and The Dark Holds No Terrors, the daughters see thelr 

mothers as havlng taught them a compromise and self-hatred 

they are struggling to be free of 

They hate their mothers 

to the polnt of matrophobla where they experience a dread 

that if they relax their guard, they may ldentlfy wlth the 

nother completely 

The mother stands for the vlctlm In 

themselves, the unfree woman, the martyr; and so the 

daughters do not want to be vessels of thelr mothers' 

frustration and self-denial 

Not only thelr mothers, even 

Other women who identlfy themselves primarily as mothers 

seem threatening and repelling to the daughters who feel 

unequal to the mother role.

3.3.1. In Alice Walker's Meridian, Meridian is torn 

between her actual feelings and the behaviour expected from 

her towards her mother and towards motherhood. 

87 

The 

institution of motherhood demands from her that she love her 

mother whlle her innate self revolts. 

it is death not to love one's mother or so it 

seemed to Meridlan, and so, understanding her 

mother as a wllling-know-nothing, a woman of 

ignorance and - in her ignorance - of cruelty, she 

loved her more than anything (M.17). 

~kis love, of whlch she is unsure, soon turns lnto an 

aversion toward everything her mother represents 

As her 

bellefs do not colnclde wlth those of her mother's, she 

Incurs her mother's disapproval. "Her mother's love was 

gone, withdrawn and there were condltlons to be met before 

lt would be returned 

meet" lM.17) 

Conditions Merldian was never able to 

Although she fights hard agalnst her mother's 

influence, Meridian feels constantly haunted by her 

She 

feels guilty of steallng her mother's serenity, for 

shattering her mother's emerglng self, though she 1s unable 

to declpher how thls could posslbly be her fault. This love 

- hate drama alternates in the relatlonshlp of Meridian to 

her mother - anger at her turns to anger for her and again, 

anger at her 

3.3 .1.1. Though the novel contains many parallels to 

Walker's own life, fact and fiction diverge at thls point -

~erldian's relationship to her mother is certainly not the 

nurturing relationship Walker had with her own mother, about 

which she has written very movingly in In Search of Our 

Bothers' Gardens 

88 

In Meridian, both mother and daughter are 

estranged by patriarchal norms for female behaviour and 

self-zdentity. As Adrienne Rich remarks: 

Many daughters live in rage at their mothers for 

havlng accepted, too readlly and passively, 

"whatever comes" A mother's vlctlmlzation does 

not merely humiliate her. lt mutilates the 

daughter who watches her for clues as to what it 

means to be a woman (1976 243) 

Mary Daly's statement, "mothers In our culture are ca3oled 

Into kllllng off the self-actuallzatlon of their daughters, 

and daughters learn to hate them for it, Instead of seelng 

the real enemy" (1973 1491 1s applicable to the relatlonshlp 

between Merldlan and her mother 

Here, the 'real enemy' 1s 

the patriarchal culture whlch denigrates female potentlal 

and achievement. 

3.3 .1.2. What Merldlan 1s unable to achleve wlth her 

ncther, she comes near to achieving In her relatlonshlp with 

Miss Wlnter, a childless teacher at Saxon, yet a mcther 

:lgure, who saves her by grantlng her the forgiveness her 

mother never could glve 

Mlss Winter's words have a 

therapeutic effect on the alllng Merldian, and she regalns 

her physical and mental health. 

Through Mlss Winter, 

Meridian learns to value life in its relationship to death

As will be seen subsequently, symbollc mothers do have an 

edge over biological mothers as in The Summer Before the 

Dark (Kate and Maureen), The Diviners (Morag and 

MrS Gerson), The Dark Holds No Terrors (Sam and Mavshij. 

3.3.1.3. Adrleme Rich refers to such a syndrome where 

daughters spllt themselves between two mothers - one, the 

b~ologlcal mother who represents the culture of domestlclty. 

of male-centredness, conventional expectations, and another. 

perhaps a woman artist or teacher who exemplifies strength 

and prlde In her body, a freer way of belng in the world, 

allve wlth ~deas, representing the choice of a vlgorous work 

llfe 

Such a splltting, Rlch says, may allow the young 

woman to fantasize alternatively, to test out two different 

1dentlficatl3ns, but may also lead to a llfe In whlch she 1s 

not able to resolve the two cholces (1976.247-48) 

3.3.2. A mother-daughter-love-hate relatlonshlp akln to 

that of Meridian characterises The Diviners also 

8 9 

Plque's 

outburst at Moraq "Can't you see I desplse you' Can't you 

see I want you t3 go away' You aren't my mother I haven't 

got a mother', :D 991, indicates her denial oE her mother, 

arlsing out of a fear that she too may end up emulating her 

Though Morag knows that Pique despises her at tlmes, she is 

able to understand her point there, and it 1s In thls 

understandlng that hate, like love, blnds them. The water-

dlviner, Royland, is able to divlne that Plque does not 

really resent her mother - "she has mlxed feelings, is allv 

!D,100). However Pique, like Meridian, has moments of 

Intense hatred towards her mother 

They thlnk they are sweet reasonableness, and it's 

you that's in the wrong, lust by belng, and not 

being like them, or looking like them, or wanting 

their kind of life It's the anger you can feel, 

even ~f they don't lay a hand on you (D 233) 

P~que's anguished outburst at her mother. "Why dzd you have 

me?" (D . 235) 1s another stone pelted at her 

9 0 

Plque feels 

that Morag conceived her just for her own satlsfactlon 

wlthout glvlng a thought to the chlld to be born. Morag too 

wonders at tlmes if she had Pique lust to have someone born 

of her blood, In the process dld she decelve both Plque and 

Jules7 

The ambivalence characterlslng the mother-daughter 

relationsh~p 1s most obvious In Morag's statement 

"Pique, 

harbinger of my death, continuer of llfe" (D . 290) 

Paradoxically, although creatlng the daughter requlres a 

surrender of self, it also recreates the self for the woman. 

For Morag, recognltlon of her daughter's adulrhood is also a 

recognltlon of her own mortality 

Also, through her 

daughter. Morag creates, both ln her art and her life, her 

f~ture 

In creating the future, she recreates her personal 

Fast and recovers her lost maternal lnherltance 

3.3.2.1. Slgne Hammer, who has described the "underground" 

nature of the mother-daughter relationship, also emphasizes

91 

that the daughter often recelves a "double - message" from 

the mother, one in whlch the daughter is encouraged to obey 

rhe patrlarchal definition of her womanhood and another 

message which pushes the girl toward definlng her identlty 

in more achievement - oriented ways (cited in Buss 1985 : 

56) As will be observed In The Dark Holds No Terrors and 

The Summer Before the Dark and as already analysed In 

Merldlan, thls "double - message" informs the relatlonshlp 

between Plque and her mother The psychoioglcal lourney 

reveals the ambivalence that characterlses the motherdaughter 

relatlonshrp In Plque's efforts to achieve 

autonomy, anger and affectlon vle with each other -- she 

suffers because she feels that she has deserted her motner. 

at the same tlme, she resents her chlldllke dependence She 

struggles between anger, gullt and affectlon as she attempts 

to define herself 

3.3.2.2. Morag's reiatlonshlp wlth her own mother 1s 

fraught wlth another klnd of amblgulty Slgnlfzcant here is 

Morag's deslre rc converse wlth her dead mother, coupled 

wlth the real~zatlon that she is now more than ten years 

older than her moLher was when she died: "she would seem so 

young to me, so rnexperlenced" (D 11). Morag remembers 

only her parents' deaths, not their llves. "yet they're 

lnslde me, flowlng unknown In my blood and movlng 

unrecognized in my skull" (D :19). Morag's relationship

with her mother-substitutes -- Prin in her childhood and 

Ella Gerson's mother in her adolescence -- and her imaginary 

conversations with Catherine Parr Trail -- reveal her 

~ntense need to commune with a sympathetic maternal figure. 

Also, Trall serves as a model of women's experience in an 

earlier century, just as Pique suggests future generations. 

Helen Buss writes: 

Just as in childhood Morag created Plper Gunn's 

woman to answer her need for the Ideal femlnlne, 

now she creates her new salnt in the form of her 

conversations with Catherlne Parr Trail, answering 

her need to be in touch wlth a strong, purposeful 

vislon of motherhood 11985 . 69) 

3.3.2.3. In Laurence's fict~on, the change In the mother - 

daughter relat~onshlp begins wlth negation, moves to 

recognition and ends in a reconc~liation 

Though the 

mothers and daughters derlve strength from each other, each 

redefining her self through the other, Laurence does not 

ldealise or romantlclse the mother-daughter relatlonshlp 

She pro3ects the complexity of thls relatlonshlp wlth its 

moments of tranqu~llicy and tension, harmony and struggle 

3.3.2.4 What sets Laurence's deplctlon of the mother 

daughter relatlonshlp apart from other portrayals in the 

novels studled here 1s that in The Diviners, the lnitlal 

ambrvalence of the daughters toward their mothers 1s 

resolved as they begin to draw strength from the bond with 

their mothers, which finally helps them in redefin~ng their

dentity. What Elaine Showalter says of women's flction of 

the seventies rings true of contemporary Canadian feminist 

writers: 

Hating one's mother was the femin~st enlightenment 

of the 50's and 60's, but lt is only a metaphor 

for hating oneself. Female literature of the 70's 

goes beyond matrophobla to a couraqeouslv 

sustained quest for the mother (clted ln-~lrsch 

1989 1251. 

The Intricacies of the mother - daughter bond and the 

amb~valent attltude towards motherhood emerge dynamically In 

the works of other Canadlan women writers as well, notably 

Margaret Atwood, Margaret Clarke, Gabrlelle Roy, Sylvla 

Eraser and Allce Munro, who recognize the pervasive 

influence of the mother and attempt to represent it thrsugh 

the daughter's gradually emergmg self and the process of 

discovery of her own female identlty 

3.3.3. In Lessing's The Surmner Before the Dark, thls 

confllct 1s enacEed in Kate's llfe, not wlth her own 

daughter Eileen, but wlth Maureen, to whom she becomes a 

sort of surrogate mother 

9 3 

Maureen, caught berween the 

femrnine and femlnlst poles, refuses Phlllp's offer of 

marriage after she has a glimpse of Kate reverting to her 

role as wife and mother 

As ln the cases of Merldlan, PlqUe 

and Saru, matrophobia, the fear of becoming her mother, 

makes her cry out: "I'm not going to be like you 

I'm not 

golng to be like my mother. You're manlacs. You're mad"

(SBD : 195). 

Experiencing a tug - of - war between her 

feminine and feminist selves, Maureen's desire for emotional 

and economic security through marriage conflicts with her 

need to live an independent life. She tells Kate. "You're 

already through rt, you've done lt, for better or worse, but 

I have to declde whether to do it or not" (SBD : 218). 

Llke 

Ellem, Maureen represents "the daughter of the seventies 

who repeats her mother's llfe wlthout the mother's bellef 

System" (Andrews 1986 . 150) 

3 . 3 .3.1 When Kate has tested her hypothesis of the 

relatlonshlp betxeen appearance and reallty, she leaves 

Maureen, her surrogate-daughter and younger mlrrcr-lmage. 

As Shlrley Budhos polnts out 

Maureen now represents the Kate Brown of the past 

Kate, llke Demeter In one of her dlsgulses, moves 

through the "seasons" of her llfe, harvestlno and 

reaplng self-knowledge after undergoing trlals 

whlle Maureen must now spend her season "servng" 

In the narltal enclosure Kate has passed through 

the "myster:esU, admlts that she is an old woman, 

and returns t3 her brown "earth", her famzly home 

(1987 181 

3.3.3.2 An open-endedness characterises thls motherdaughter 

relatlonshlp In Lesslng's novels, Clalre Sprague 

states, the relationship between mother and daughter is 

never resolved, "unless we wish to call it resolution when 

mothers or daughters develop temporary worklng relationships 

wlth surrogate, non-biological daughters or mothers"

(1987.110) Although no resolution is reached, the mother- 

daughter tie is never dissociated from the process of 

growlng and aglng, the problems of growing, aglng and dying 

95 

are almost always depicted In the painful mother-daughter 

relationship 

3.3.4. The revolt against the mother reaches scachlng 

proportions in Shashi Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terrors 

kihlle Merldlan and Pique, to an extent, understand that 

thelr mother's attltude is only a consequence of 

~sychologlcai vlctimlsatlon by patriarchy, Saru In 

Deshpande's novel directs a more personal attack agalnst her 

mother for whom she has only bitterness and scam: "she 

never really cared Not after Dhruva's death I lust 

dldn't exlst for her I dled long before I left home" (DH . 

271 Saru gets no sympathy from her mother even durlng the 

sensltlve phase of adolescence. Her mother, on the other 

hand, makes her feel ashamed of growing up, and so Saru sees 

her body as a burden 

appearance 3f her mother 

Also, she is repulsed by the physlcal 

"If you're a woman. I don't want 

to be one, I thought resentfully, watching her body" (DH 551 

3 3 4 1 . Just as in The Diviners and Meridian, the 

psycholog~cal estrangement between mother and daughter in 

The Dark Holds No Terrors, necessitates a physlcal 

separation as well. Her hatred and repulsion for her mother

9 6 

enables Sam to defy her mother, thereby defying the social 

lnstitutlon of motherhood as well She breaks away from the 

claustrophobia and stifling atmosphere of her mother's 

house: ''I hated her. I wanted to hurt her, wound her, make 

her Suffer" (DH 1281. This separation, described by 

Destsande In terms of the severance of the umbilical cord, 

1s for Saru, far from painful, as no bonds of love and 

affection connect her to her mother For Saru, her parents 

had become "the past" and "meant noth~nq" (DH . 34) Saru's 

flrst act of deflance is seen ln her intention to loin 

rnedlcal college aqalnst her mother's wlshes There 1s a 

sllent antagonism between the two as Saru refuses even to 

talk to her mother 

I'm not talklng to you I'm not asklng you for 

anythlng I know what your answer wlll be No. 

forever a 'no' to anythlnq I want You don't want 

me to have anythlng, you don't want me to do 

anythlnq You don't even want me to llve (DH 

Her act of deflance In marrylng Manu, who belongs to a lower 

caste, 1s actually directed against her orthodox Brahmin 

mother 

3.3.4.2 Although Sam's mother is a character evoked from 

the dead, she is more effective than the livlng characters 

In the novel Her haunting presence looms large on the 

psyche of Sam, the recurring memory of her mother is "as 

violent as an assault" (DH . 12), and Saru angrily tries to

97 

:elect it. Her obsessive remembrance of her mother is 

~ndicative of her own sense of gullt and defeat. Her 

assertion, "why should she matter dead when she had never 

mattered alive7" (DH . 231 is ineffectual. The realization 

that her mother is dead brlngs to Saru not grief but anger 

because she could not now have her revenge Even after her 

death, her mother seems to draln away Saru's happlness like 

a vengeful ghost "I hate her, sapping me of happiness, of 

everything She's always done it to me taken happlness 

away from me She does it even now when she's dead" (DH . 

100) 

3.3.4.3. Alzhougn she never admlred or trled to emulate her 

mother, the influence of the dead woman is so profound In 

Saru's unconscious that she often merges wlth her mother's 

she went on ]umbllng herself wlth the dead woman, 

sometlmes feeling she was actlng out a role, 

sometlmes feeling she was her mother herself And 

somewhere was that unloved, resentful, neglected 

chlld. Saru (3H 97). 

What Rrch says of her own experience as a daughLer loaklng 

at her mother, "I too shall marry, have children -- but not 

llke her 

I1976 

I shail find a way of dolng lt all differently" 

219) -- exactly flts Sam, who tries hard not to be 

what her mother was, but ultimately realizes that she is no 

more than an educated version of her mother.

3.3.4.4. Devoid of a sympathetic mother, Sam, llke Morag 

of The Diviners, unconsciously searches for a mother - 

substitute and flnds her in a neighbour, Mavshi ---- 'I 

9 8 

the 

motherly type with an overflow of motherliness from her own 

five children for Saru" (DH .66) 

Later, even here, Saru 

tastes d~sllius~onment, for when she returns to her house 

after a long interval, she flnds a different Mavshl, 

embzttered by life's experiences 

Earller, the woman's 

plumpness and placldlty had been a part of the motherlizess 

whlch had attracted Saru 

Now, with all her 'motherly' 

qualities gone. Saru 1s dlsappoznted once agaln 

3.3.4.5. Deshpande's portrayal of Saru's mother explodes 

tte myth of the mother belng a paragon of all vlrtues She 

herself states that her purpose in her novels 1s to shatter 

the sentimental plcture of motherhood 

generally one makes literature as full of women -- 

mother-figures -- as belng very benevolent and I 

thlnk I have really moved very much away 

(Interview to Mala ;989 135). 

The concept of the mother as goddess also undergoes a starp 

revision Saru does not regard the 'Devl' In the temple as 

a mother-goddess -- "Mother Imagine the thought of having 

a mother like that" (DH :91) The 'Mother', like her own 

mother, 1s to Saru, a terrible cursing mother 

It is her 

mother's curse before her death that stings Sam to the

core: "Daughter? I don't have any daughter. I had a son and 

he died. Now I am childless.. . I will pray to god for her 

unhappiness. 

me" (DH . 178). 

9 9 

Let her know more sorrow than she has given 

3.3.5. Probing into the mother-daughter bond In Beloved, 

Morrlson however suggests that such a bond 1s fundamental to 

the psychological development of both mother and daughter. 

MOrrlSOn explores thls relatlonshlp withln the context of a 

particular hlstorlcal period and soclal arrangement -- 

slavery -- hlghlrghtlng the psychologlcal damage of slavery 

to the mother-chlld relationship 

3.3.5.1. Beloved's feellngs for her mother begln wlth 

relectlon at belng deprlved of a symbiotic unlty wlth her, 

to splte and retrlbutlon for havlng been murdered by her, to 

dependency as a consequence of fragmented lnfancy, to an 

attempt at understanding her, and later merglng with her 

Both Separation and merglng ocmr alternately In the mother- 

daughter relatlonshlp in the novel -- Beloved's ~dentlty 

constantly merges with that of Sethe's 

Thls 1s 

particularly slgniflcant as Beloved was hardly two when she 

dled 

As Nancy Chodorow explains, the mother "acts as 

external ego, provides holding and nourishment, and 1s in 

fact not experienced by the infant as a separate person at 

all" (Samuels and Hudson-Weems 1990 : 1041 

Even after her

emergence eighteen years after her death, Beloved identifies 

herself primarily with her mother. 

I am Beloved and she 1s mrne ... I am not separate 

from her there is no place where I stop her face 

is my own and I want to be there in the place 

where her face is . . (B 259). 

She also says. "I want to be the two of us I want to jolnv 

Thls fluld boundary of ldentltles merge when Beloved finally 

remarks "You are my face, you are me / you are mine" (B 

2661. Even during pregnancy Sethe experrences simultaneous 

merglng and separation 

splitting and extensron of self 

to Beloved. "You asleep on my back. 

For her, pregnancy is both a 

She explarns her feelings 

Denver sleep In my 

stomach Felt llke I was spllt in two" (B 249) At the 

same tlme, the experience 1s far her a d~ssolutlon of 

noundaries, a merger, an embrace of mltipllclty 

Thzs 

merging of boundaries, seen throughout Morrison's works, is 

most pronounced In Beloved 

3.3.5.2. The apparent oneness in the mother-daughter trrad 

that is seen In the hand-holdlng shadows of Sethe, Beloved 

and Denver, 1s marred by tenslons and hostlllYy dlscernlble 

beneath the surface 

It is Sethe's crime that causes thls 

estrangement, creating a wedge and wldening the flssure In 

their superficial bond. 

the most traglc result of Sethe's helnous crlme 1s 

the damage that ~t does to the single most 

important community of women to her the community

OD 

she forms with her daughters. Beloved an& Denver. 

With Sethe's perennial sense of guilt, Denver's 

sense of alienation, and Beloved's need for 

retribution, their unlty remains superficral, 

insplte of external evidences to the contrary 

(Clemens and Hudson - Weems 1990 : 120). 

The ambiguity 

in mcther-daughter relations seen in 

Morrison's Sula and Sorg of Solomon, is evident In Beloved 

too, both in the Sethe-Denver and Sethe-Beloved 

relationships. Though Morrison recognizes the negative 

influence of the mother, on the whole female famlly 

relationships exert a posltlve influence 

comments 

As Rlgney 

'Dread of the mother' occurs in Morrlson too, but 

lt 1s always mltlgated by a love chat 1s virtually 

erotlc, a merglng of identitles that transcends 

Western Ideas about self and other, about subject 

and object (Rlgney 1990 . 47) 

3.3.5.3. It is slgnlflcant that Sethe herself did not 

benefit from a network of female relationships. 

In the 

absence of a nurcuring mother, Sethe becomes a "blologlcal 

and cultural orphan" [Samuels and Hudson-Weems 1990 112). 

She does not remember her mother at all, and can only 

vaguely remember Nan, a slave who semed as a surrogate 

mother to her. 

Even at Sweet Home, she 1s the only woman 

slave and hence experiences the various phases of womanhood 

without anyone to guide or assist her 

Mrs Garner, the only 

other woman there, was the slaveholder, besldes being 

barren, and Sethe therefore is unable to have a rapport with

102 

her Apart from her, Aunt Phyllis, who lived on another 

plantatlon came Only when it was time for Sethe to give 

blrth to a chlld. The absence of a mother and a woman's 

community leaves a hiatus in Sethe's physrcal, 

psychologlcal, cultural and splrltual development. As she 

confesses to Paul D: 

I wish I'd a known more, but, like I say, there 

wasn't nobody to talk to Woman, I mean . . . It's 

hard You know what I mean? by yourself and no 

woman to help you get through ( B 27) 

Havlng herself been robbed of the cruclal bond wlth her own 

mother, Sethe 1s rntlmately aware of the psychologrcal 

devastation it would wreak on her children. 

3.4.0. "We are, none of us, erther mothers or daughters, 

to our amazemen:, confusion and greater complexity, we are 

both" (Rlch 1976 253) The complex crrcularity of 

daughters flghtlng mothers and then becomlng mother 

themselves both repeats and advances the pattern of the 

nother-daughter confllct The protagonists have different 

attitudes towards motherhood when they are daughters and 

when they become mothers When they are daughters, they are 

cppcsed to the lnstltution of motherhood and seem to prefer 

motherlng, but when they become mothers, even motherlng 

seems to them a demanding twenty-four-hour job wlth whlch 

they are not able to cope. From thelr personal experlence, 

how do they react to the dichotomy between motherlng as an

experience and motherhood as an institution? 

deviate from the patriarchal expectations of motherhood' 

SO, to what extent? 

103 

Do they 

If 

These and related questions are here 

discussed in the light of the perspectives of Meridlan 

(Meridian), Saru (The Dark Holds No Terrors), Morag (The 

Diviners) , Rosamund (The Millstone) and Kate (The Summer 

Before the Dark) 

In their conscious revolt against the 

passlve, femlnlne ideal of motherhood, these women question 

the exlstlng norms and denounce institutional motherhood as 

a patrlarchal fiction. 

In the process, they confront not 

only the question of bearing children, but also that of 

rearing them and owning entire responsiblllty for their 

upbrlnglng 

It is this biological and famlllal/societal 

responslblllty that weighs down these 'new' mothers 

3.4.1. In Allce Walker's novel, Merldlan equates 

mctherhood to slavery 

a sense of duty than out of love 

She looks after her baby more out of 

what she calls an "impersonal love' (M 86) 

Her love for her chlld is 

3ne day she really looked at her chlld and loved 

him with as much love as she loved the moon or a 

tree, whlch was a considerable amount of 

impersonal love (M 86) 

In a deliberately ironically titled chapter 'The Happy 

Mother', Walker portrays the tension and guilt Meridian 

faces in her role as mother. She feels that pregnancy and 

motherhood have stolen from her the capacity to be active In

the emotional, intellectual and physlcal world 

104 

Pregnancy 

changes her physical appearance too, making her once velvety 

skin bloated and tqht 

Her husband, insplte of his new 

role, continues hls education, but Merldian is forced to 

glve up her studies and remain at home. She beglns to vlew 

motherhood as a life-glving-death. As Barbara Chriszlan 

observes : 

In givlng llfe to chlldren who were both unwanted 

and unappreciated by soclety, Walker's mothers 

also had to give up much of their own llves to 

Sustaln thelr children's The chlldren know they 

survlve only because their parents commltted acts 

of extraordinary sufferlng I1980 215) 

The birth of her son begins to scifle Meridlan's 

lndlvlduallty, and she In turn experiences an urge to klll 

her son 

The oppressive effect of motherhood makes her feel 

SO lnextrlcably caught In thls role that she has a strong 

urge to klll her son -- "to strangle that soft, smccth, 

helpless neck, to push down that klnky head Into a tub of 

water, to lock ~t In lts room to starve" IM , 67) As in 

The Drviners, The Summer Before the Dark, The Handmaid's 

Tale, and even novels exaltlng motherhood such as Beloved 

and Nectar in a Sieve, lmages of blrth are luxtaposed 21th 

those of death/murder/suiclde, In Merldian also 

3.4.1.1. Meridian realizes that she is not just either a 

mother or daughter, but both. She carrles, as a daughter, 

negatlve echoes of her mother's martyrdom and the confusion

105 

of the double message she receives from her Whrle 

Merldian's mother, a victim of social conditioning, bears 

and rears children though she does not want to, Meridian 

eschews her maternal role when she realizes she is not made 

for rt because it requires the submergence of her self rn 

=he role Her mother sacrifices her public role to fulfll 

maternal obligations, but Merldran does just the opposite 

Unllke her mother and a long llne of mothers before her, 

Merldian lives in an age of choice She hence chooses a 

college education over the motherhood she feels unsuited 

for, taking advantage of a scholarship to Saxon College 

3.4.1.2. This act of rellnqulshlng motherhood however 1s 

not wlthout moral qualms 

Feellngs of gullt and nightmares 

contlnue to haunt her -- she 1s plagued by "a voice that 

cursed her existence -- am existence that could not live up 

to the standard of motherhood gone before" (M 88) 

Accordrng to her, she is glving up not only her chlld, but 

the hlstory of her life -- she thlnks of her declslon ln 

terms of maternal hlstory 

She thought of her mother as belng worthy of this 

maternal hiscory, and she herself belonging to an 

unworthy minority, for which there was no 

precedent and of whlch she was, as far as she 

knew, the only member (M 87-88) 

Between Toni Morrison's Sethe, and a host of enslaved women 

-- for whom 'freedom' meant being able to keep therr own

106 

children -- and Walker's Meridian -- the contrast 1s 

glaring. 

3.4.1.3. The confrontation between Mrs Hill and Meridian on 

the issue of Meridian glving up the child, throws light on 

the difference between the passlve feminine attitude and the 

conscious emerglng femlnist actltude Mrs fill1 condemns her 

daughter as a 'monster' for glving up her child She tells 

Merldlan that she ralsed SIX chlldren though she never 

wanted to have any Merldlan, though she relects her own 

chlld, takes up the cause of the Wild Child and other 

chlldren Motherrng, for her, extends beyond the 

Constrlct~ons of famlly into a collective, soclal function - 

whlle she falls as a personal mother, she succeeds as a 

social one. 

3.4.2. Whereas in Merldlan, the oppressive effecr of 

motherhood is more psycho-social than biologlcal, in Saru, 

the averslon to motherhood can be traced back to both 

biologlcal and soclal factors In The Dark Holds No 

Terrors, Shashl Deshpande strlps off the ha:o around 

motherhood, revealrng the palnful reallty that lles at the 

core of becoming a mother Motherhood as experience, Saru 

comprehends, is a far cry from what has been lngralned ln 

her by soclety -- "the miracle of motherhood" (DH 1471, 

does not really happen 

Like other Deshpande protagonlsts,

107 

Jaya of That Long Silence and Indu of Roots and Shadows, 

Sam also reduces childbirth to an animalistic actlv~ty 

She feels that her labour has made "an animal out of heru 

(DH 


147) and views this process as the painful prelude to 

3.4.2.1. In addition, Saru 1s torn because of the 

psychological pressures and maternal wilt she experiences 

because of not living up to the Ideal image of motherhood 

Her mother's negatlve Influence makes her assert that she 

would not repeat her mother, but In reallty she is not able 

to practlse what she states 

Was she an unnatural, unloving mother? She had 

sworn she would never fall her children in love 

and understanding as her own mother had done 

That she would be to her chlldren all that her own 

mother had not been to her (DH 146) 

Unllke Meridlan, however, Saru 1s unable to relinquish her 

role as mother although she temporarily abandons lt 

It 1s 

the thought of her chlldren that prevents her from 

separating from her husband, Manu. 

Although Meridla?. at 

some point ylelds to maternal pressures, she later relects 

the role outrlght when it becomes an imposition of ldeolow 

3.4.2.2. The estrangement between Saru and her daughter. 

Renu, seems to be a reiteration of the strained relationship 

between Saru and her mother -- the same pattern repeats 

itself. Renu's quiet watchfulness reminds her of her mother

108 

and she has the feeling of being weighed up, criticized, and 

possibly relected 

She understands that one cannot become a 

mother just by bringlng her chlld into the world 

My children . . suddenly she found herself full 

of dlstaste for the words How possessive they 

sounded Can one ever possess another human 

being? The act of blrth can be cruelly deceiving, 

maklng you imagine you have some claim on the 

human you brlng lnto the world (DH ,149) 

Saru has a dreadful fear crushlng her that she had forfelted 

all rlghts to the children forever. 

She feels that her 

chlldren wlll walk out on her one day just as she had walked 

out on her mother 

',Wl11 Renu turn mocklng eyes on me one 

day? Wlll Abhi defy me? Will they betray me as I betrayed 

her'" (DH 126) 

3.4.2.3. Saru's response to motherhood flts neatly rnto the 

Mother archetype delineated by Jung 

In this aspect of the 

mother archetype, Jung remarks, the problem 1s less an 

overdevelopment or an lnhlbltlon of femlnlne instincts than 

an overwhelming resistance tc maternal supremacy, often to 

the exclusion of all else. Further, 

should the daushter set as far as marrying, 

~ - the 

-rarr::le u:ll be ~ssc f3r :::e szlt zur;csi 3f 

fszap:nc frzr ner m:-..-er A:: --:25:l~ztl':e 

~TCCESS~S -e4t ulrt ,:cexcecrei c:f:z.:l:es 

elther sexuality does not function properly, or 

the chlldren are unwanted, or maternal duties seem 

unbearable, or the demands of maternal llfe are 

responded to with impatience and irritation (Jung 

1972 25).

109 

saru marries Manu mainly to break away from the clutches of 

her mother's domineering character, but after she becomes a 

wlfe and mother, she is overcome with a feeling that she 1s 

emulating and replaying the role of her own mother. She has 

no maternal lncllnatlons, and finds motherhood nothing more 

than a burden. 

3.4.3. Morag's statement in The Diviners that she can 

have umpteen lovers but "no husband No kids No stretch 

marks" (D 176) reveals her phobia of the physical and 

psychological repercusslons of motherhood Though the 

macernal consciousness 1s the most vltal mode of perception 

In the novel, Laurence does not ldealise 1: The act of 

rnotherlng is presented as a tremendously dlfflcult one, 

replete wlth responsibility Morag tries to balacce herself 

between the demands of career, chlld and personal llfe, with 

ldcreasing diff lculty Morag' s feellngs of Inadequacy as a 

mother and the frictlon between mother and daughrer due to 

the inablllty of each tc live up to the other's 

expecrations, form the axis around whlch the mother-daughter 

Ccnfllct hlnges The other mothers In the novel, with the 

exception of Ella Gerson's mother, also feel inadequare as 

nurturers. 

3.4.3.1. As a mother herself, Morag 1s caught between the 

femlnlne and feminlst poles As a woman with femlnlst

110 

values, she does not want to fit into the feminine mould of 

a mother and have children, but at the same time feels that 

she will be denying herself something, rellnqurshing one 

part of her identity as a woman 

She envies glrls who 

easlly sllp lnto the roles of wife and mother and lead a 

'happy' existence 

Morag's 

I envy glrls llke Susan Trevor so much that I damn 

near hate them. I want to be glamorous and adored 

and get marrled and have klds 

myself that I don't want that 

I st111 try to kld 

But I do I want 

all that. As well All I want is everythlng 

(D 182). 

deslre to have "everythlng" stems from her 

frustration at not belng able to combme marrlage / 

motherhood and independence even at the hypothetical level 

Throughout the novel, Morag vacillates between the feminlne 

and femlnlst -- she is unable to flt Into the femlnlne mould 

represented by Brldle, who belleves in large families and 

whose chief interest in llfe 1s to have children, nor does 

she belong to the other extreme typzfied by Fan Brady who 1s 

not the "maternal type" ID 

abortions. 

310) and who has had flve 

3.4.3.2. The maternal lnstlnct however seems to suddenly 

have sprouted ln her after her marrlage to Brooke Skelton 

Morag's yearning to have a chzld becomes almost a nagging 

obsession, all the more so because of Brooke's refxsal to 

have one 

He glves her evaslve answers whenever she pleads

him on this account. Not withstanding, she tries to probe 

into his newly developed desire 

Something too primitive to be analyzed? Something 

which needs to proclalm itself, against all odds? 

or only the selfishness of wanting someone born of 

your flesh, someone related to you? (D . 246). 

Unable to conceive children withln marriage, Morag seeks 

fulfllment of her desire outside marltal bonds. Her extra- 

marital affair with Jules results In the blrth of Pique. 

Morag's memorles of giving blrth to Plque polgnantly brlng 

out the pllght of the single parent. 

Morag becomes 

painfully aware of the discrepancy between her deslre for a 

child and the reality it entailed. 

It 1s here that the 

hiatus between motherhood as instltutlon and mothering as 

experience becomes strlklngly clear 

3.4.4. Joe's statement in The Millstone "All women want 

babies, to glve them a sense of purpose" (MS . 48) seems to 

Rosamund "absolutely stupld reactionary chlldish rubblsh" 

IMS 48) Ingrllled wlth the notlons of lndependence rlght 

from her childhood, Rosamund 1s offended when Joe implies 

that all women have the maternal drlve in them and that she 

too has a secret yearnlng for maternal fulfllment. Rosamund 

cannot dlgest the fact that any human belng could endure 

physical discomforts of babies for something as vague and 

pointless as a sense of purpose 

Rosamund's can be seen as 

a case of 'somatophobla', the fear and discomfort with the

112 

body. Hirsch remarks: "Nothing entangles women more firmly 

in their bodies than pregnancy, birth, lactation, 

miscarriage, or the ~nability to conceive" (1989 : 166). 

Though the thought of having a baby leaves her "absolutely 

stone cold'' (MS 48), Rosamund is "in some perverse and 

painful way quite proud of [her] evident fertility" (MS 48). 

3.4.4.1. Rosamund 1s more pained by the physical strain of 

childbearing and chlldrearing than the social stlgma of 

belng an unmarried mother. The plcture of "human misery" -- 

the pregnant women at the cllnlc -- seem to her "an 

unbelievably depressed and miserable lot" (MS 65) -- and 

make her remark on the discrepancy between the mystlcpe of 

motherhood whlch euphem~stlcally describes pregnant women as 

"ships ln full sall" (MS : 65) -- and the stark reallty that 

reveals itself in their grotesque appearance, the anaemic 

and exhausted faces, swollen legs, heavy and unbalanced 

bodies 

She feels trapped Inside a human llmit for the 

flrst tlme ln her llfe, but deterrnlnes to learn to llve 

lnslde it, by trylng to tell herself that she is not dead, 

but al~ve twlce over 

3.4.4.2. Rosamund's fear and cyniclsm towards motherhood 

gradually begln to dissolve, as her recurring vlslts to the 

clinlc begin to establish a klnd of sororlty between herself 

and the other pregnant women. Earlier, she had resented the

113 

chat that Went on in the queue, the subjects of birth, pain, 

fear and hope that drew the women together "in gloomy awe" 

(MS 

69). A significant turn In her attitude occurs whlle 

she holds a baby In her arms -- a gesture which brings out 

the maternal in her. 

meanlng in her unborn child: 

Gradually, she beglns to see some 

lt did not seem like the kind of thing one could 

have removed, llke a wart or a corn It seemed to 

have meaning. It seemed to be the klnd of event 

to whlch, however accidental its cause, one could 

not say No (MS . 761 

Unllke Kate of The Summer Before the Dark, for whom 

motherhood means a fragmentation of identity, the birth of 

Rosamund's chlld helps her ln reasserting her identlty She 

learns to lnsist on her rlghts, even ~f it involves 

screaming hysterics as when she demands to see her baby In 

the hospital. She learns to relate not only to her 

daughter, but to the larger humankind, by shedding off her 

retlcence 

3.1.4.3. Whereas the Deshpande women mew the physioloqrcal 

female funczlons wzth distaste, :he sensations that Rosamund 

experiences after her dellvery are "no longer palnful but 

Indeed a promise of pleasure" (1% 117) Wltn the child in 

her arms, she feels "love . and the flrsz of [her] 

llfe" (MS 118) When she tells Joe Hurt of the happiness 

she experiences, he says that she 1s talklng about one of

114 

the most boring and commonplace of the female experience. 

As all women feel exactly that, he remarks that it is not 

anythlng to be proud of, or even worth thinking about 

Rosamund denies that this feeling of enrapture was 

universal She easlly salls into motherhood, and unlike 

Deshpalde's mother and child who feel llke "clumsy 

amateurs", Rosamund's chlld learns to "suck at the flrst 

attempt, not after hours of humiliating struggle8'(MS . 120) 

Later, she gives up breast-feeding, not because she finds 1t 

dlsgusiing, but because she finds the consequences extremely 

messy, feeling unsure of satlatlng the chlld's hunger wlth 

her mllk 

3.4.5. Kate Brown of The Summer Before the Dark denounces 

maternal rnstinct as a myth, imposed on women ln order to 

cater to the needs of an androcentric culture. This 

auareness begins when she experiences a bifurcation wlthln 

herself -- that the many thlrgs she said and thought were 

very different from what she really felt An awareness of 

belng soclally condltloned by stereotypes overcomes her -- 

her responses to situations and people around her are, she 

feels, nothlng but thlngs "taken off a rack and put on" 

(SBD 6) She had spent all her llfe in deliberately 

cultivating the so-called femlnlne qualities of patience, 

self-dlsclpline, self-control, self-abnegation, chastity,

115 

adaptability, but realizes that these are not virtues but a 

form of dementia. 

3.4.5.1. Away from home, Kate persistently probes Into her 

predicament and the femlnine mystique whlch had enveloped 

her all these years 

It is only through self-analysls and 

self-introspection, and a rummaging through her past life 

that Kate comes to understand what she had actually been 

reduced to all the years of her life. 

All durlng the 

summer, the "shortened, heightened, concentrated time" 

(SBD 

9), Kate delves lnto the reasons why she had been 

leadlng an Inauthentic existence, why she had been taklng 

the same old dresses off the rack 

It is only after she 

shrugs off her stereotyped attlre, after twenty-flve years 

of marriage, that she really thlnks for herself and reallzes 

that all those years had seemed a betrayal of what she 

really was 

All along ',she had been set llke a machire by 

twenty-odd years of belng a wife and mother" ISBD . 171 

Looking back from the ccndltlon of belng an almost mrcdle- 

aged wlfe and mother to her condition as a glrl when she 

llved wlth Michael, lt seemed to her that she had accp~lred 

not vlrtues but a form of demenrla whlch turned her lnto an 

"obsessed manlac" (SBD . 91) 

By her husband and children, 

she was treated as "something to be put up with": 

Mother was an uncertain quantity She was like an 

old nurse who had given her years to her famlly 

and must now be put up with (SBD : 91).

Kate perceives that she was continually dragged into 

,'patterns of behaviour by people who still expected them of 

her (SBD : 92). These patterns of feminine motherhood are 

what Kate tries to break away from 

3.4.5.2. Lessing attempts to debunk the motherhood myth by 

delineating the evolution of her protagonist from the 

femlnine to the feminist, from being the heart of the family 

to assessing her positlon while standing outside it. 

Kate 

rejects the lmage of herself as the warm centre of the 

famlly, the queen termite, the source of invlslble 

emanations. 

She comprehends that the pain of inlustice had 

been waltlng for her all these years, but she had not 

allowed herself to feel lr: 

Earller, she had carefully 

tended the lmage of marrlage but now, through retrospect, ~t 

dawns on her that " marriage had a load heaped on it whlch 

it could not sustaln" (SBD 62) The only thing which 

sustained thelr relaelonship was the marltal bed. 

She 

beglns to see herself and her famlly as "a web of nasty 

deceptions" (SBD 218) Kate's total dlsllluslonment with 

lnstltutlonalised marrlage and motherhood and her veerlng 

towards the femlnlst pole is most succintly stated In her 

own words 

There are tlmes, you know, when there's a sort of 

switch rn the way I look at things -- everything, 

my whole lrfe since I was a glrl, and I seem to 

myself as a ravlng lunatic. Love, and duty, and 

belng In love and not belng in love, and lovlng,

and behavlng well and you should and you shouldn't 

and you ought and you oughtn't Its a disease 

Well, sometlmes I think that's all it is (SBD : 

2161. 

3.4.5.3. LeSSlng pro~ects Mary Finchley, who "wasn't like 

other Women" (SBD ,2151 as a foll to Kate. Unllke Lesslng's 

conventional, self-sacrlficzng women, Mary refuses the 

romanticisation of marrlage and motherhood 

To her, 

romance figures less promlnently In her decisions 

than reason she trades her freedom from economlc 

responslblllty for Bill's freedom from chlld - 

care res~onsibilitv Kate Brown finds the antlromantic-~ary 

~lnchley a flghtening conundrum, one 

whlch she fears to solve [Andrews 1986 146) 

Mary is "what men descrlbe as a savage woman" (SBD 2121 -- 

they are scared of her but admlre her for it Never in love 

wlth anyone, Mary nevertheless carries on various affalrs 

Simultaneously Unllke Kate who thlnks, speaks, behaves and 

dresses as the society, her husband and chlldren would deem 

lt proper, Mary does what pleases her, unmindful of what the 

family or soclety thlnk Children, Mary considers a 

hindrance "Klds are all verf well, but they cramp your 

style" (583 214) Ber incorrlglble, stubborn and adamant 

nature 1s compared to a dog that a man has spent years 

training, and then he says" "He's useless, nothing takes" 

(SBD : 212). Cynical about the concepts of 'famlly', 'home', 

'mother', 'father', Mary volces Lessing's disgust with these 

institutions Though Mary is first presen-ed as a contrast

118 

to Kate, the latter later takes her as her role-model. At 

one time Kate had thought herself better than Mary -- more 

sensitive, responsible, and having finer feelings, but 

circumstances change her perspective later. 

3.4.5.4. From Mary Flnchley's example and from her own 

experience at Global Foods, Kate learns that an important 

turn towards self-expression lles In the area of cholce -- 

when women choose for themselves they establish an identlty 

of then own. For Kate, her dress and halr style become an 

expression of her ~dentlty Earlier, she could wear only 

what sulted her posltion as wife of her husband and mother 

of her chlldren, curbing her innermost tastes zn order to 

avold thelr disapproval Inltlally, she 1s unable to fathom 

how Mary Finchley dressed as if "she were unmarried and had 

no chlldren" (SBD 111 After her stlnt as translator at 

Slobal Foods, Kate literally too stops taklng the same old 

dresses off the rack -- she buys herself new dresses, not 

different from what she usually wears, but effects a change 

ln the manner of wearing them 

3.4.5.5. In her transltlonal stage, Kate, llke Morag of The 

Diviners, beglns to experlecce an in-between sltuatlon 

whereln she is not able to belong elther to the 'femlnlne' 

group represented by the numerous mothers she comes across, 

or to the 'feminist', of which Mary Finchley is an

119 

embodiment. Kate's dilemma is such that she is unable to 

completely shed her feminine role, nor is she able to fully 

absorb the feminist values. She wonders at the complacency 

of young mothers she comes across and finds them moving with 

confidence 

It is thls confidence that Kate feels she has 

lost in excess of self-consc~ousness, In awareness of the 

consequences of what she did, just as Rosamund Stacey of The 

Millstone and Morag of The Diviners feel outsiders to the 

world of maternity, Isolated by virtue of their intellect 

Kate contrasts these young women to the older women, her 

contemporaries, and sees cautxcn and suspxclon wrlt large on 

thelr faces, thelr movement seem~ng as though they are 

afrald of being trapped by somethlng, afrald of knocklng 

lnto somethlnq, as ~f surrounded by lnvislble enemres 

She 

concludes that the faces and movements of most middle-aged 

women are those of prisoners or slaves 

3.4.5.6. Standing on the brink of feminlst motherhood. Kate 

gets a gl~mpse of what possljl1lt;es could be open to her 

Though she returns Some ln the end, 1t is wlth a heightened 

awareness of her situation, wlth an altered appearance and 

perception. 

Lesslnq makes lt clear that her protagonist 

wlll not revert to belng just 'Michael's wife' or her 

'children's mother', but w ~ll forge an ldentlty of her own. 

3.4.6. Whlle femlnlne motherhood presupposes that the 

maternal instinct is a natural condition In women and

120 

motherly affection simply wells up in women who give birth, 

feminist motherhood, as the above examples amply illustrate, 

negates the maternal instinct. 

Maternal lnstinct does not 

refer to reproductive reflexes, but rather to psychological 

and soclal aspects of motherhood. Maternal love, therefore, 

1s a socially conditloned sentiment, and llke all human 

sentiments, it can prove to be frail, fluctuating and 

aberrant 

Some women may flnd the role of motherhood 

congenial, some do not; some perform lt well, some do not 

Maternlty 1s '"a strange mixture of narclssxsm, altruism. 

Idle day-drearnlng, slncerlty, bad faith, devotion and 

cynlclsm" (Beauvolr 1971 528) The mother's attltude 

therefore depends on her sltuatlon and her response to lt 

and this 1s hlghly varlable 

3.4.6.1. Adrienne Rlch and Ellsabeth Badinter attack socral 

myths that lead one to belleve in the innate maternal 

Instinct, they however eulogrse freely chosen maternal love 

Badlnter remarks 

Maternal love 1s a human feellng And, llke any 

feeling, it 1s uncertain, fraglle and Imperfect 

Contrary to many assumptions, lt IS not a deeply 

rooted glven In women's natures When we observe 

Che hlstorlcal changes ln maternal behavlour, we 

notlce that Interest ln and devotion to the chlla 

are sometlmes in evidence, sometlmes not 

Affection may or may not be present (1981 : xxlll) 

Femlnasts, therefore, assert that there is no biologically 

based drlve that propels women mto childbearing or forces

121 

them to be childrearers once the children are there. 

everth he less, as Oakley comments: 

the 'maternal instinct' 1s a phenomenon of 

established popularity today It is suggested 

that all women have thls instinct, and asserted 

confidently that all mothers must have it. 

Irreparable damage to maternal mental health is 

clalmed to follow from a sltuatlon In whlch a 

woman gives birth to a chrld and then hands over 

its rearing to someone else (1974 . 1991 

Adrienne Rlch shares thls vlew 

According to her 

"rnstltutionallzed motherhood demands of women maternal 

'~nstlnct' rather than lntelllgence, selflesness rather than 

self-reallzatlon, relaclon to others rather than the 

creatlon of self" (1976 42) By abandoning the motherhood 

myth, the protagonists of Meridian, The Dark Holds No 

Terrors, The Diviners, The Millstone and The Summer Before 

the Dark exercise thelr lndivldual 

intelligence rather than instinct, 

cholces, choosing 

self-real~zatlon rather 

tnan selflesness, creatlon of self rather than relatlon to 

others 

3.5.0 To achleve thls self-realization, the 'new 

mothers' move out to establish an rdent~ty vls-a-vis thelr 

career, when they reallze that thelr work at home 1s 

undermined and 1s a thankless lob 

A they move away from 

the boundaries of the home and step into the professional 

fleld, one question that alarms them 1s how to balance both 

motherhood and career 

To strlke a mean between the two

122 

they have to be both subhuman and superhuman at the same 

tlme 

In reality, women have found it extremely difficult 

KO combme independence and motherhood -- thls 1s because 

motherhood has been enforced and instltutionalised. Even if 

they attempted to do so, they found both lncompatlble and 

eherefore had to segregate career and motherhood into 

separate realms. Adrienne Rlch's statement,"for me, poetry 

was 

where I llved as no one's mother, where I exlsted as 

myself" (1976 311, exempllfles thls lncompatabllrty In 

addltlon to their professlonal obllgatlons, mothers are held 

responsible for the famlly's welfare 

The woman's 

profession 1s considered less Imporrant than her husband's. 

and 1f In a crlsls a confllct arlses between the parental 

and the professlonal, it 1s the mother rather than the 

father who 1s requ~red to assume the parental obllgatxon 

The lmage of the mother at home, the 'angel In the house' 

has been hauntlng and reproaching the llves of wage-earnlng 

mothers and has become a dangerous archetype 

The femlnlst 

mothers, however, are ready to confront thls Image when they 

conslder the fact that mother-work, In a soclety llke ours, 

does not have any productive value, lt has only 'use-value' 

b~t not 'exchange value' (aernard 1974 1151 

3.5.1. For the new mothers, a career is cruclal ln 

placing them in a socletal context beyond the role of a 

mother. Tuula Gordon explains

Work means getting away from home, havlng other 

interests besldes children, havlng financial 

independence, being competent, it provldes status 

and self-esteem. But work also has intrinsic 

meaning, most women felt that it was an avenue 

through which they could explore their interests 

and/or campaign for socletal changes (1990 . 128) 

For the femlnlst mothers, work helps In establishing and 

maintaining an identlty beyond motherhood and bridging the 

gap between the prlvate and publlc spheres 

Apart from 

constructing then own Identltles, work enables them In 

pursuing societal interests as well. 

It provldes 

challenges, poss~bllitles for exploration, and an 

opportunlty to develop and expand thelr skllls 

3.5.2. In The Diviners, Morag's rnltlal cynxclsm 

regarding marrlage has rts root In her bellef that she wlll 

not be able to successfully blend rnarriage/motherhood and 

career 

She is aware that she cannoL have the best of both 

worlds and that a balance between her prlvate and publlc 

roles wlll be a difficult alm to achleve 

However, her 

cravlng for emotional securlt;, overvelghs her deslre for 

Independence and she accepts Brooke's proposal 

marr:age 

Her 

to Brooke Skelton, a representative of patriarchy, 

reveals the femlnlne streak In her, while the detenlnatlon 

wlth which she struggles to keep her creatlve skllls allve 

desplte all odds, and her decislon to break away from Brooke 

when marriage becomes an encumberance, brings out the

124 

emerglng feminlst in her. The ability to take an 

independent decision is no doubt prompted by the mellowness 

she ach~eves through her writing, her fictlon being not lust 

an exercrse in Creatlvlty, but also an exercise in self- 

~ntrospectlon, a delving deep into the innermost layers of 

her consciousness. 

3.5.3. Unimpeded by male interference, Rosamund Stacey of 

The Millstone is able to successfully combine motherhood and 

career, unlike her slster Beatrice who 1s unable to 

reconcile the two Because of the rigour of rearlng three 

children, Beatrlce 1s not able to use her degree to the best 

advantage as motherhood ltself becomes a full tlme 

responsiblllty, leaving her wlth no tlme or energy to pursue 

a career In contrast to Cora Sandel's Alberta and Freedom 

where Alberta, an lmpoverlshed young woman wrlter 1s not 

able to wrlte when she discovers her pregnancy, Rosamund 1s 

able to work consistently on her thes~s In the pre- and 

post- natal phases, successfully completing lt desplte 

varlous trlbulatlons she faces as a slngle parent 

3.5.4. Whlle Rosamund is able to strlke a balance between 

motherhood and career in the face of various odds, Kate 

Brown does not have the optlon to do so It is only after 

her talent as translator is tapped at Global Foods, does the 

thought cross her mlnd that if she had not marrled, she

125 

would probably have become something special in her field. 

This thought however is erased before she realizes its 

Impact; such muslngs about 'the road not taken' are "not 

frequent thoughts : she had not found chlldren borlng" (SBD 

18) Clearly, Kate at thls stage considers motherhood an 

alternative to a career, unmindful of tte fact that she 1s 

overlooking innumerable vistas open to her 

3.5.5. In Meridian, motherhood takes a back seat as lt 

becomes an obstacle In Merldlan's wlsh to achleve soclal 

gcals TO become an activlst in the Clvll Rlghts Movement 

and to loin Saxon college, Merldlan rellnqulshes her role as 

a mother She gives away her son tc a couple deslrous of a 

child, and who, she feels, can look after him much better 

chan her. Whlle her mother places maternal obllqatlons 

before professional ones, suppressing a part of herself and 

Edellng bltter about it throughout her llfe, Meridlan flatly 

refuses to play the role towards whlch she has no natural 

lncllnatlon. 

3.5.6. Saru, In The Dark Holds No Terrors, is unable to 

meet the demands of her husband and children along wlth her 

profession as doctor. Better qualified and more successful 

ln her profession than her lecturer - husband, Saru has to 

canfront her husband's growlng lnferlority complex, to 

overcome which he begins to inflict sexual sadism on her.

126 

Even financially, she has an edge over him, for she earns 

not only the butter but also the bread for the family. 

Earlier, she was known as Manu's wife, but as she gains 

recognition through her career. Manu galns his identity by 

vlrtue of bemg the doctor's husband. 

3.5.7. The prevailing doctrlne of Charlotte Perkins 

G~lrnan's time affirmed that the development of women's 

talents is injurious to motherhood 

Llvlng in such a set- 

up, Gllman too faced thls problem in her personal life. The 

conflict between the mother and wrlter caused a breakdown in 

her after the b~rth of her daughter she had wanted to have 

children, but at the same t~me wanted to contlnue wrltlng 

Flndlng it extremely dlfflcult to luggle motherhood and 

career, Gllman understood that the joy of motherhood 1s lost 

when ~t becomes a burden 

In Herland, therefore, she 

creares a new kind of motherhood whlch no longer shackles a 

woman to the domestlc sphere 

Gllman creates a contrast 

between the work ethlcs In Herland and In a patriarchal 

soc2ety where women are exalted only In order to curb their 

talent, to be subordinated 

The ironlc intent in Terry's 

statement comes to the fore "We do not allow our women to 

work 

Women are loved -- idollzed -- honored -- kept in the 

home to care for thelr children" (H : 61) 

3.6.0. The pattern that gradually emerges from here is 

that the fem~nslt mothers are able :o 

successfully blend

127 

motherhood and career only when they break free from 

1nstitutionalised and enforced motherhood and veer towards a 

new klnd of motherhood, free from the dictates of 

androcentrlc culture 

Of course, the extent to which they 

succeed in re-defining motherhood varles In degree and klnd 

In Sam, Meridian, Morag, Rosamund and Kate 

Yet the fact 

that remains is that they call for a replacement of the old, 

~nstltutionalised, sacrlflclal mother-love by a more 

personallsed motherlrg 

Even when chlldren are considered 

central as in The Illlstone, The Div~ners, The Dark Holds No 

Terrors, the women begin to see motherhood as one aspect cf 

thelr lives, not an ldent~ty for all time, other activities 

are not suspended altogether 

Feminlst motherhood hence 

eschews the old patriarchal ideals in favour of personailsed 

motherlng that can provlde women wlth the actual experlence 

of motherlng, that can help them experlence the potentlal of 

tl.eir own bodles and rear thelr chlldren with fenlnist 

values, wlthout any lmpcsltlon from wlthout 

Wlth psychlc 

and physlcal ~ndependence, wlt5 'a room of :heir own', the 

new mothers contend with femlnlne stereotypes and reductive 

Images imposed on them s;r.ce centuries Their alm, flnally, 

llke that of Adrlenne Rlch, 1s not to abollsh motherhood, 

but to destroy the lnstltutlon of motherhood 

It 1s "to 

release the creation and sustenance of llfe into the realm 

of decision, struggle, surprise, lmaglnation, conscious

128 

intelligence, as any other difficult, but freely chosen 

work" (Rich 1976 . 280) Such a courageous mothering 

involves the individual effort of the mother herself ln 

trylng to expand the llmlts of her llfe. "To refuse to be a 

victim. and then go on from there" (Rich 1976 . 246) 

3.6.1. By avolding patriarchal intrusion into the process 

of motherhood, Drabble questions the institutions of family 

acd motherhood in The Millstone 

The role of the effeminate 

George in hls fatherhood is limlted to lust one sexual 

encounter wlth ROSamund 

Drabble allows her protagonist the 

real experlence of mothering by exclucilng men from thls 

realm, and thus shows how motherhood can be a positlve and 

fulfllllng experlence ~f untr~ched by the dlctates of a 

patrlarchally ~nst~tutlonalised syscem 

Drabble is not so 

much agalnst men as she 1s agalnst the soclal conditronlng 

and unreasonable demands made by the system on motherhood 

Ker emergent mother proves, desplte the unsettllng 

experiences she goes through as an unmarried mother, that 

the chlld as such 1s not a millstone, but a livlng and 

lovlng bond 

It 1s only the androcentrrc society's 

lmposltlons on the mother that become millstones arou2d her 

neck. 

3.6.1.1. That Drabble wlshes to revamp and create a new 

definltlon of motherhood becomes increaslngly obvlous when

129 

she does not grant =he 'father' -- George -- his fatherhood 

status George 1s not even Informed of hls fatherhood by 

Rosamund partly because she does not want to be Indebted to 

hlm, and partly because of his own self-protective 

dlffldence Further, after Octavla's blrth. Rosamund has no 

revlval of Interest ln men Qulte slgnlflcantly George is 

the most 'de-sexed' lover -- gentle, diffident and posslbly 

homosexual -- that Rosamund chooses to Impregnate her and 

now she "scrupulously elects him from the maternal nest 

(Crelghton 1985 . 54) 

3.6.2. By envlslonlng a female utopla, free from 

masculine lnterventlon. Gllman too ejects men from the 

'maternal nest' In the process of naturallsrng motherhood, 

Gllman subverts exlstlng male and female stereotypes rn 

Herland The women have no lnterest in the men except as 

ystentlal fathers the male 1s merely the sex and the female 

represents the entlre world of actlon To Gllman, mothers 

represent "the deep, steady, malnstream of life" and men are 

"the active variant", mothers are essential, men are 

"ad~uncts" Terry's remark. "The only thlng they can think 

of about a man 1s Fatherhood Fatherhood I As if a man 

was always wanting to be a father I " (H 1241, remlnds one 

Of a slmilar predicament of the man In The Millstone as 

nothlng more than a potential father

130 

3.6.2.1. Excluding men from her utopia and from the realm 

of reproduction, Gilman alms at dispelling the prevailing 

notrons and stereotypes regarding mothersjmotherhood. Even 

though motherhood is the chief preoccupation of the women of 

Herland, lt is a motherhood evolved from thelr essential 

nature, rather than one dictated by patriarchal culture 

Susan Gubar [clted in Peyser 1992 91 describes Herland as 

a place where "culture is no longer opposed to nature". 

Gllman hlnts so much herself when she has Van, the male 

narrator of Herland, say that the chlldren dld not seem 

cultivated at all -- it had become a natural condit~on In 

Berland, the narrator reallzes that femlnine charms are 

"mere reflected mascul~nlty -- developed to please us 

because they had to please us, and in no way essentlall' (H 

591 The women In Herland are free from conventional 

femlnlnlty, whlch 1s an offshoot of thelr economlc 

Independence Incidentally, Gllman believed that "a woman's 

economlc Independence 1s the basls of her freedom -- as long 

as a woman depends on a father, brother, or husband for 

materlal support, she wlll depend on h m emotionally and 

intellectually as well" (clted In Sapler 1972 1C9) 

3.6.2.2. What one sees in Herland 1s a plcture of 

naturaljauthentic motherhood untouched by patriarchy 

Sensitive to the difference between motherlny as a 

biological experience and motherhood as an instltutlon or

131 

social construct, Gilman was wllllng to accept matrimony and 

motherhood, provided women were released from their 

conventionally defined and llmited roles. She was obsessed 

wlth the discrepancy between woman's biological role and 

motherhood as an ideological construct, between mothering as 

a persons1 activity compounded of love and warmth and as a 

physiological definition elevated into a soclal cult. The 

tradlt~onal concept of famlly and motherhood, which Gllman 

calls the "domestic ethic" (Sapler 1972 . 109) proved, 

according to her, a malor deterrent to female independence. 

The parthenogenlc mode of reproduction whlch she describes 

is hence an attempt to redeflne women's biological roles, lt 

suggests that women's bodles can be free of phallocertr~c 

law Her concept of woman is "not woman as historically 

constituted, not an oppositional figure molded by the 

accumulated force of millenia of oppression, but woman as a 

dlrect manifestation of natural law" (Peyser 1992 : 2). 

3.6.3. Margaret Laurence too works towards redeflnlng 

motherhood in The Diviners by excluding men from the 

maternal world. Her protagonlst Morag conceives a ckld 

outslde marriage and brings her up alone, without any 

assistance from her legal husband, Brooke or even from the 

father of her child. Jules. 

3.7.0. While Herland, The Diviners and The Millstone 

explore the possibilities of motherhood without male

132 

intervention, another section of feminists demand the 

involvement of fathers too in the rearlng and upbringing of 

children which, in their opinlon, would dismantle the 

~nstitution. Under the institution, the token nature of 

fatherhood gives a man rights and privileges over children, 

slthough he assumes minlmal responsibility In the flrst 

half of the twentieth century, Maxlne L. Margolls 

eludlcates, "a dose of father was seen as a good antldote 

for an overdose of mother, but there was never any doubt 

that the responsiblllty for child care st111 lay In maternal 

hands" 11984 . 58) Certain feminis:~, therefore, feel that 

~f men too explore their mothering abllltles, thelr support 

and co-operation can enable a shared experience of chldrearlng 

Mothering, then, wculd not be a merely 'femlnlne' 

actlvlty or a burden on the woman alone Exploration of the 

'mother' In men would lead to an androgynous outlook, 

blendlng both 'feminine' and 'masculine' tralts, deslred by 

many femlnlsts According ts Nancy Chodorow and Dorsthy 

Dinnersteln, women's monopoly of mothering was chiefly 

responslble for their malady They call for shared 

chlldrearing in ~nfancy and ch-ldhood If fathers shared In 

the all-powerful role of prlmary caretaker, they argue, a 

nore balanced human race mlght develop, one whose 

attachments might be more flexlble and varied. Elisabeth 

Badinter, In her book Mother Love. Myth and Reality, points

out a change ln attitude towards motherhood wlth fathers 

participating in mothering: 

It seems -- today -- although it is perhaps too 

soon to judge -- that the father, having cast off 

his authoritarian image, identlf~es more and more 

closely with his wife -- that is, with the mother 

At the same time as women are "mas~ulinizing'~ 

themselves and distancing themselves from 

motherhood, young men in particular seem to be 

more and more incllned taward mothering, lf no' 

full-tlme mocherhood Not only do we see more and 

more dlvorced fathers asklng for custody of thelr 

young chlldren but the most recent studies show 

young fathers exhibiting attitudes, behaviour, and 

deslres traditionally characterized as maternal 

(1981 321 

After centuries of the father's authority or absence, a new 

concept has come into existence, father love, the exact 

equivalent of mother love 

It is probable that this new 

experience of fatherhood 1s largely attributable to the 

Influence of women, who have demanded the sharlng of all 

aspects of motherhood 

3.7.1. In Marge Piercy's Woman On The Edge of Time, 

rnotherlng 1s extended to men also 

The men of Mattapolsett 

are not male-parents, but 'co-mothers' and 'kld-binders', 

the concept of fatherhood 1s strangely lacklng here 

Mothering, therefore, becomes a collective responslbllity 

with each chlld having three co-mothers 

Thls naturally 

ellminates possessive parenthood, enabling the kld-blnders 

to cultivate a shared responsibility of mothering, instead

134 

of concentrating their energies only on children genetically 

related to them. 

3.7.2. In The Summer Before the Dark, the lack of the 

father's co-operation contributes to the breakdown in the 

famlly set-up. Michael "worked so hard that he had very 

little emotional energy left to glve the family" (SBD 851, 

and so Kate has to shoulder the physical, moral and 

emotional responsibility of brlnging up her children. She 

1s not able to cope with the psychological pressures that 

motherhood brings with lt. 

For why should it be necessary for a mother to be 

there llke a grindstone at the heart of 

everything? Look~ng back lt seemed as if she had 

been at everybody's beck and call, always 

available, always crltlclzed, always belng bled to 

feed these -- monsters (SBD 86) 

3.8.0. In the feminlst phase of motherhood, women 

unaerstand that the instltutlon of motherhood denies them 

access to the public sphere 

Femlnlsts llke Virglnia Wcolf 

have volced their protest against the concept of 'The Angel 

ln the House', the Ideal woman of the Victorian age, 

developed by Coventry Fatmore 

'The Angel In the House', 

Says Woolf, is the maternal angel. the figure who encourages 

the woman wrlter to "be sympathetic, be tender, flatter; 

deceive, use all the arts and wlles of your sex. Never let 

anyone guess you have a mind of your own. 

pure" (clted in Hirsch 1989 : 941. 

Above all, be 

Killing the 'Angel in

135 

the House' and loosening the tenacious hold that the concept 

of 'woman in the home' had in the minds of people, became 

part of the project of feminist motherhood. Feminlst 

mothers reject John Ruskin's Idea of home as a walled 

garden, the walled garden had become a prison for them, 

keeplng them In and the world out Slammlng the door to the 

doll's house. they venture out to explore newer vistas 

3.8.1. In Herland, Gilman dlreccs her 'r~ntellectual 

artlllery" (Degler 1989 . 21) agarnst the venerable 

lnstlcutlon of the mother-centered home, which she felt was 

the malor obstacle to women's employment She strongly 

belleves that women's reprsductlve role 1s responsible for 

thelr conf~nement to the domestlc sphere In keeping with 

her femlnist purport, Gilman takes the mother out of the 

claustrophobia of the home and places her In the publlc 

Spnere Deeply aware that the least evolved instltutlon 1s 

the home, she argues for a radlcal change ln the ldeals and 

concepts governing the home Ma-herhood, according to her, 

should extend beyond the home and embrace the soclety She 

staunchly opposes Victorian ideology prevalent durlng her 

Zlme whlch conflned women to the reproductive sphere and 

maintained their subordinate role. In 'The Home Its Work 

and Influence', Gilman claims that "mother-love 1s the 

founta~n of all our human affection, but mother-love as 

limited by the home, does not have the range and efficacy

proper to our time". 

She envisages the emancipated 

twentieth - century woman as "a mother economically free, a 

world-servant instead of a house-servant; a mother knowing 

the world and living in lt" (cited in Sangari 1983 ,131. 

Further, she portrays motherhood completely transformed, 

drvorced from heterosexuality, the prlvate famlly, and 

economic dependency. In thls connection, Susan Gubar polnts 

out 

all the evlls of the prlvate home -- isolat~on of 

women, amateur unhealthy working, the waste of 

labor and products, Improper upbringing of 

children, lack of ~ndzvldual prlvacy -- are 

avoided not by destroying the Idea of home but by 

extending rt so the race 1s vlewed as a famlly and 

the world as its home (1989 195) 

3.8.2. For Kate of The Summer Before the Dark, awareness 

dawns when she moves away from the confines of her home and 

famlly to 'a room of her own', a shift whlch brlngs about a 

change In not only her physlcal but also mental landscape. 

Whlle her famlly home is a constant remlnder of her roles as 

wife and mother, Kate's room 1s symbolic of her newly - 

found Independence and idextlty 

As she moves away from her 

large famlllal home to her independent room, she moves away 

from marital bonds and obligations, dlscardlng the garbs of 

wife and mcther she had been wearlng untll now 

She moves 

away from oblects that remlnd her of her role and her dutles 

to a place where she can en]oy peace and solitude Like 

many other feminist writers, Lessing emphasizes that 'a room

13 7 

of one's Own' is essentlal to self-expression and 

e 

realization of the female will According to her, a woman 

must have the tlme and opportunlty to explore the sense of 

self behind the soclal facades, even if that sense of self 

1s not socially acceptable and requires an excursion into 

madness or involves hostile and antl-social attitudes 

Particularly at middle-age, she must find an independent 

room and spend some time discovering who she really is 

3.8.3. As for Jaya, the protagonist of Deshpande's That 

Long Silence, for Saru of The Dark Holds No Terrors too, a 

change in external environment stimulates, llke a catalyst, 

a psychological lntrospectlon A ratlonal exploration of 

her role as wlfe and mother begins only when she leaves her 

husband and chlldren and arrlves at her father's house where 

she probes lnto her past and takes stock of her llfe as a 

daughter, wxfe and mother. The change in atmosphere enables 

her to excavate her real self whlch had till then lam 

burled in these roles 

3.8.4. Drabble, Walker and Laurence's protagonists follow 

the same pattern In Drabble's The Millstone. Rosamund 

enjoys belng an independent single mother because of the 

freedom she possesses In an independent flat, free from 

societal and familial pressures In Meridian, Meridian 

ceases being the angel in the house, first when she leaves

138 

her mother, next her husband and chlld, to join the Civil 

Rlghts Movement. Morag of The Diviners, leaves her foster 

parents and lives alone ln the clty in order to achieve her 

goals In the academic field. After her marriage, she leaves 

her home and her husband to establish herself as a woman 

with her own r~ghts, to gain ldentity as a wrlter. 

3.9.0. According to the institution of motherhood, 

motherhood 1s 'sacred' as long as ~ t s offspring are 

'legltlmate' - that is, as long as the child bears the name 

3f the father who legally controls the mother (Rlch 

1976 421 Slmone de aeauvoir polncs out, "the unwed mother 

1s st111 In d~srepute, it 1s only rn marriage that the 

mother 1s glorlfled - that ls, only when she 1s subordinated 

to a husband" I1971 5411 

Yet many mothers, as Rosamund 

Stacey In The Yillstone, Morag In The Diviners and Ira In 

Nectar in a Sieve choose to become slngle parents 

Despite 

=he problems they confront, they find rellef ln belnc able 

to assume responslbilrty for thelr own llves 

Though carlng 

for the chlld sl~.gle-handed is a tough lob, many women flnd 

~t more satlsfylng to do so wlrhout male Intervention, they 

find it easler to carry the responslblllty of chlld-rear~ng 

themselves, than trylng to encourage somebody reluctant to 

do SO to share it. Paradoxically, to bear an "illegitimate" 

child proudly and by cholce in the face of social judgement, 

has been one way in which women have defied patriarchy 

The

139 

example that comes to mind immediately is that of Hester 

Prynne ln Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Childbirth, then, 

may be painful, dangerous and unchosen, but it has also been 

converted Into a purpose, an act of self-assertion by a 

woman forced to assert herself primarily through her 

anatomy. 

3.9.1. While Ira's adultery and subsequent illegitimate 

motherhood 1s purely a consequence of her being a vlctim of 

circumstances, Morag and Rosamund consciously opt for 

motherhood outslde marrlage - the former rellnqulshlng her 

status as wlfe to concelve a child by her former lover, and 

the latter decidlng not to enrer the grlp of marrlage at 

all, but neverthless havlng a child by a man who 1s no more 

than a potentlal father By dong so, the texts doubt not 

3nly the institution of motherhood, but also that of 

he'erosexuality, reversing exls-lng role-patterns 

3.10.0 Whlle the problematlcs of motherhood is dealt 

through the mother-daughter cmfllct rn Meridian, Beloved. 

The Dark Holds No Terrors and The Diviners, the two Brltlsh 

novels - Dorls Lessing's The Summer Before the Dark and 

Margaret Drabble's The Millstone - reveal two more facets of 

motherhood. Lessing's is a negatlve portrayal of motherhood 

as experienced by her protagonist, Kace Brown, who journeys 

from her state of happy passlvlty to disgust and

140 

disillusionment with her traditional role as wife and 

mother. Drabble gives a more positive picture - the movement 

of her protagonist Rosamund Stacey is just the opposite of 

Lessing's - she moves from an lnltial scepticism and fear of 

motherhood to an understanding of its ]oys, which she 

experiences through love for her daughter, Octavla. Whlle 

Lessing presents her protagonist's lourney from the femlnlne 

to the femlnlst phase, Drabble engages herself In re- 

deflnlng motherhood, a motherhood mlnus men 

The Summer 

Before the Dark 1s a negative portralt of marriage, farnlly 

and motherhood, The Millstone presents a negatlve plcture 

of marrlage, but 1s optlmlstlc about motherhood: "I'm one of 

those Bernard Shaw women who wants children but no husband" 

(MS 1231 says Rosamund About marrlage, Drabble has made 

sceptical comments 

(Crelghton 1985 241, 


Clark 

"I don't know why one gets marrled" 

but projects a posltlve vlslon of 

As she puts it ln an interview to Dlana Cooper- 

I see motherhood In such posltlve terms that I 

feel almost emharassed to state rt. I thlnk lt 1s 

tP.e greatest joy in the world But 1: 1s also a 

very-personal thing I just happen to llke it 

And ~t's a relatlonshio that. ln fact, avolds the 

problems of sex. 1t's-a very pure form of lovlng, 

whlch sex rarely 1s .. It has a great deal to do 

wlth goodness and love and lack of self-lnterest 

(Cooper-Clark 1986 68) 

It is this "goodness and love and lack of self-interest' 

that Rosamund achleves through motherhood 

While Kate

141 

experlences a fragmentation of self, Rosamund asserts her 

ldentlty through relation to others Kate feels confined to 

the home because of her responsrbilities towards her family 

and children whereas Rosamund's child teaches her to reach 

out to the wider c~rcle of humanity around her. Due to the 

circumscribed definition of motherhood that Kate is caught 

ln, she is not able to accomplish any role other than that 

of housewife, whlle Rosamund, who steers towards a more 

personalised motherrng, is able to successfully reconcile 

motherhood and career Desplte thelr contradictory 

movement, the cwc texts concur at one point in their call 

for a redefinition of motherhood Whlle Lesslng stops at 

portraylnq her protaqonrst's dissatisfaction with her 

'femlnine' roie and the inltiatlon of her awareness about 

lt, Drabble moves a step further by evolvlng a new kind of 

motherhood In whlch the male 1s eschewed 

3.10.1. Walker. Lesslng, Drabble, Laurence and Deshpande 

problematlze the lnstltution of motherhood Walker's new 

nother re]ec:s lt outrlght whlle the others question or 

lqnore some of lts demands While Lesslnq. Lacrence and 

Deshpande tread safe grounds by endlnq thelr novels on an 

amb~guous note, Walker's treatment 1s more revolutionary - 

she takes her protagonist from an insulated to a highly 

volatile zone whlch contains endless posslbilitles for her 

herolne 

The movement in Walker is linear - from the

142 

femlnlne to the feminist, whereas in Deshpande, Lessing and 

Laurence, it is circular - Saru, Kate and Morag oscillate 

between the two poles. Deshpande, Lesslng and Laurence take 

their protagonists to the brink of femlnlst motherhood, 

offerrng a glimpse of the emerglng new mother while Walker 

unhesitatingly leaps into this challenging arena. The 

personal/domestic battle and the internally felt urge ln 

Sam, Kate and Morag, expands into a racial, social and 

ideological battle in Walker's mother

TECHNOLOGIC& MOTEERBOOD 

It was part of women's long revolution. When we 

were breaklng all the old hierarchies Finally 

there was that one thlng we had to give up too, 

the only power we ever had, In return for no more 

power for anyone. The original production. the 

power to glve blrth Cause as long as we were 

biologically enchained, we'd never be equal. And 

males never would be humanized to be lovlng and 

tender So we all became mothers Every chlld 

has three To break the nuclear bondlng (WET 98) 

4.1.0. From the prevlous chapter, it 1s dlscernable that 

advocates of femlnlst motherhood call for the destrucrlon of 

the soclal/cultural construct of motherhood - they do not 

want women to rellnqulsh mothering, but deslre to convert ~t 

to a more pleasurable experience by destroying lmposltlons 

:aid on motherhood by the lnstltutlon. 

Another group of 

fe~nlnlsts move a step further, urglng a shlft from 

alologlcal to technologlcal motherhood wlth a promlse that 

:i would loosen men's control over women's bodles Vlewlng 

reproduction as the root cause of women's oppression, 

supporters of technologlcal motherhood assert that women are 

bound by blologrcal roles desplte the educational, legal and 

polltlcal equallty they had achieved. 

Of all differences 

between men and women, the most immutable appears to be 

Women's reproductlve capacities; lt is this mammalian 

responsiblllty that condemns women to a shackled existence.

144 

Seeing childbearing as a barrler to self-fulfilment rather 

than as a vehicle for it, advocates of reproductive 

technology urge women to relinquish their reproductive 

functions and take recourse to artificial techniques of 

reproduction. The ongoing debate between biological and 

technological motherhood has resulted in varlous theoretical 

and fictional works contemplating the feasibility of 

artificial techniques of reprod'~ct1on. Thls chapter studies 

the ideological treatment of technological motherhood 

promoted by Hi-tech reproductive strategies and its relation 

to feminine/femlnlst motherhood in three utopias/dystopias, 

namely, CharloLte Perklns Gllnan's Herland. Marge Plercy's 

Woman On The Edge of Time and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. 

Gilman's utop~a excludes men from the process of 

reproduction by attributing to its women inhabitants a 

vlrgin - blrth capacity, or the power of parthenogenetic 

-.eproductzon. Piercy's utopia, Mattapoisett, views 

technological reproduction as the means of liberating women 

and along wlth 1t elimlnating sexlsm, racism and classlsm 

Atwood, on the ccntrary, staunchly denounces reproductive 

technology in her dystopla, Gilead, underscoring that such 

technologies will only enslave women further. Herland and 

Women On The Edge of Time attempt to make 'unnatural' means 

of reproduction sound plausible, viewing them in a posltive 

light, whereas The Handamid's Tale 1s a strong critlque of 

these techniques.

145 

4.1.1. This brlngs us to the question: Does women's 

liberation require a biological revolution? Should women 

give up their reproductlve roles and opt for reproductive 

techniques such as Invitro Fertilization (IVF), Artificial 

Insemlnatlon by Donor (AID) and Embryo Transfer (ET)? Or 

should they retain their reproductlve powers in order to 

galn the actual experience of mothering, at the same time 

ensuring that it is not tainted by the politlcs of the 

patrlarchial institution of motherhood? While supporters of 

technologlcal motherhood exhort women to forsake thelr 

reproductive role in favour of technologlcal reproduction, 

advocates of blologlcal motherhood affirm that no woman 

should deprlve herself of the satisfaction that comes from 

bearlng and rearlng a chlld. They clam that lt is not 

female blology as such that oppresses women, but male 

control of their biology which could be further consolidated 

by the developmect of technologlcal reproductlon. 

4.2.0. What 'hen, 1s technological motherhood' How far 

1s 1t practically feasible? How 1s this concept recelved by 

women and men in the world? what are lts advantages and 

drsadvantages? Can it be preferred to blologlcal 

reproductlon? Before delving into the pros and cons of 

these Issues, it would be worthwhile to discuss in what 

manner these reproduction-aiding techniques function.

146 

4.2.1. Artificial Insemination by Donor (AID) is one of 

the commonly used means of artificial reproduction. It 

slmply involves the fertilization of an egg by means other 

than sexual intercourse. Some feminists favour unregulated 

AID because it allows women a measure of control over 

reproduction and it threatens male authority. But 

unregulated AID also exposes women and the children they 

bear to posslble infection from AIDS or venereal disease and 

fails to protect inseminated women from unwanted future 

intmslons and possible custody disputes wlth their sperm 

donors (Donchin 1989.137). Artificial insemination by Conor 

has other shortcomings too. This remedy does not meet the 

case lf the prospective mother's reproductive equipmerr is 

not functlonlng properly or if her general state of health 

is so poor as to make childbearing an even more r:sky 

b,lsiness than it 1s ordinarily (Nelson 1989.86). 

4.2.2. In vltro fertilization (IVF) involves the 

fertllization of an egg outside the womb and lts subsecJent 

lmplantatlon in a woman's womb. The procedure begins rlth 

the removal of one or more eggs from a woman. Often. the 

woman's ovaries are induced to 'super ovulate' througr. the 

use of drugs The removal is a painful, costly and lergthy 

process, usually involving full anaesthesia. The eggs are 

then fertilized in a petri dish with the semen. Once the 

embryo is found to be nondefective, it is implanted In a

147 

womb, sometimes after it has been frozen and stored for a 

while (Eichler 1988:281). 

The procedure makes it possible 

to separate the female genetic and gestational contributions 

--- an egg may be removed from a woman, fertrlized, and re- 

implanted in her, or, the fertilized egg may be implanted 

into another woman who will carry it to term, thus becoming 

its uterine mother, but without being genetically related to 

the child. The latter case is an instance of egg donatron, 

foetal adoption, or intrauterine adoption. 

4.2.2.1. Although IVF was originally developed to bypass 

the blocked or mrssing fallopian tubes of infertile women, 

it is now also the treatment of chorce rn cases of male 

infertility due to low sperm count, poor sperm motility, or 

badly shaped sperm. 

Judith Lorber in her paper "Choice, 

Gift, or Patriarchal Bargain? Women's consent to In Vitro 

Fertilrzation in Male Infertility" explores the reasons why 

women who are themselves fertile might consent to undergo 

IVF wlth an infertrle male partner. The reasons given are: 

deslre to have that particular man's child, or altruism, 

givlng a gift to the partner. Lorber contends that while a 

fertile woman undergoing IVF to try to have a baby with an 

infertile man may be exchanging a gift of love or expressing 

love, it is more likely that she is making a patriarchal 

bargain - trying to maintain a relationship and have a child 

within the constraints of monogamy, the nuclear family

148 1 

LA' 

structure and the valorization of biological parenthood, 

especially for men. Even the gloss of love and altruism may 

be part of the bargain (Lorber 1989.32-331. 

4.2.3. Apart from IVF, AID and ET, research for 

ectogenesis or in vitro gestation (IVG) is belng carried 

out IVG refers to the creation of an artificial womb If 

ectogenesis is to be accompl~shed, replacements must be 

found for the serles of biochemical processes performed by 

women's bodies in pregnancy: egg maturation, fertllizatlon, 

lmplantatlan and embryo maintenance, temperature control, 

waste removal and transport of blood, nourishment, oxygen to 

the embryo (Murphy 1989 :681 . 

4.2.3.1. A question central to ectogenetlc research 1s 

Wlst women reproduce' 

Or should they be liberated from the 

responsibility of child-bearing? Desp~te liberation in 

other areas, does the burden of chlld-bearlng shackle women 

to their anatomy7 Do foetuses belong in women's bodies7 

, 

4.2.3.2. Exlst~ng reproductive technologies, for example. 

embryo transfer, rndicate the possibility of creatlng an 

arcificlal womb. 

Embryo transfer makes it clear that a 

foetus need not be implanted in the uterus of its genetic 

mother in order to thrive. Also, research techniques for 

sustarning pregnancies in brain-dead women have resulted in 

a few live births showing that foetuses can survlve in the

149 

bodies of brain-dead pregnant women if there is proper 

temperature regulation, intubation and ventilation and all 

vital organs remian unharmed (Murphy 1989:69). 

4.2.3.3. A woman may desire ectogenesis because she is 

unable to malntain a pregnancy or may have had a 

hysterectomy. Her medical history mlght lndicate that she 

would have a hlgh risk pregnancy, or that her health might 

be impalred because of having endured pregnancy Other 

reasons involve the effect that pregnancy can have on 

women's soclal or professional lives. A woman may flnd 

ectogenesis desirable because she is a smoker, drug user or 

casual drinker and does not wlsh to alter her behaviour or 

place her foetus at risk. Pregnancy might make a wcman 

lnellglble for career opportunities leg athletlcs, danc-ng, 

modelling, acting) . A woman may be in good health and 

fertile but may not want the emotional and physlcal stress 

of pregnancy, and therefore would seek an alternative In 

ectogenesls. 

4.2.3.4. There are three assumptions that are fundarner-tal 

to support for ectogenesis. that IVG would not harm foetal 

development, IVG privileges a genetically related child over 

an adopted child, either for ego-centered reasons or because 

Of the shortage of children for adoption; IVG would not 

contribute to the further oppression of women. While all

150 

supporters of IVG might share the first assumption, along 

with one or two positions in the second assumption, lt would 

be feminists who would be concerned with the third 

assumption. 

4.2.3.5. Hence IVG would enable some infertile women to do 

something they would otherwise not be able to do. reproduce 

rt would also enable fertile women to have genetic offspring 

without the risk of pregnancy IVG would thus expand our 

reproductive optlons But women who value the experience of 

pregnancy and see ~t as offering a deeply satisfying and 

unique connection to new llfe would still choose pregnancy 

Women who see pregnancy as elther life-threatening or sunply 

undesirable might feel bodily control expanded by the option 

of IVC 

4.2.4. Surrogate or contracted mocherhood 1s an 

arrangement where a third party 1s hired and required by 

contract to bear a child to be reared by someone else The 

birth mother (the woman whose pregnancy has been contracted 

for) is either the full blologlcal mother of the chlld (that 

is, both the genetlc and gestational mother1 Or the 

gestational but not the genetic mother of the child. A 

surrogate mother is therefore a woman who is hired to bear a 

chrld whom she turns over at birth to her employer.

151 

4.2.4.1. Surrogate motherhood has brought with it various 

conflicts, tensions and controversies. Marxist feminists 

argue that most contracted mothers, like most prostitutes, 

are much poorer than their clients. Unable to get a decent 

lob, a woman is driven to sell the only thing she has that 

seems to have any value her body. To say that a woman 

"chooses" to do this, says the Marxlst femlnlst, is to say 

thac when a person is forced to choose between being poor 

and being exploited, she may choose being exploited as the 

lesser of the two evils (Tong 1989:90). The strongest 

objection that some radical feminists lodge against 

surrogate motherhood is that lt creates divisions among 

women ---- between economically privileged and economically 

dlsadvantaged women and also between childbegetters. 

childbearers and childrearers According to Gena Corea, the 

process of reproduction 1s being segmented and specialized 

as lf ~t were a mode of production. In the future, no woman 

wlll beget, bear and rear a child. Rather genetlcally 

superlor women will beget embryos in vitro; strong-bodled 

women will bear the test-tube babies to term, and sweettempered 

women wlll rear these newborns from infancy to 

adulthood (cited in Tong 1989:92). 

4.2.5. The three texts have expllcit or implicit 

references to reproductive technology. Herland anticipates 

a technique of reproduction not yet reported as successful

152 

--- cloning ---- "reproduction of a human from one human 

only' (Eichler 1988:283). 

Parthenogenetic reproduction, 

that is, reproduction of offspring without sexual union, 1s 

Gilman's SOl~tlOn for Women's liberation. Gllman believed 

that sex was necessary only for procreation; if 

parthenogenesis was ensuring survival of the specles, then 

no Sexual activity was needed. 

Basing her thesis on 

Lamarckian theory, that is, on the natural tendency of any 

functlon to lncrease in power by use, and on the genetlc 

transmission of these adaptations, Gilman evolves the 

maternal history of Herland 

She grounds "her polemlc m 

biology, leadlng her to portray cultural conditioning as 

genetic determinism" (Peyser 1992 3 ) 

At the same t;me, 

parthenogenesis also "functions symbolically . to 

represent the creativity and autonomy of women, mother- 

daughter reclproclty, and the interplay of nature and human 

nature 

At the same tlme lt releases women from the female 

Oedipus complex" iGubar 1989 196) 

By attrlbutlng such a 

virgln-blrth capaclty to the women of Herland and eschewing 

men from both the biological and social axes of parenthood. 

Gilman creates a female utopla, free from the dictates of 

patriarchal culture. 

She declutches motherhood from male 

Culture and places it in a female culture. 

4.2.6. Piercy's >brooder' solution in Wornan On The Edge 

of Time has its scientific backing in ectogenesis or in

153 

vitro gestation (IVG) which involves the creation of an 

artificial womb in which the embryo is brought to term 

Mattapoisett, therefore, Piercy foresees an ideal land where 

women are no longer burdened with begetting, bearing or 

rearlng chlldren single-handed 

In 

What makes this liberation 

from reproductive roles possrble is technological 

reproduction and the socretal set-up which favours 

collective mothering 

Babies in Mattapoisett are born from 

the 'brooder' - a place where the genetic materlal 1s stored 

and from which the embryos grow. 

Also, the system of 

rearlng a child with the help of "co-mothers" and "kld- 

b~nders", which include men, reiterates that chlld rearm9 

1s not the sole responslblllty of women alone 

4.2.7. Gllead. Atwood's dystopia, which stands in stark 

contrast to Piercy's utopla, envisions what the drastic 

effects of a biological revolution may be. Her novel is a 

crltique of the uLopia desired by those enthusiastic about 

reproductive technologles, particularly surrogate 

motherhood. What one sees in her dystopia, Gllead, is wcmen 

reduced to their reproductive functions. 

Atwood condemns 

the segmented and specialized process of reproduction whlch 

seems more like a mode of production. 

Her thinking is in 

llne wlth that of Louise Vandelac who opines that Surrogate 

motherhood reduces maternity to mere gestation, assimilating 

the mother with her uterus, thus transforming a highly

154 

social, symbolic and cultural activity into a simple 

instrumental function. Vandelac views women who rent their 

uterus as nothing more than "walking incubators" (cited in 

McLaren 1988:257). 

4.2.7.1. By means of allegory, Atwood satirises surrogate 

motherhood and the segmentation of reproductive functions of 

women - into child begetting, childbearing and childrearing 

- it entails. Corresponding to these divisions, in the 

Republlc of Gilead, one flnds the Marthas or domestics. the 

Wives, or social secretaries and functionaries, the Jezebels 

or sex prostitutes, and the Handmaids, or reproductive 

prostitutes - that is, women reduced to thelr respective 

roles. The narrator. Offred (who derlves her name from the 

Commander, Fred), is a Handmaid recruited for "breeding 

purposes". Alloted to the aging Commander, she 1s supposed 

to act as a surrogate mother and bear hlm a child with the 

collusion of his barren wife If the Handmaid does not 

succeed by the end of her two year posting, she is declared 

an 'unwoman' and shlpped off to the colonies Male 

infertility, however, is unthinkable in Gilead. "There are 

Only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that's 

the law" (HT.61) 

4.3.0. A vital question that the three texts raise is: 

Is reproduction through sexual intercourse essential? 

Is

155 

pregnancy necessary? Do foetuses belong to women's bodies? 

To what extent are women obliged to be child-bearers? Would 

other alternatives undermine the role of women ln soclety 

and impede their struggle for liberation or would 

reproductive technology be regarded as a means of liberation 

from reproductive roles instead? 

4.3.1. While Plercy creates an artificial 'brooder' to 

enable women to break free from the shackles of thelr 

biology, Gilman evolves a natural way out through the 

process of parthenogenesis An important difference between 

Plercy and Gllman to be noted here 1s that Gilman does not 

oppose biological reproduction as much as she does man's 

control of woman's blology. Her thinklng antlclpates that 

sf Adrlenne Rich who asserts that, if women take control of 

childbearing and childrearlng, more mothers can experience 

biological motherhood on their own terms. Gilman literally 

bestows the power in the mothers of Herland to bear and rear 

their children wlth feminist values This she does by 

electing men from her utopia and attributing to the women 

the power to reproduce parthenogenetically 

4.3.1.1. Though parthenogenesis functions symbolically in 

Herland, Gilman does not fail to ground it in science and 

history and thus make it appear plausible. Zara, one of the 

matrons of Herland, recounts to the three men, the history

156 

of their uniqae capacity for parthenogenetic reproduction, 

and the evolution of the 'Motherhood' of Herland, bringlng 

out the differences "between us, who are only mothers, and 

you, who are mothers and fathers too" (H:471. According to 

their hlstory, all their men were killed in a series of 

wars, leaving behind only a few matrons. A few babies were 

born after the cataclysm - but only two boys, and they both 

dled. For around ten years, the women worked together, 

growing more and more mutually attached, and finally the 

miracle happened - one of the young women bore a child At 

first, they thought there must be a man somewhere, but none 

,was found. They then decrded it must be a direct glft from 

the gods, and placed the proud mother In the temple of Moaia 

- their Goddess of Motherhood - under strict watch. As the 

years passed, this wonder-woman bore flve children - all 

airls 

Here at last was Motherhood, and though it was not 

for all of them personally, lt might - if the 

power was inherited - found here a new race 

(H.561. 

These flve girls, when they grew up, bore five daughters 

each Presently there were twenty-flve New Women, Mothers 

in their own right, and the whole spirit of the country 

changed from mourr.lng and mere courageous reslgnatlon to 

Proud joy. To the Herlanders, the longed-for motherhood was 

not only a personal joy, but a natlon's hope. Slnce the

157 

prosperity of then children depended on it, the fullest and 

subtlest coordination began to be practiced. The loss of 

everything masculine thus led to the development of the 

virgin-birth capacity. 

4.3.2. Piercy however retains male contribution to the 

reproductive process, but in her utopla women are freed from 

the burden of bearing children due to the employment of 

advanced reproductive techniques. However, anticipating 

adverse reactlon from those sceptlcal of as dellcate and 

sensitive an issue as technological reproduction, Plercy 

delrberately depicts her protagonist as one initially 

sceptlcal of reproductive technoloqy At flrst, Connle 

feels that the brooder reduces a mother to a machine, and 

asks "Were you all born from thls crazy machine" (WET.961 

Repulsed by the embryos floatlng in the brooder, Connle does 

not want to even look at the young bables To her, the 

brooder-born babies are less than human. "the bland bottleborn 

monsters of the future, born wlthout paln, multicolored 

llke a litter of puppies, without the stigmata of race and 

Sex" iWET:99). 

4.3.2.1. Connie's initlal reaction IS, no doubt, propelled 

by her conventional notions of motherhood. She feels that 

one has to be a biological mother, bear her child in paln, 

to fully understand the experience of being a mother,

How could anyone know what being a mother means 

who has never carried a child nine months heavy 

under her heart, who has never borne a baby in 

blood and paln, who has never suckled a child, who 

got that chlld out of a machine the way that 

couple, white and rich, got my flesh and blood. 

All made up already, a canned chlld, just add 

money What do they know of motherhood? (WET.99) 

To Connie tlll then, only a genetlc bond is capable of 

sustaining an Ideal parent-chlld relationship 

4.3.2.2. Connle's inltlal scepticism regarding reproductive 

technology vanlshes as she beglns to compare the merlts of 

artlflclal reproductlon with the llmltatlons of natural, 

biological reproduction 

Technological reproductlon In 

Mattapolsett prevents motherlng from belng a llfe-tlrne lob, 

therefore not demanding too m~ch of a person's tlme and 

energy 

Further, motherhood 1s not a compulsron only those 

w~th an aptltude for ~ t those , confident of motherlng well, 

take rt up 

The people of Mattapolsett, moreover, rear a 

c?-ild upto a certaln phase and leave her/hlm free after the 

'end-of-mothering" stage (WET 107) as they belleve that a 

chlld sometlmes has to do wlthout mothers 

As opposed to 

blologlcal parenthood, technologlcal reproductlon ensures 

that the responslblllty of bearrng and rearlng a chlld does 

not fall on the mother alone 

4.3.3. TO Atwood, on the other hand, technologlcal 

alternatives obstruct women's ernanclpation as they further

159 

strengthen male control over female biology. She regards 

surrogate motherhood as degrading and demeaning women's 

status ln society The divislon of female functions results 

in rlpping the Identity of women into fragments ~twood 1s 

caustlc towards the entire business of reproduction in 

Gllead The Commander, who feels that he 1s dolng women a 

great favour by letting them "fulfil therr bloloqical 

destlnies In peace" (HT 2191, stands for male-controlled 

reproductlve technology, responsible for reduclng women ts 

thelr reproductlve roles By givlng blrth, the women have 

to repay ttelr food and keep, "like a queer. ant wlth eggs" 

(HT 135) Of the Commander, Offred sarcastlcally remarks 

"When the Lord said be fruitful and multlgly, dld he mean 

thls man'" (HT 218) The Handmaids In Gllead are lust 

reproductrve prostitutes, what reproductlve Eechnology 

3-uphemistically terns surrogate mothers, valued only for 

their vlable ovarles, and exploited by the economically 

prlvlleged 

4.3.3.1. In a deliberately lronlcal vein, The Handmaid's 

Tale reverberates wlth Blbllcal echoes The Gileadean 

reglme legltlmlzes and enforces surrogate motherhood as 1t 

was considered to have Biblical precedents The Gileadean 

system of reproduction operates with Blbllcal sanction as 

Slmultanaeous polygamy was practiced in early Old Testament

times 

Atwood herself alludes to it in the epigraph to the 

novel in her reference to Jacob and Rachel: 

And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no 

chlldren, Rachel envied her sister, and said unto 

Jacob, give me chlldren, or else I dle 

And Jacob's anger was klndled against Rachel, and 

he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld 

from thee the fruit of the womb' 

And she said, Behold my mald Bilhah, go In unto 

her, and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may 

also have children by her 

- Genesis, 30 1-3 

The Glleadean Commanders, who regard themselves as latter- 

cay Jacobs, use their handmaids In a slnllar way 

Further, 

The Handmaid's Tale rs an aztack directed at the Roman 

Cathollc Church laws agalnst abort~on and contraceptlon 

Gileadean ideology prohlblts birth control and abortlon 

under any c~rcumstances as "unnatural" and obliges the 

handrnalds to submrt to "natural" chlldblrth without 

medlcatlon 

4.4.0. By giving up thelr powers of reproductlon, do 

women glve up thelr only power' 

reproductive roles lead to self-denlal? 

Does the rellnqulshlng of 

relat~onshlp necessary between parent and chlld? 

essentlal that a child be 'of woman born'? 

Is a biological 

Is It 

Supporters of 

biological motherhood lnsist that no woman should, In an act 

Of unreflective defiance agalnst patriarchy, deprive herself 

Of the satisfaction that comes from bearlng and rearlng a

161 

chlld, while advocates of technological motherhood believe 

that the roots of women's oppression are biological, and 

hence women's liberation requires a biological revolution. 

A discussion of this issue by feminist theorists would 

provlde the necessary background before studying its 

flctlonallsation by Gllman, Piercy and Atwood. 

4.4.1. Critics of technological reproductlon argue that 

women's oppresslon 1s not caused by female biology in and of 

~tself, but rather by man's control of that bloloqy - a 

control that could become total depending on how 

reproductive technology is developed Mary O'Brien asserts 

that if a woman 1s to free herself from man's control, she 

has to understand that the source of her oppresslon is also 

t3.e source of her liberation Despite the fact that the 

process of reproductlon has been a bitter trap for women. it 

also contalns for her untapped possibilities and freedom 

(Tong 1989 78) O'Brlen analyses reproductlon through the 

lens of male alienation from reproductlon. Man's allenation 

from reproduction, and from children, she says, rests on 

three factors First, the spatial and temporal continuity 

between the ovum and the resulting chlld is unbroken, taklng 

place inslde the woman's body, whereas the Spatial and 

temporal continuity between the sperm and the resulting 

child is broken, taklng place outside the man's body 

Second, women, not men, perform the fundamental labour of

162 

reproduction - pregnancy and birth. Third, a woman's 

connection to a particular child 1s certain but a man is 

never absolutely sure, even at the moment of birth, whether 

the child 1s genetically related to him. Because men are 

aware that then parental status is precarious, O'Brien 

stated, that they reason that to own women's reproductlve 

labour power is also to own the product of that labour 

power Thus, men seek to control women's children For 

thls reason, Insisted O'Brlen, women should be wary of 

reproductlve technoloqles because they are s~mply ways for 

men to get something - that is, a child - for nothlng 

4.4.1.1. Adrlenne Rich too favoured blologlcal motherhood, 

s'rongly assertlnq that women should not give up thelr 

reproductlve powers. Llke O'Brlen, Rlch belleved that men 

are lealous and fearful of women's reproductive powers The 

iealously stems from men's reallzatlon that woman has a 

unlque power to create llfe Hence, in order that 

patrrarchy survives, men tried to restrlct the power of the 

mother As soon as they were able to devise the means, men 

took 'birthing' over from women Male obstetrlclans 

replaced female mldwzves and hands of iron (obstetrical 

forceps) replaced hands of flesh (femaie hands sensitlve to 

female anatomy) Men even dlctated to women how to feel 

during the process of childbirth, when to feel pain and when 

to feel pleasure. But, said Rlch, these rules frequently

clash with a woman's llved experlence, and when this 

happens, a woman does not know whether to trust the 

authority of the doctors or the sensations of her own body 

~hls klnd of experlence can transform pregnancy into a 

profoundly alienating experlence 

the antlcipatlon of labour has been associated 

wlth fear, physlcal angulsh or death, a stream of 

superstitions, misinformation, theological and 

medical theories - in short, all we have been 

taught we should feel, from wlllrng vlctlmlzation 

to ecstatic fulfilment (Rlch 1976,1561 

Further, Rrch opined that lf blological motherhood can 

become a real choice (as distinct from belng forclbly 

prescribed or rendered obsolete), then the concept of woman 

as womb, and of blological destlny becomes harder to defend 

In a patrlarchal soclety, Rich sald, the solutlon to the 

palns of chlldbearlng is not technology, but rather for a 

woman to rlde with, not agalnst her body 

The solutlon to 

the lmposltlons on childrearlng In a patrlarchal society 1s 

not the renunciation of children. the solutlon is for each 

and every woman to rear those chlldrer. with femlnrst values 

4.4.Z.2. Some of Rlch's ideas have been developed by 

several radlcal fernlnists lncludlng Andrea Dworkin, Margaret 

Atwood, Gena Corea and Robyn Rowland, all of whom belleve 

that reproductive technology poses an enormous threat to 

whatever powers women still possess. As Andrea Dworkln saw 

it, reproductive techniques make the womb the province not

164 

of women, but Of men, used to create a society in which 

women are not persons but mere functions domestics, sex 

prostitutes, and reproductlve prostitutes Dworkln's 

analysls is ~nspired by Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale Gena 

Corea is also suspicious of what the new reproductlve 

technologles and thelr concomitant soclal arrangements 

promlse women. Robyn Rowland urges Infertile women to 

forego the use of these technologies for the sake of "women 

as a soclal group" because she feels that the new 

technologles only serve the Interests of "technopatrlarchs" 

[Donchin 1989.138) and do not glve the malority of women 

control over thelr llves 

4.4.2. Ann Oakley and Shulamith Flrestone, on the other 

hand, urge women to dlscard biologlcai reproduction As 

Oakley saw it, bxologlcal motherhood 1s not a natural 

condition According to her, motherhood 1s a myth based on 

the threefold bellef that "all women need to be mothers, all 

mcthers need thelr chlldren, all chlldren need thelr 

mothers'' (Oakley 1974 186). As far as Oakley was coccerned, 

the need to mother owes nothlng to women's possession of 

ovaries and wombs and everything to the way in whlch women 

are socially and culturally condltloned to be mothers 

Mothers are not born, but made. 

4.4.2.1. Firestone suggested that the desire to bear and 

rear children is less the result of an authentic liklng for

165 

children and more a displacement of ego-extension needs. 

people do not need to be biological parents in order to lead 

child-centered lives, said Flrestone 

Now that technology 

promised to liberate the human species from the burdens of 

reproductive responsibility, Flrestone predicted that women 

will no longer want to bear children In pain and travail or 

rear chlldren endlessly and sacrlficlally 

As she saw it, 

blologlcal reproduction is neither In women's best interests 

ncr in those of the children so produced. The joy of giving 

blrrh - 

patrlarchal myth 

invoked so frequently in thls soclety - is a 

In fact, Flrestone comments, pregnancy is 

"barbaric" and natural chllclbirth is "at best necessary and 

tolerable", at worst "like shitt2ng a pumpkln" (Tong 

1989 76) 

4.4.3. In Piercy's novel, Connie ar first feels indignant 

that a woman shoul5 give up her powers of reproductlon, her 

means of self-fulfilment, by relinqulshlng the only power 

she has 

how dare any woman share that pleasure These 

women thought they had won, but they had abacdoned 

to men the last refuge of women. What was speclal 

about belng a woman here? They had given 1t all 

up, they had let men steal from them the last 

remnants of ancient power, those sealed in blood 

and mllk (WET 126) 

Luclente however attempts to allay her doubts: "You thlnk 

because we do not bear llve, we cannot love our chrldren

166 

gut we do, wlth whole hearts" lWET.125), thus asserting that 

blological reproduction is not the preconditlon for maternal 

1 me 

4.4.3.1. Through Connie's ultimate realization, Piercy 

stresses that a blological relationship is not essential to 

good parenting In her utopia, because no one has her/his 

own genetlc child, chlldren are not their parents, 

possessions to be brought up In thelr parents' image and 

reared according to then idiosyncratic values Connle 

eventually agrees that technologlcal reproductlon 1s 

superlor to blological reproduction In that the klnd of 

mother1r.g that flows from rt is truly nurturing and 

unselfish, totally separated from ambivalent feellngs of 

resentment and gullt, and always freely chosen 

4.4.4. Whlle Plercy wishes to underline that 

technologlcal reproduction wlll obliterate the equatior. of a 

woman zo her womb, Atwood refutes thrs assertion In The 

Handmaid's Tale, Offred realizes that Gllead echoes the 

anclent Greek concept that a woman 1s her womb The only 

value that women hold here is by vlrtue of thelr belng 

vessels to carry the embryos Thls sense of frustration at 

belng only gestational mothers, mere reproductive machines, 

makes her comment "We are containers, it's only the lnsides 

of our bodles that are important" iHT.96) Atwood agrees

167 

w~th Adrienne Rich's stance that if women took control of 

chlld-bearing and child-rearing, more women would be able to 

experience biological motherhood on their own terms 

~twood, llke Rlch, does not want women to renounce their 

b~ologlcal functions in the name of ‘liberation'. 

Female 

b~ology, for her, therefore is not a llmitlng factor, on the 

contrary it is a source of expanding women's potential 

4.4.4.1. Further, Rlch's belle£ that if blologlcal 

motherhood can become a real cholce, then the concept of 

woman as womb and of blologrcal destlny wlll lose currency, 

1s reflected in Atwood's novel 

Here, she explores the 

questLon Is a woman's anatomy her destiny? and concludes 

that whxle reproductive technology claims to ellmlnate th~s 

equation, in reallty it only shackles women to thelr 

anatcmy 

The Glleadean women, as a result of thelr 

segmented reproductive functions, feel alienated from thelr 

badlss Offred, sublected to sexual exploltatlon 

nasqueradlng as rellglous fervour, experlences herself as 

utterly subcrdinated to the pracreatlve functlon 

In her 

former llfe, she had regarded her body as under her control 

- -. with "limlts but nevertheless llthe, slngle, solld, 

one wlth meN, but under her drastrcally changed 

circumstances, experlences her body as separate from herself 

and not withln her control 

She avolds looking at her body 

because it "determines [her] so completely" (HT.63). Her

168 

alienatlon from her reproductive organs is clearly reflected 

rn the lines. "Now the flesh arranges itself differently I 

am a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of 

a pear, which 1s hard and more real than I am" (~~.73-74) 

In Gllead, t3e female body 1s not only used as a tool for 

reproduction, but bodles in general are ob3ectlfled and 

described in terns of parts rather than as wholes Offred 

and the handmaids are. to those in power In Gllead, merely 

parts of bodles: "two-legged wombs" The doctor who 

examlnes them periodically for slgns of pregnancy does not 

see their faces, he deals with a torso only 

4.5.0. Both In Grlman's Herland and Plercy's Woman On The 

Edge of Tame, motherhood becomes a collective responsrblllty 

rather than a personal affair In Gllman, thls rs 

attrlbutable to the absence of the male factor rn 

raproductxon, and in Piercy, technologrcal reproduction 

removes the burden not only of child-bearzng but also that 

of chlld-rearlng from women, thus fostering a shared 

responslblllty of both women and men in brlnglng up 

ctlldren Both the authors percelve communal motherhood 

both practically and rdeologlcally: practically rn that lt 

removed some of the dlfflcultles that a prlvatised famlly 

llfe posed - there were more people available to provide 

Support and asslst with childcare, ideologically lt 

elxminated the family as the site of women's oppression,

169 

allowing women to place themselves outside family 

households The mothering and education of the children, 

carried out by trained specialists, is crucial to the 

creation of a new people wlth a new consciousness in the two 

4.5.1. While outside Herland, the mother 1s totally 

absorbed in her baby and takes no more than theoretical 

lnterest in other chlldren. the chlldren of Herland are of 

Interest to the entire natlon Gilman's statement, "Our 

chlldren are largely benefited by the publlc, and would be 

much more so lf the domestic concept dld not act too 

strongly in llmltlng mother love to so narrow a fleld of 

action'! (clted ln Sapler 1972 llO), 1s enacted In Herland 

where motherhood is the basis of the sense of solldarlty and 

community as well as the ~mplled prlnclple of organlzatlon 

As one of the Herland mothers says 

We soon grow to see that mother-love has more than 

one channel of expression I thlnk the reason our 

chzldren are so so fully loved, by all of us, is 

that we never - any of us - have enough of our 

own we each have a mllllon chlldren to love 

and serve - cur chlldren (H 71) 

Collect~ve motherhood, therefore, lmplies a lack of 

compet:tlon / incentive. One of the mothers reacts wlth 

shock on learning about the competition motherhood outslde 

Herland involves. "Do you mean, for instance, that with you 

no mother would work for chlldren without the stimulus of

competltion7" lH:60). To Terry's question. "But does not 

each mother want her own child to bear her name7',. Moadine 

replies. ''No - Why should she? The child has its own" 

(H 75) The children of Herland do not even carry thelr 

mothers' names because surnames imply ownership The 

chlldren belong to themselves fxrst, and are the pride of 

ail of Herland - not lust thelr birth - mothers 

As In 

Plercy's novel, here too, motherhood does not entall 

possession of the chlld Here, as In many other Instances, 

we are led to percelve the difference between the purely 

maternal and paternal attitude of mlnd Because of 

collective motherhood, the element of personal pride seems 

lacklny In the Herlanders A mother ln Herland does not 

cllng ts her chlld, but entrusts her to a group of comothers 

who are fully equlpped to tram and educate her 

after the baby - year the mother was not so 

constantly In attendance, unless, Indeed, her work 

was among the young ones She was never far off, 

however, and her attltude toward the co-mothers, 

whose proud chlld - service was dlrect and 

continuous, was lsvely to see (H . 103) 

In a sentelce, motherhood for Gllman extends beyond care for 

'my chlld' to 'the child' As Ann J Lane succlntly puts lt, 

Gilman "transforms the private - world of mother - child, 

lsolated in the individual home, into a comrnunlty of mothers 

and children in a socialized world It is a world in which 

humane social values have been achleved by women ln the 

Interest of all" (Lane 1979 :xxiii)

171 

4.5.2 Mothering, In Mattapoisett, is extended to men 

also 

The men are not male parents, but co-mothers and kid- 

blnders, the concept of fatherhood is strangely lacking 

here Mothering therefore becomes a collective 

responsibility with each chlld havlng three co-mothers. 

T~XS naturally fliminates possessive parenthood/motherhood. 

enabling the kld - binders to cultivate a shared 

responslblllty of mothering, instead of concentrating the~r 

energles only on chlldren genetically related to them 

This 

congenial practlce of shared chlld-rearlng 1s agaln a dlrect 

outcome of technological motherhood 

As opposed to 

blologlcal reprocldctlon, here, shared parenclng leads to an 

andrownous outlook, thus brlnglng about an equality between 

the sexes, Instead of tiltlng the burdens of reproducing and 

rnotherxng on the woman alone 

4.5.3. Gilman and P~ercy's concept of collective 

motherhood conc'lrs wlth that of femlnlst theorists Germalne 

Greer, Jullet Mitchell and Betty Freldan - who inslst that 

b~olog~cal parents should be replaced by social parents 

Critlcal of the nuclear family because it engenders 

lsolatlan, frustration, and meaninglessness, they envlsage a 

soclety where a woman who has a child is not autsmatlcally 

commlcted to brlnging it up 

They insist that a new 

approach to child - rearing ought to be created where it is 

not lust the mother but also the father 

and SoClety as a

172 

whole that should involve Itself in thls responsibility. 

Adrienne Rich however expresses her cyniclsm towards 

collective rearlng 

According to her, mass chlldcare In 

patriarchy has had only two purposes, to introduce large 

number of women into the labour force or to indoctrinate 

future cltlzens. She stresses the fact tnat this system has 

never been conceived as a means of releasing the energles of 

women Into the mainstream of culture, or of changlng the 

stereotyplc gender - lmages of both women and men 

4.6.0. As opposed to blologlcal motherhood, where a woman 

1s expected :o 

has an Inc1:natlon 

bear and raise her child, whether or not she 

to do so, In Herland and Woman on The 

Edge of Time, motherhood becomes a speclallzed craft, 

antrzsted only to those wlth an aptlc-de for 1t 

when mozherhood is lmposed on all women tha: 

3urden 

It 1s only 

lt becomes a 

Wlth the firm n ew that all women are not cut out 

far maternal dutles, motherlng In these two utoplas 1s 

asslgned only to those sulted for it 

4.6.1. Whlle all women are valued fcr thelr child-bearlng 

capacltles lc Eerland, chlld-ra1slr.g and educatlon 1s 

+I..cF 

-~---ed to those best able to provlde lt 

educatlon of the children, carrled 

The motherlng and 

out by tralned 

Speclal-sts "who are not necessarily mothers but who are 

always women, 1s cruclal to the creation of a new people

173 

with a new consclousness" (Lane 1979:xlii). Chlldcare 1s 

shared by a variety of people, lncludrng the blologlcal 

mother 

Gllman always made lt clear that she lntended tc 

supplement the mother, not exclude her from chlld-rearlng 

Teaching, seen as a specialised craft, 1s the responsibility 

of the most competent of Herland, because, as Gllman saw lt 

Any nom.al woman can be a mother, as any normal 

man can be a father, but every woman cannot be a 

educator any more than every man can be a muslclan 

iclted In Ceplalr 1991 245) 

Thls arrangement prevents mothering from belng a twenty 

four hour lob, enabllng the mother to concentrate her energy 

on other work, at the same time leavlng her sat1s:led 

her chlld was recelvlng the flnest education 

thai 

In Thf 

Forerunner Years, Gllman agrees to the deep universal neec 

of the chlld for the mother and the mother for the chlld 

She denles however that thls need exlsts In one ,~nbroken 

unrelaxlng straln, every hour of the day and nlght 

The chlld does need the mother, the mother does 

need the ch~ld, but both are better off for 

certaln breaks ln thelr companlonshlp When the 

baby 1s asleep, when the chlldren are at sc>ool, 

when they are all In bed at nlght, then even the 

rotherllest mother can breathe a llttle more 

freely, and refresh her 

iclted in Ceplalr 1991 mind other 

242) 

4.6.2. Technological reproduction In Mattapolset' 

prevents mothering from being a llfe-time job, therefore no 

demanding too much of a person's tlme and energy 

Further

174 

motherhood is not a compulsion. only those with an aptltude 

for ~ t , those confident of mothering well, cake it up AS 

~uclente explains to Connle 

"If person dldn't want to 

mather and you were a baby, you might not be loved enough to 

grow up lovlng and strong 

cannot do" (WET 94) 

Person must not do what person 

The people of Mattapo~sett, moreover, 

rear a chlid upto a certain phase and leave her / hlm free 

after the "end-of-mothermg" stage (WET . 107) 

As opposed 

to blologlcal parenthood, tecbnoloqical reproductlon ensures 

that the responslblllty of bearlng and rearlng does not fall 

on the mother alone 

4.7.0. Atwood and Plercy argue convincingly and draw upon 

tle posltlve 

aspects of brological reproductlon and 

techn0;oglcal reproductlon respectively to prove thelr 

stance 

G~lman's posltlon however can be regarded as a vla 

rnedla between the two - her women retarn thelr powers of 

cl3laglcal reproductlon - but she redefines the very rneanlng 

cf motherhood by banlshlng men froa Herlacd and w-th xt 

heierosexuallty 

Plercy afflrms that through technological 

neans and laboratory-produced bables, women can break free 

from thelr reproductlve roles and render their stereotyped 

Images obsolete. Atwood, on the contrary, malntalns that. 

made-to-order bables and Hi-Tech reproductlve techniques 

wlll only culminate in newer siereotypes such as domestics, 

sex prostitutes and reproductive prostitutes 

Gllman

175 

subverts the existing stereotyped images of the mother, 

blending the so-called 'femlnine' and 'masculine' traits, 

thus reaching an androgynous vlsion 

In Herland, the women 

are physically aglle, rationally sound, capable of 

organlzatlon, independent and self-sufficient, the 'Land- 

Mother' is called 'Mera' - meaning thlnker 

By attrlbutlng 

the so-called 'masculine' tralts to the women of Herland, 

Gllman ellminates any false, artificial dlvlslon of 

femlnlnlty and mascullnlty, embracing lnstead a common set 

of human values 

In the novel, Vandyck, and to some exten: 

Zeff, learn from their experience rn Herland, they begln to 

understand that femlninlty 1s not a physiological 

characterisclc b u ~ an rdeological construct as is 

mascul~n~ty In P~ercy's Mattapolsett, the slmllarlty In 

appearance, career and style of functlon of both males and 

females, and the replacement of natural gesratlon and blrth 

by a number of mothers (~ncludlng males) for each chlld, 

wlth hormone In2ectlons for these male mothers so that they 

may suckle, reduces the barrlers between the sexes to the 

lowest posslble polnt. 

4.8.0. P11 alteration In famlly structures 1s the dlrect 

outcome of reproductive technology, the advent of whlch 

signifies a masslve change in heterosexual relationships 

With reproduction no more relylng on sexual intercourse, the 

relatlonshlp between the sexes undergoes a slgnificant

evision. 

176 

It is Interesting to view how human sexual and 

social behaviour is transformed by science 

Both Plercy and 

Gllman dlrect thelr attack on institutionalised sexual 

Intercourse, in which male and female each play a definite 

/ 

role, which, accord~ng to them, only reinforces the 

institution of motherhood. As Shulamith Firestone predicts, 

wher technology is able to perfect artiflclal ways of 

reproduction, the need for the biological family will 

disappear and wlth lt, the need to Impose genital 

heterosexuality as a means for ensurlng human reproduction. 

The two fem~nist utoplas re]ecc 

both the ownership of 

women's sexuallty and the~r reproductive capacities by men 

Plercy's novel, whlch 1s outspoken on sexuallty, deglcts 

both a dystopla and a utopia, the possessiveness of sexual 

relations xn the former 1s contrasted wlth the openness of 

the palrings between 'sweet frlends' ln the latter. Connle 

1s at flrst shocked at their openness which seems an 

unbearable l~cense, but later understands what thls means 

no more prostltztlon, no more explo~tation, no more unwanted 

children, no more unhappy women forced Into marrlage for the 

sake of social conformity Caustlc towards 

instltutionalised sexual intercourse, Gllman belleved that 

sex was necessary only for procreatlon, if parthenogenesis 

ensured the survrval of the specles, then no sexual activity 

was needed 

In Herland, the Herlanders are Tlte confounded

177 

when they learn from the men that outside Herland, people 

have sex wlthout regard to motherhood The status of women 

In Herland 1s an lnverslon of the contemporary the male is 

merely the sex and the female represents the whole world of 

actlon Jusc as in Herland, so in the Whlleawayan soclety of 

Joanne Russ's The Female Man, parthenogenesls 1s practised. 

rendering men superfluous to therr exrstence. Women have no 

need of men for emotional, flnanclal, or socral security, or 

even for sexual fulfilment. The men therefore frnd ~t 

dlfflmlt to establrsh relatlonshlps wrth the women In the 

absence of traditional sex roles In Woman on The Edge of 

Txme, Luclente states "Fasure we couple Not for money, 

not for a llvlng For love, for pleasure, for rellef, out 

of hablt, out of curloslty and lust" (WET 581 Gllman and 

Piercy str-ke common ground In eraslng the connection 

between sex and econornlcs, but whlle Gllman does so by 

ellmlnatxng sexuallty altogether, Plercy removes only the 

utllltarlan motives from sexuality maklng ~t a purely 

hedon1st;c act:vlty Gllman re~terates the fact that sex and 

economlcs go hand-ln-hand, she clalms that human belngs are 

the only specxes In whlch the female depends on the male for 

food, the only specles ln whlch the sex-relatlon 1s also an 

economlc relat;on. Treatrng sexuallty both as a cultural 

construct and de-emphasizing zt, she advocates economlc 

independence and a subllmatlon of the sex-lnstlnct Into a 

social lnstinct

178 

4.8.1. Elimination of the institution of heterosexuality 

also avoides the entrapment of women in the nuclear famlly 

structure In Herland and Woman on The Edge of Time, the 

erasure of female / male gender roles is most effective In 

the redeflnltion of the family In Piercy's novel 

llberatlon of women from role responsibility for childbearing 

and rearing means that they are able to contribute 

soclally In ways whlch sult thelr physlcal and intellectual 

capablllties, while the greater inclusion of men in thls 

responslblllty gives them much lncreased enotlonal awareness 

and freedom The chlldren too seem more independent and 

secure, freed of the complex psychological stresses of the 

nuclear farnlly Connle's assertLon that her daughter (who 

was forcibly taken away from her and senc for adoptlonl 

would grow up better In Mattapoisett "she wlll be strong 

there, well fed, well housed, well taught, she will grow up 

m,Jch better and stronger and smarter than I" (WET 133) 

amply illustrates Plercy's belle£ that the claustrophobia of 

the nuclear famlly would prove detrimental to a child's 

health The unsatlsfylng relat1onsh:p Connle has with her 

own mother, and the inadequacy she herself feels as a mother 

to her daughter Mgellna glven the circumstances of the 

present reality, set in stark contrast to the vltality and 

buoyancy the children of Mattapolsett experience, confirms 

this fact

179 

4.9.0. As Piercy's Wcrman on the Edge of Time proclams, 

reproductive technology has its far-reaching effects on the 

elimination of reclsm and classism along with sexlsm 

atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, whlch stands In direct 

oppositlon to Plercy's text glves exactly the opposlte 

verdlct --- here technologically - alded reproduction only 

reinforces the helrarchlcal set-up In Plercy's novel, the 

problems of survlval for Connle In her own sociery are not 

cnly a functlon of gender, but also that of race and class, 

Connie 1s treated as a crlmlnal because she 1s a woman, a 

Chicano, hence ncn-whrte and belonging to the working class 

In Mattapolsett however, the genetlc materials are so mlxed 

that no noelon of ownership exlsts between parent and chlld, 

resulclng In the elimlnatlon of raclsm, the people of 

Mattapolsett are "a mlxed bag of genes" (WET . 93' wlth "no 

chance of raclsm again" (WET 93) In The Handmaid's Tale, 

the opposrte holds true - surrogacy strengttens class 

dLfferences, motherhood becomes a purchaseable servlce 

afforded only by the elite, resulting 12 further 

exploltatlon of the underpr:v~leged The same car. be argued 

ln relatlon to ectogenesls or rnvltro gestatlon In a 

utopla llke that of Piercy, ectogenesls could ellmlnate 

class dlvlslons, but if lt 1s reallzed In the reallty of the 

present, ectogenesls, llke surrogate motherhood can 

reinforce class structures It could lead to the creation

180 

of a class system in reproduction wlth the rlch reproducing 

In ectogenetic laboratories while the poor continue to rely 

on women's bodies for pregnancy 

4.10.0. One of the maln reasons why women are conflned to 

the prli.ate, domestlc sphere of the home is due to thelr 

reproductlve role However, once women no longer have to 

reproduce, the maln reason for keeping them at home 

disappears Tt-e patriarchal dlvlslon of labour on the basls 

of sex 1s overhauled with the advent of reproductlve 

technology in Plercy's Woman on The Edge of Time In thls 

androgynous utopla, both women and men are equally involved 

In the worlds of nature and culture, and gender differences 

are dei~berately mlnlmised By exchanging traditional 

roies, ieavlng no d~stlnctlons of dress or degree of sexual 

actlvlty and lntroduclng ectogenetlc reproductron to remove 

the last differences between the sexes, Plercy reinforces 

her polnt that work need not be gender-structured once 

repraductlon takes place outslde the body 

4.11.0. A:vood and Plercy volce their stances clearly, but 

Gllman's concept of motherhood 1s replete wlth 

contradlct~ons The question that stlll remalns 1s Is 

Gllman's utopla yet another mystlque of motherhood' A 

closer look may reveal that Herland 1s a feminist 

apprapriation of femlnine motherhood. Instead of a

181 

patrlarchal culture, we see here a matriarchal lmposltion of 

'VlrtUeS' on motherhood 

Wlth motherhood belng imposed on 

the women as thelr Sole occupatlon and ~ t s elevation lnro a 

religious Cult, One wonders if Gllman 1s not agaln 

ucdermlnlng the Status of women 

By movlng mothers from the 

domestlc sp'?ere to the soclal sphere, Gllman attempts to 

move women from the marglns of androcentric culture to the 

eencer of a gynocentrlc socieFf, but in dolnq so, 1s she 

st111 successful in bringing out the reai experience of 

motherhood? By ralslng it into a c-lt, 1s she zot taklng 

motherhood further away from reality? 

4.12.0. The utoplan wrlters cons~dered here are more 

analytical than predlctlve In thelr representations, they 

examme the nat31re of contemporary gender ldeology along 

wlth 1ts effect on the family 

Thelr speculatlse flctlon 

uses both posltlve and negatrve Images of motnerhood to 

denouzce patrlarchal control of blrch 

Regardless of 

whether the 1nd1vld'~al writer chooses to portray negative or 

pos;tlve aspects cf pregnancy, eacn cholce emphasizes the 

need to alter patriarchy's penchant for transfomlng women 

lcto powerless birth machlnes 

4.13 .O. Ir. flne, reproduction - a~dlng techno;ogy, whlle 

considered by certain femlnlsts as a means of liberating 

women frsm thelr reproductive role, is, on the contrary,

182 

regarded by others as an instrument of manipulation of 

women's reproductive powers While feminists have been 

un~ted ln support of methods that enable women to control 

thelr fertlllty, there is still disagreement, as the above 

study shows, among them about new reproductlve techn~ques 

designed to treat lnfertlllty and induce pregnancy Desplte 

the vary-ng and conflicting stances adopted by feminlsts, 

the common vlew that emerges is that lf ever technology 1s 

applled for reproductlve purposes, lt should be nonexplaltatlve 

It is not the replacement of functions of 

women's bodles by technologlca: alternatives that should 

galn top prlorlty, but the development of non-exploxtatlve 

ways to treat ~nfertllity Safe and restorative technology 

that can enable wonen experience pregnancy and chlld birth 

1s what femlnlsts can support In a unlfled way

THE USTEETICS OF MOTHERHOOD 

. Women's relation to the symhollc is somewhat 

different from men's women's narrative will 

enact a somewhat different process 

- Joan Lldoff 

5.1.0. Gender plays an important role In determining 

subject or style Fiction written from a self-consclaus 

femlnlst perspective encodes an Ideology whlch 1s In dlrect 

opposltlon to the domlnant patriarchal gender ldeology 

Opposlng sexlst dlscourse whlch deflnes, describes and 

dellmlts how men and women must act In order to be 

considered masculine and femlnine, the femrnlst dlscourse of 

the texts under study challenges the naturallsatlon of the 

exlstlng aascullnlst discourse Bemlnlst dlscourse 

influences not or-ly the thematlc but also the styllstlc 

aspects of a llterary plece In addltlon to the ideological 

complexltles, feminlst writers perfon aesthetic manoeuvres, 

utlllzlng thelr marglnallsed or Inferlor posltlon as a 

vantage polnt ln order to stow how patriarchy legitlmlses 

lts institutions Whether toid In the reallst or fantastic 

mode, the fernmist texts reveal how women are distanced from 

power structures of dominant culture -- physlologlcally 

through thelr role as chlld-bearers, soclologlcally through 

thelr role as chlld-rearers, and psychically through symbols

184 

and images which elevate and at the same trme marglnalise 

them This chapter shifts the focus from the thematrc to 

aesthetic aspects, indicating how a self-consc~ous feminlst 

narrative point of view, structure, genre, imagery and myth 

contribute to worklng out the problematlcs of motherhood 

5.2.0. wrthln a femlnlst dlscourse itself, texts may be 

written elfher from the perspectlve of the mother or the 

daughter Femlnlst wrltlng wrltten from a 'daughterly' 

perspectlve can be said to ally wlth patrlarchal dlscourse 

in the process of 'otherlng' the mother, lt reiterates the 

patrlarchal dogma that 'mothers can't wrlte, they are 

wrltten' Whxle the storles of women have been ecllpsed In 

men's plots, the storles of mothers are belng neglected in 

the plots of sons and daughters Psychoanalytic femlnlsm 

has added the female chlld to the male, allowing women to 

speak as daughters, but 1t has d~fflculty accounting for the 

experience and the voice of the adult woman who 1s a mot>.er 

5.2.1. The mother's presence, tlll now reduced to a 

utllltarlan functlon In llfe acd In fictlon, springs tc 

prominence when women reallze that e5Jen when they are 

mothers, there is a part of them that 1s not just a mother, 

a part that remains a separate and independent '1'. Thrs 

enables her to be the subject of her own story lnstead of 

being a slave to the reproductive process As Dl Brandt

185 

sees lt, the mother's voice is largely unheard in literature 

',not because she is unnarratable, but because her 

sub]ectivlty has been violently and repeatedly, suppressed" 

(1993 7) It is only when the story is told from the 

perspective of the mother, rather than the daughter, that a 

different conception of sublectivlty emerges Maternal 

dlscourse therefore makes one llsten to storles that mothers 

have to tell, by creating the space In which mothers can 

articulate thelr stories, assumlng a maternal posltlon and 

speaking ln a maternal voice A maternal crltlque of 

'daughterly femlnlsm' is of paramount Importance to 

:enlnis:s llke Marlanne Hlrsch ln partlcuiar who see thls 

cr1t:que as parallel to the crrtlpues of white feminlsm by 

women of colour, the critiques of western femlnism by thlrd 

world women or the crltlques of middle-class feminlsm by 

worklng class women 

5.2.2. Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terrors and Walker's 

Merxdian are told from tne perspectzve of the woman both as 

daughter a-d mother, but the domlnant volce here 1s that of 

the woman as daughter who occuples the siib~ect posltlon 

whlle the nother 1s relegated to the status of the 'other'. 

In these two novels, although mothers are present, even 

domlnant, maternal dlscourse suffers from llmitatlons and 

constraints --- the daughter-narrator often defines herself

186 

in opposition to, and not in imitation of, the maternal 

figure 

5.2.3. The maternal narrative of Morrison's Beloved and 

Laurence's The Diviners ensures that maternal sllence is 

transmuted to maternal anger The maternal discourse of the 

fexts questions not only where the stories of women are In 

men's plots, but also where the stories of mothers are in 

the plots of sons and daughters The maternal sublect 1s 

articulated in a way that is useful for rewriting and 

xdentlfying the place of the mother in the narrative The 

maternal narrative here 1s not based on separation or 

absence, but on the lntlmate lnteractlons of the mother wlth 

the world arsund her 

5.2.4. Beloved explores a maternal volce, offerlng an 

example of how the volces of mcthers and daughters can speak 

the unspeakable plots, orlglnating wlth the mother Here 

Mcrrlson unearths the doubly repressed volce of the black 

slave woman, sllenced by raclsm and gender In Beloved, 

Morrlson 1s concerned with not what hlstory has recorded ln 

the slave narratlves, but what lt has omltted. In slave 

narratlves, the story 1s usually told by the black male 

narrator whose focus 1s on his own lourney to wholeness 

What was generally told was hls/story while her/story hardly 

emerged. Morrison's Beloved provldes the avenue for the

esurrected female slave narrator's voice 

187 

It is not only 

Sethe's voice we hear, but also that of her mother, Patsy, 

Denver, Deloved and Baby Suggs 

5.2.4.1. Beloved suggests how anger, tlll now remalnzng 

unspoken, can nevertheless be spoken 

The bltter paradox 

conslscs In the fact that the mother-daughter conversatlons 

that occur are conversations beyond the grave; lf Sethe 1s 

to explain her incomprehensible act, she has to do so to a 

ghost 

Although Sethe's story is "not a story to pass on', 

(B 3361, Beloved 1s the story of the mother, and the 

novel's dominant volce and narratlve is hers 

Thls novel, 

more than Morrison's earller works, does lec the mother 

speak for herself 

It allows her both to recognize her love 

for Beloved and her love for herself 

Marlanne Hlrsch remarks 

With Beloved, 

Ton1 Morrlson has done more than to shift the 

dlrectlon of her own work and of feminlst 

theorlzlng along wlth writers llke Grace Paley and 

Tlllle Clsen, she has opened the space for 

maternai narratlve In femlnlst fictlon (Hlrsch 

1989 272) 

5.2.5. Margaret Laurence is a ploneer in fashioning a 

place for maternal narratlve in Canada. Though the maternal 

consciousness 1s of paramount importance as the mode of 

perception In her novels, Laurence does not romantlcise or 

1dea;lse lt The act of mothering is presented as a

188 

tremendously drfflcult one, fllled with responsibillty, as 

Morag Struggles to balance motherhood and career. The 

maternal discourse In The Diviners 1s rnextricably bound to 

Morag's CreatlVe work. Morag's realization of herself as a 

wrlter and as a mother is through the storles she tells both 

herself and her daughter It 1s not only the volce of one 

mother -- Morag - that 1s heard, but multlple voices of her 

lost mothers from hrstory, llterary and orai trad~tlon are 

recalled and rearranged In Morag's narratlve Morag feels 

the loss of the mother ln her llfe but tracks her down 

through her lmaglnatlve effort -- the llterary mothers 

replace the dead, real mother To lnfuse the themes of llfe 

versus art, mother versus daughter, past versus present, in 

her maternal narratlve, Laurence makes her protagonist both 

a mother and a creative wrlter The mother - daughter 

relatlonshlp here is not limited to psychological concerns, 

lt also Involves lssues such as the relationship between 

maternity and creativity, between female values and literary 

tech31pes Morag ldentlfles herself wlth her characters in 

her novels, each of which marks her contlnulng effort to 

Integrate the past Into her own growing maLernal .rlewpolnt. 

She investigates what it feels like to be the sublect of 

one's own flctlon, the questlon of women findlng a lanwage 

to wrlte about oneself is central to the female tradltlon, 

and Laurence focuses on this. Morag mothers both her

189 

daughter and her wrlting and while miotherling the text, she 

enters into a loving and reciprocal relationship with the 

other, to let the daughter too tell her own story In her 

relatlon to Pique, she finally reconciles the confllctlng 

claims of other and self, of belng a mother and an artist, 

the confllct at the heart of the female Kunstlerroman 

5.2.6. Llke The Diviners, The Millstone ~llustrates that, 

besldes belng wrltten, women do write as mothers, and that 

thelr wrlting can be furthered rather than merely impeded by 

thelr motherhood The novels refute the elther / or theory 

wrltlng or motherhood, work or chlld -- whlch imply that as 

long as her motherly capacltles are put to use, a mother 

does not need to wrlte But both Laurence and Drabble drlve 

home the polnt that creatlvlty through reproductlon alone 1s 

not an end ;n Itself, women should explore other forms of 

self-expression too Motherlnq and creatlve writlng are not 

mutually exclusive areas In Drabble's novels, Jerusalem 

the Golden, The Waterfall and The Millstone, the mothers who 

wrlte have an unproblematic, a;most Ideal relatlonshrp to 

thelr chlldren. In The Millstone, Rosamund 1s able to write 

better and successfully complete her thesls after her chlld 

1s born Yet the novel leaves thls question open to debate 

Can a creatlve woman wlth chlldren have a satisfying, 

permanent relationship wlth a man7

190 

5.3.0. The narrative tone of the texts considered is 

significantly double-volced, both because the herolne speaks 

simultaneously as mother and daughter, and also because of 

the conflict she experiences between her real self and 

soclal self Eventually, the protagonist's passage through 

her narrative enables her to sltuate herself as a speaking 

sublect, voice her femlnist discourse, as agalnst the 

exlstlng patriarchal discourse. 

5.3.1. Tte narratlve of The Dlviners oscillates between 

past memory and present reallty, revealing the story of a 

story-teller, it 1s a story about story-telllng that 1s 

Itself composed of stories Told from the v~ewpoint of 

Morag, both as daughter and mother, Laurence's text 

conslsts of two narratives. The 'Now' narratlve of 'Rlver 

of Now and Then' tells the story of Morag as mother, that 

15, her presenc life as a forty-seven year old writer and 

slngle parent. the 'Then' narratlve is told from the 

perspective of Morag as daughter, her past whlch is embedded 

In her present 1s revealed through a series of 'snapshots' 

The rellance on memory fuses flction and fact In Morag's 

portrait of herself as a daughter Slgnlflcantly, the past 

events In The Diviners are narrated in the present tense, 

and the present events, in the past tense. Uslng ltallcs, 

Laurence intersperses her thlrd-person narration with the 

first-person narration. The maternal discourse emerges

191 

through the flrst person narration where we see Morag's 

experiences from inside, her comlng to terms with life and 

her act of wrlting, in contrast to the th~rd-person 

patriarchal discourse where we see Morag bemg written or 

shaped by experiences, not composing her life story but 

belng composed by it 

5.3.2. Similarly, in The Dark Holds No Terrors, the 

narrative shlfts from the first person to the third person, 

and meanders between the past and present. The narrative 

volce of The Diviners and The Dark Holds No Terrors 1s 

ne~ther the thlrd person with its implled oblectivity nor 

the flrst person wlth its implied sub~ectivlty but an abrupt 

interplay, a constant osclllatlon between the two 

5.3.3. Among the texts undertaken ~n thls study, 

Charlotte Perklns Gllman's Herland stands alone ln employing 

a male narrator Van, the authoritative narrator of 

Herland, though moderate In hls news when compared to the 

woman-ldeallslng Jeff or the woman-degrading Terry, 

nevertheless voices contemporary soc~al preludices whlch, 

paradoxically, arlse from the sexism Gilman's utopla works 

to deconstruct Though Gilman malntalns a male narrator to 

create an impression of apparent objectrvlty, underlying 

thls veneer of disinterestedness 1s a distinctly clear 

feminist polemical stance Even within a male narrator, the 

reading position constructed in this text is feminist.

192 

5.3.4. Exactly the opposite rings true of Markandaya's 

Nectar in a Sieve, where, though the narrator is a woman and 

a mother, the voice that emanates is not really hers - a 

patrrarchal volce lurks somewhere In the background which 

she, puppet-llke, mlmes 

1s not her voice one hears 

The mother does speak here, but 1t 

Moreover, there is a 

(con)fuslon of author and narrator ln the novel - a barely 

llterate peasant woman can hardly project such a 

sophlstlcated and sensltlvely poignant polnt of view w ~th a 

flne literary style that does not suit her 

R S Pathak 

explalns that the author-narrator fusion is Indeed a serlous 

technical flaw 

The novel though ostenslbiy narrated from 

Rukmanl's polnt of vlew is Ln fact belng narrated from 

Markandaya's polnt of view 

The problem faced by Kamala 

Markandaya here 1s that of representing the speech of an 

Indlan peasant, barely literate 

Thls 1s a dlfflcuity 

encountered by Indlan wrlters, writlng in Engllsh, who have 

no readymade dlaiect at thelr command to give thelr peasant 

characters 

Desplte these contradlctlons, the fact however 

remalns that the readlng positlon constructed here 1s 

rnascullnist, or rather in Elalne Showalter's terminology, a 

'femlnlne' one. 

5.3.5. The irony mlssinq in Markandaya's novel renders 

the text bereft of any feminlst purport, whereas Lesslng In 

The Summer Before the Dark maintains an ironic perspective

193 

on Kate, uslng the omniscient narration to tell things which 

Kate is too unimaginative to perceive. he Smer Before 

the Dark 1s a surprisingly conventional novel for the 

lnnovatlve and experlmental novellst of the narratively 

darlng Briefing for a Descent into Hell or the structurally 

experimental The Golden Notebook 

5.3.6. Drabble's me Millatone is a double-volced 

discourse, exemplifying the tenslon experienced by the 

herolne struggling to define herself wlthln a patrlarchal 

frame of reference The narrative is double-volced also 

because she speaks slrnultaneously as a mother and daughter 

The flrst person narrators of Drabble's novels are usually 

lntelligenz, educated and fluent In the discourses of 

literature, psychology and contemporary culture, yet then 

explanations of themselves are frapentary and at tlmes 

Inadequate, leaving a lot to the reader's conjecture and 

speculation Her narratxves lle open to m~ltlple, divergent 

and lnconcluslve views. Drabble sees the novel as an open 

fcm, not a structure of certainty, a form incapable of 

resolution, of inconclusiveness and therefore havlng a 

'femlnlne ending' 

5.3.7. The story of Beloved, told in complex narrative 

loops, 1s fragmentary, unresolvable, chaotlc and arbitrary 

Whlle the mother Sethe tells part of the story, the daughter

194 

Denver recounts another portion of the story of her own 

birth, and the omniscient narrator provides more. The bas~c 

details get modified depending upon who 1s relatrng the 

story to whom. Beloved learns her family history and fills 

in the gaps In her llfe she cannot remember, through her 

mot:ler's story 

The daughters become inheritors of the 

mother's story, the black mother becomes the female 

precursor who passes on the authority of authorship to her 

daughter and provides a model for the black woman's presence 

In society. 

5.3.7.1. The narratlve structure of Beloved eschews 

contlnulty and chronolog~cal sequencing 

Past consciousness 

and present reallty colllde wlthln the text's fragmentary 

narrative. The narrat~ve lourney goes forward loaded wlth 

memorles of the past 

narratlve. Ann Snltow observes 

Wrltlng about thls fractured 

Morrlson doesn't really tell these lncldents 

Brts and pieces of them leak out between the 

closed evellds of her characters. or between thelr 

clenched' flngers She twlsts and tortures and 

fractures events untll they are little sllvers 

that cut She moves the lurid materlal of 

melodrama into the mlddle of her people, where ~t 

gets sifted and sorted, llved and rellved, untll 

~t acquxres the enlarging outllnes of myth and 

trauma, dream and obsession (Snltow 1990.27) 

Out of this leaking, twrsting, torturzng, sifting, sortxng 

and re-livlng, the doubly invlslble black female story comes 

to the foreground. Although Beloved is specifically Sethe's

195 

story, It is also the story of the slaves of the Sweet Home 

plantation of Kentucky Framed in purpose, thematics and 

structure after the Afro-Amerlcan slave narrative, Beloved 

is the composite story of all slaves and their quest for 

freedom through fllght But unlike other significant texts 

that belong to thls unlque American genre, Beloved requires 

no call for the abolltlon of slavery because Sethe's story 

LS narrated to a twentieth-century audlence 

5.4.0. Gllman, Piercy and Atwood employ fantasy/allegory 

In order to subvert/deconstruct the exlstlng patriarchal 

codes, the utopian mode used sultlng the purport of radical 

femlnlsrn by mak~ng the unposs~ble seem plausible 

Femlnlst 

utoplan flctlon 1s wldely used by femrnist writers as part 

of thelr own ideological practice, they use the generic 

conventions In a displaced tempora; and/or geographical 

settrnq to reveal the ways In whlch patrrarchal practices 

are naturallsed in their society 

The utoplan genre sults 

the alms of radical femlnlsm as lt subverts the confinements 

of a reallsm dedicated to the representatlon of, and thus 

acquiescence to, a patrlarchal order 

As Susan Gubar 

remarks, "women abused by the probable refuse lt by 

lmaglning the possible in a revolutlonary rejectlon of 

patrlarchal culture1t (Gubar 1989.1921 . Feminist utopian 

fiction constructs for the readers a femlnlst readlnq 

positlon from which the institutional practices of

196 

patriarchy become visible. The ideologlcal discourses of 

the androcentric culture are revealed as ideologlcal 

constructs, not biological or historical inevitabilities 

Recent feminist utopias such as those of Angela Carter, 

Doris Lesslng, Joanna Russ, Marge Piercy and Ursula Le Guln 

are not blueprints for the future, but elements In a debate 

about the nature of the wrlter's own society, about its 

patriarchal ldeology and the social or institutional 

practices through whlch that ideology operates The utopia 

as a literary genre rs situated between polltical theory and 

the novel - though it 1s a flctlonal narratlve, it is 

overtly polxtlcal, presenting an alternative ldeal soclety 

based on a crltlque of the author's reallty Uslng 

estrangement and defamillarrsatlon techniques, utoplas 

prov~de a shccklng and dlstanc~ng mlrror above the famlliar 

reallty 

5.4.1. In Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge P~ercy deprcts 

both a utopla and dystopla 

hs a narratlve devlce, thls 

heightens the femlnlst polemics by ccmparlng tendencies In 

modern soclety, polarlsed Into utopla and dyscopla, and 

ernphaslzes :he urgent need for present actlon to detennlne 

the future 

Piercy juxtaposes three narratlves in her novel 

- realist, utopian and dystoplan. The dlalectlc between 

Conn~e's realist narrative of life as a marginallzed woman 

ln a contemporary United States society, a fantastic

197 

narrative of her visit to a utopian future state 

characterized by sexual equality, and a yet another 

fantastic narratlve of a dystopian future characterized by 

extreme sexism, make Woman on the Edge of Time a distinctly 

utoplan text which deconstructs contemporary United States 

soclety and ~ t s institutions of heterosexuality, nuclear 

famlly structure and motherhood 

Joanna Russ similarly uses 

four different narratlves In The Female Man to construct a 

composite female subject. 

In Plercy's novel, the three 

lntersectlng narratlves - reallst, utoplan and dystoplan - 

construct a complex text ln whlch Plercy deconstructs 

domlnant patriarchal Ideology whlch, as seen zn the reallst 

narratlve, naturallses the lnstztutxon of motherhood 

The 

,Jtoplan narratzve rectifies the sexlst outlook of the 

reallst narrative and the dystoplan prolects ~t 

as worse 

In fact, the maln figures of Plercy's utopla and dystopla 

are actually extensions of Connie's personalltj, - 

whlle 

Luclente 1s her utoplan analogue, Glldlna 1s her dystoplan 

analogue 

Whlle gender divisions are stretched to thelr 

extreme In her dystopla. Piercy's utoplan vlslon ellmlnates 

traditional gender roles 

Interestingly, language too 

breaks free from belng gender-speclfic as Plercy employs the 

non-speclflc possessive 'per' instead of the sex-speclfic 

'her' and 'his', and the noun 'person' in place of 'he' and 

'she'

198 

5.4.2. In Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the 

utopian mode as a machine for dismantling popular pre3udices 

concerning interconnected concepts as gender stereotyping, 

sexual dlvislon of labour, and motherhood, with an eye to 

some future reconstruction. Retaining the equation of women 

to nature. Gilman accepts the claim that 'biology' 1s 

destiny and transforms it into the definition of woman as 

truly different and inherently superior to men Joyfully 

clalmlng nature as woman's own provlnce, Gllman creates an 

ocherdorld of female retreat, maklny it a vantage polnt 

cutslde tke prevailing culture Parthenogenetic 

reproduction In the utopla, whlch suggests that women's 

bodles are or can be free from phallocentrlc law, functions 

on another level as a declaration of female llterary selfsuffrc~ency 

Herland is ln facL one of the earllest 

femlnlst utoplas to exhibit pol~tlcal and textual 

sophlstlcatlon, and to construct a femlnlst reading posltlon 

as a strategy ln the productlon cf a femlnlst subject 

Gllman's use of the nineteenth cen:ur). convenclon of love 

story and her sustained use of the quest narrative, axd thls 

deconstructlve prccess 

5.4.3. Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale interestingly 

illustrates that a man's utopia can be a woman's dystopla 

Atwood's dystopian targets include reproductive technology, 

patriarchal hlerarchy and the repression of women in a male-

dominated soclety. 

199 

In Atwood and Plercy's dystoplas, all 

the unwanted elements of society - aggression, pollution, 

sexlsm and alienation - find place 

While the two utoplas, 

Aerland and Mattapoisett, present a soclal state where 

rationality, harmony, utillty and order prevall, the 

dystoplas ---- Gllead and the soclety of Gildma's tlme --- 

warn of a future that the present may be incubating. The 

utoplan wrlters depict human nature changing for the better, 

the dystoplan writers deplct it belng manipulated for the 

worse 

As Nan Bowman Alblnskl noces, dystop~a 1s "a soclety 

demonstrably worse than the known worid, lf eutopla is the 

dream, dystopla is the nightmare" (1988 111 

5.5.0. Apart from the expllclt statements, the overt 

speeches and actlons of the characters, the irnpllclt 

lnteractlon of the imagery also contributes to worklng out 

the problematlcs of motherhood. 

The novels under study 

employ metaphors, symbols and lmages - both abstract and 

concrece - to reinforce and reiterate the phases of 

motherhood, be ~t femlnlne, feminist or technolog~cal 

Desplte the cultural differences, strlklng slrnllarltles ln 

the employment of Images, symbols and myths as artlstlc 

tools, can be observed In the authors under study 

Animal 

lmages connoting docility, muteness or tame acqJlescence, 

deflne the feminlne mother or indlcate the grotesque naVJre 

and stark physicality of sexuality and childbirth; avian

200 

Images of wounded or caged blrds ~ndicate captivity / 

enclosure / darkness, of nesting birds, lndlcates the 

maternal protective instinct, lmages of earth, trees, fruit, 

seed, egg, rlver, blood, mllk/breasts pornt to the mother's 

potential fertility, lmages of placenta or umblllcal cord 

establish the llnk between mother and chlld, while negatlve 

images of the child - as millstone, burden, hump, wart, 

corn, nuisance, monster, tyrant and shackling chain - 

reiterate the burden of motherhood 

5.5.1. A prollflc use of anlmal images in the novels 

reveals elther the grotesque face of sexuality, or of 

physlcal llfe In general The phases of precnancy and 

chlldb~rth are shorn off the halo surrounding them through 

the employment of animal images that lndlcate the sheer 

physlcallty of these experiences, minus their mystlque 

Animai Images, wlth their conr.otatlons of doclllty, muteness 

or tame acquiescence, deflne the predicament of the femlnlne 

mother In a patriarchal world. Apart from a few exceptlonal 

Instances, animal lmaoes malnly serve to explore the 

negative srde of motherhood, at the core of whlch lres the 

stark physical experience of pregnancy, chlldblrth, and 

chlld-nurslng 

5.5.1.1. Rukmanl's comment on her pregnant condition in 

Nectar in a Sieve: 

"I must have looked like a Water-

201 

buffalo" (NS 14) brlngs to light the grotesque appearance of 

the pregnant woman, slrnultaneously stripping away the 

characteristic dlvlnlty said to be surrounding her 

appearance In The Dark Holds No Terrors, Saru views the 

woman rn labour as one producing "flerce anlmal grunts" 

!DH,l47! She wonders " . the paln that made an anrmal out 

of her Was thls the prelude to motherhood7" IDH 147) 

Morag of The Diviners however, feels "as strong as an ox" 

!D 2941 durlng her pregnancy 

5.5.1.2. In the femlnlne phase of motherhood, the analogy 

of women to animais 1s strongly suggestive of thelr docile 

and tamed nature It serves as a caustlc comment on the 

Status of women 1n a patriarchal environment where they are 

denled the capaclty to reason or a means to volce thelr 

thoughts An oft-repeated metaphor In Afro-Amerlcan 

WomanlsL flctlon 1s :hat of the woman as mule of the world. 

burdened wlth centuries of sexlst and raclst oppression 

Thls Image occurs ln Walker's Meridian ln the reference to 

Mrs Hlil's father who bears hls wlfe and chlidren wlth more 

pleasure than he beats hls mules. Sybll, in The Handmaid's 

Tale becomes "as docile as a plastic cow" !HT 871 In The 

Dark Holds No Terrors, a neighbour recounts to Sar~'s mother 

the story of "a woman who had been tied to a peg In a cattle 

shed for ten years and fed on scraps llke a dog" (DH.781. 

Saru experiences 'the desperation of a trapped anlmalv

202 

(DH 195-96) in her roles as wlfe and mother, roles from 

which she 1s unable to escape. In The S-er Before the 

Dark, Kate's feeling of vulnerabll~ty as she takes up a 

summer vocation, away from home, is descrrbed. "as if a warm 

coverlng had been stripped off her, as if she were an animal 

belng flayed" (SBD: 22: 

5.5.1.3. The anlmal Images reach horrlfylng proportions In 

Morrlson's Beloved where the slave - 

woman's identity 1s 

reduced to that of an anlmal, exploited for work and 

breeding purposes 

The fact that Sethe is mllked like a cow 

and has her mllk stolen by Schoolteacher and hls nephews 

reflects on the dehumanlsatlon the slave wonan had to 

endure In helpless anger. Sethe laments, " they handled 

me llke I was the cow, no, the goat, back behlnd the stable 

because ~t was too nasty to stay In wlth the horses" 

(B 2471 Taklng Sethe as an example, Schoolteacher asks hls 

puplls tc put her human characterlsclcs on the left and 

anlmals characterlstlcs on the rlght slde of the paper 

They define her as an animal wlthout memory 

Sethe is 

unable to shake off thzs image, and even years later 1t 

takes Paul D to assert to Sethe that she has two legs, not 

four (B 2021, she is human, not anlmal, though Paul D too, 

when a slave, was tied "lrke a mule" (B.277) 

The whlte 

girl. Amy, too, inltlally sees Sethe as nothlng more than a 

pregnant anlmal which prompts her to ask. "What are you

203 

going to do, just lay there and foal?" (B : 42) reducing 

childbirth to an animalistic activity. 

Viewed in the 

context of slavery, Sethe's association wlth a cow is 

insulting and degrading, but this image, as Wilfred D. 

Samuels and Clenora Hudson Weems polnt out, has lts positive 

implications too: 

, viewed in the mythical and nystlcal world of 

ancient Egypt, one may come to envislon a goddess 

such as Hathor, mother of the sun god, who had a 

human face but the ears and horns of a cow. In 

mythology moreover, a cow 1s generally seen as the 

gzver of llfe Because of its fecundity, the cow, 

llke the earth, 1s often mother goddess, nurturer, 

and provlder of food (milk), a llfe glvrng source 

(ln Hlndulsm for example) (1990 137) 

5.5.1.4. The employment of anlmal images rlps off the 

mystlque surroundlnq sexual Intercourse lust as lt subverts 

the myth of motherhood 

The sexual act, as the women 

writers studled here see lt, 1s not a manifestation of love, 

but a baslc an~mallstlc instinct, a response to one's body's 

r.eeds 

In The Diviners, Morag uses equestrian lmages to 

descrlbe the act - "as though the glrl were a mare co be 

mounted by a studhorse" ID 149) or "a perfornlnq fzlly" 

!D 150) Her casual encounter wlth Chas 1s one ln whlch 

"they screw llke anlmals" ID 3261 

Thls image 1s 

dellberately used in thls context because Mcraq's momentary 

passlon does not lnclude love, she 1s more an uncaged and 

vulnerable animal than a sensitive woman at this stage. 

Similarly, in The Dark Holds No Terror, Saru, In fearful

204 

anticipation of sex becomes "a terrified, trapped animal" 

(DH 121) 

The sexual act Itself, instead of being an 

afflrmatlon of love, becomes a vlclent assault and 

nightmarish experience as Manu "atta, zed [her] llke an 

anlrnalv (DH 1821 

In The Handmaid's Tale, the Commander, 

practlslng simultaneous polygamy with h ~ s handmaids is 

compared to a bee pollinating various flowers 

Offred 

lmaglnes a balding Commander wlth hls wlfe and handmaid 

"fertlllzlng away ilke mad,llke a ruttlng salmon" (HT 218) 

5.5.1.5. In Gllman's Rerland, various analogles to fauna 

are employed In a more positlve manner The wornen of thls 

Utoplan land are ilkened to deer (H.321 which 1s lndrcatlve 

of thelr swiftness and aglllty of movement, thls Image 1s 

used to bring about the destruction of the stereocjiped image 

of woman To descrlbe her concepts of collective motherhood 

and parthenogeneclc reproduction, Gilman takes recourse to 

entomological Images, malnly that of ants and bees To 

d~spel Terry's mong notlon that women lack the quailty of 

cooperation, Jeff compares the place to an anthill where 

systematic organlzatlon and indlvldual ccntrlbutlon to the 

larger scheme produces great results 

This place 1s ilke an enormous anthill - you know 

an ant hill 1s nothing but a nurse- And how 

about bees7 Don't they manage to cooperate and 

love one another? (H:67)

205 

Further, the chlldren brought up under collective motherhood 

are compared to the offspring of ants and bees (H 71), and 

parthenogenetic reproduction to the same mode of 

reproduction in ants and aphids lH.77,99,1231 

5.5 .l. 6. The Bandmaid's Tale, however, employs ant imagery 

in a derogatory sense 

used for breedlng purposes 

The handmaids are llke queen ants, 

Offred wlstfully remarks "It's 

up to me to repay the team, lustlfy my food and keep, llke a 

queen ant with eggs" (HT 135) 

5.5.1.7. In Lesslng's The Summer Before the Dark, the ween 

termlte 1s used as an lmage of the femlnlne mother 

Kate 

Brown, at the openlng of the novel, 1s "a queen termlte, 

whose splrl: fllled the nest, making a whole of indlvlduals 

who could have no other connection" ISBD 471 

In her 

transition from the 'femlnlne' to the 'fernlnlst', she sheds 

off thls lmage 

the p~cture or Image of herself, as the warm 

centre of the famlly, the source of invlslble 

ernanatlons llke a queen termlte, was two or three 

years out of date (SBD 52) 

5.5.1.8. Rukmanl in Nectar in a Sieve envisxons her 

daughter's illegrtimate motherhood as "fears [that] came 

swarming about my head like the black flyrng ants after a 

Storm" (NS 116)

206 

5.5.1.9. Piscean imagery is made use of in The Diviners and 

Woman On The Edge of Time to describe the foetus in the 

womb/brooder respectively. In The Diviners, Morag is first 

presented in a photograph, concealed In her mother's dress 

as "st111 a little fish, connected unthlnklngly to life" 

(D 71 In Woman on The Edge of Time, the embryos In the 

brooder are "llke fish ln an aquarium" (WET 951, they sing 

to Connle a "flsh song" (WET 241), she dreams of a baby 

"floating among others like trout in a stream" (WET.311) 

Whlle earlier she found the brooder - born babies 

"multicolored llke a lltter of puppies" (WET 991, thls 

dlsparaglng canlne image is later supplemented by the more 

positlve plscean one as she comes to terms wlth 

technological reproductlon 

5.5.1.10. In The Summer Before the Dark, Kate's predicament 

1s imaged through a series of dreams In which she sees 

herself carrylng a seal in her arms, scruggllng to return it 

to the sea 

The seal's amphlblous nature suggests Kate's 

exlsLence between the feminine and femlnlst phases 

general movement withln the dream - 

The 

Kace dragglng and 

carrying the heavy seal in her arms - symbollses Kate's 

growrng awareness of how she had been conditioned 1ntO her 

role as lover, wife and mother 

all that time she had been holdxng In her hands 

something else, the something precious, offerlng 

it in valn to her husband, to her children, to

everyone she knew - but it had never been taken. 

had not been noticed. But this thing she had 

offered, without knowing she was doing it, which 

had been ignored by herself and by everyone else, 

was what was real in her ISBD . 124) 

:ier dream's ending --- when the seal re-enters the ocean, 

reveals the endless posslbilrties open to her --- Kate 

recognizes the possibility of release now that she had 

gamed an awareness of her confinement In the roles of wife 

and mother 

Sydney Janet Kaplan points out that the image 

not only suggests the object it depicts, it might also refer 

t3 the word for that image, a word wlth several denotatzons 

A seal may denote a mark or a brand ---- a slyn of ownership 

and ~ndlvrduallty, of differentlation - here symbollsing 

what 1s unlque In Kate, what 1s most deeply herself 

Also, 

1t may mean to decide irrevocably (the fate of a person or 

thlngj, in thls way suggesting the lnevitablllty of Kate's 

aglng, death and posslble transcendence 

may have hldden or esoterlc connections 

Flnally, the word 

the seallng of 

one's llps, vows of secrecy and silence IKaplan 1982 12) 

5.5.2. The feminlne mother IS described through avlan 

lmages --- the Image of the nesting birds revealing the 

protective maternal instinct of the rnotter in the nest 

(home), the imitative parrot referring to the woman without 

a volce of her own in an androcentric world, the caged bird 

denoting the claustrophobia of feminine motherhood

208 

5.5.2.1. In LeSSlng'S novel, Kate Brown's role as 

translator 1s that of "an exceedingly xntelligent and fluent 

garrot with maternal inclinatlons" (SBD 33) Her role at 

nome too 1s similar, where all she does is, like the parrot. 

repeat the patriarchal volce, translating lts orders into 

nousework The blrd lmage 1s repeated agam In the context 

of the mother-chlld relationship 

she had felt llke a wounded bud, be~ng pecked to 

death by the healthy blrds Or like an anlmal 

teased by cruel chlldren (SBD 951 

Thxs image of the mother as vlctlm, as a wounded bird, belng 

pecked to death by healthy brrds, 1s In fact a relteratlon 

of the host-paraslte lmage used earller rn the novel, that 

of a mother as a ',spongeN(SBD 891 for all her children's 

wants 

5.5.2.2. Images of captlvlty / enclosure / darkness, a 

regular feature of Lesslng's novels, are manifest In The 

Summer Before the Dark tnrough the lmage of the caged blrd 

Xnages of captlvlty and enclosure In Lesslng's flctlon are 

pclnters to woman's confinement to the home and the curblng 

of her natural 1nstlncLS Kate dreams of Maureen as a 

"brllllant-yellow blrd" (connotatlons of l~ght and 

vltal~ty), dash1r.g around the flat, whlch seems "a sorz of 

cage" (SBE 196) 1~1th the connotatlons of captlvlty. 

darkness and enclosure1 "Cages and belng shut in are much

more my style" (SBD . 228) says Maureen 

209 

Images of light 

and darkness are more explicitly juxtaposed as when Maureen 

1s seen dartlng In and out of dark spaces where shafts of 

bllndlng light fall 

The blrd/cage lmage recurs as Maureen 

1s agaln described as "the brlght-yellow - bird who was In a 

cage slnglng No, no, no, no" (SBD 238) 

The bird caged in 

the zoo becomes a llteral manifestation of this image 

zowards the end of the novel 

Blrds with cl~pped wlngs and 

the Images of caged birds and rats ln The Handmaid's Tale 

rernforce thelr assoclatlon wlth captlvlty and enclosure 

5.5.2.3. Margaret Laurence, In The Diviners, develops the 

image of the swallows from a casual reference (D 4 i 

to an 

lmage havlng a wlder slgnlflcance In the context of the 

rnother-child relazlonshlp 

The nurcurlng Image of the 

swallows Eeedlng thelr newly - hatched fledgl~ngs (D 531, 

grows xnto the xmage of the young ones ready to leave the 

nest 

The fledglings were ready to fly, and took up all 

the space ln the nest, so the parert swallows 

slept on the mud - and - straw Fazlo these nlghts 

Adrnlra~le parents Intelligent Joyous (D 2321 

The next reference to swallows is when Morag notices them 

fidgeting and flltterlng In the nest, wanting to fly 

ID 235), and flnally, when they fly away she remarks "Thls 

is how you fly, kldsl 

lmmobile agaln" (D 242) 

rt's easy' Try it - you'll never be 

Clearly, these stages correlate to

210 

the relatlonshlp between Morag and Pique - Morag brlnging up 

Pique, rhe growlng estrangement between them, and flnally, 

Plque embarking on her lourney The mlgratlng swallows 

(D 404) furnish the physical and psychological 2ourney motlf 

pervading the novel, whlch culminates In Morag's eplphanlc 

vlslon of the blue heron - an Image of acceptance and 

afflrmatlon central to the resol'utlon of The Diviners 

5.5.2.4. Assoclaclon of the mother and home w-Ch the blrd 

and lts nest occurs In Herland also where there 1s a comment 

on the chlldren growlng up, "leavlng the mother alone In her 

empty nestv (H 951 

5.5.2.5. Though Sch3olteacher stresses Sethe's anlnallstlc 

characterlsclcs In Beloved, yet her actlon Ln trylng to 

protect her chlldren 1s described through blrd Images She 

"heard wlngs i;ttle hcmmlngblrds stlck chelr needle beaks 

rlgtt through her head cloth lnto her halr and beaL thelr 

wlngs She 3usc flew" (B 200) Thls lmage is repeated once 

agaln when Sethe senses that tne grown Beloved 1s ln danger 

5.5.3. Images from the vegetative world, earth Imagery 

and even colour syrvhollsm 1s employed to connote ferclllty 

or women's reproductive pocentlal 

5.5.3.1. Gllman's utopian land 1s flrst presented to the 

reader as a country whose roads are flanked by frult-bearlng

211 

trees, fountains and flowers These Images expand as their 

slgnlficance is made more explzclt 'Here was Mother Earth, 

bearlng frult. All that they ate was the frult of 

motherhood, from seed or egg or their product" (H 591 The 

leader of the Herlanders 1s called 'Land- other' (H 751, the 

land or earth again symbollslng fertility Garden imagery 

pervades the book --- the gardens of Herland are, llke thelr 

motherhood, perfect, cultivated, beautiful, clean, pleasant 

and ordered Terry xmaglnes the Herlanders as "a rosebud 

garden of gxrls" iH 881 Kumkum Sangarl sees the pastoral 

Image as slgnlfylng the ~nterdependence of wo(man1 and 

nature, and the garden country as "an Image of arrlstlc 

control which affrrms the Innate ablllty of women" 

11983 101 

5.5.3.2. Rukmanl In Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve 1s 

gerpetually associated wlth symbols cf fertlllty --- wlth 

green f~elds. gram, sunshlne and beauty (NS 71 

husband Nathan harrests hls f:eld, 

Whlle her 

Rukmanl does her blt by 

plantlng fr'llts and vegetables In a small patch behlnd her 

hut and watch1r.g them rlpen 

I had planted, in the flat patch of ground behlnd 

the 

- 

hur a few ~ um~kin seeds The sol1 here was 

L . 

rlch, never havlng ylelded before, and loose so 

that lt d:d not requlre much dlgglng The seeds 

sprouted qu~ckly, sendlng up dellcate green shoots 

that I kept carefully watered, going several tlmes 

to the will nearby -for the purpose Soon they 

were not dellcate but sprawling v~gorously over 

the earth and pumpklns began to form, whlch,

fattening on soil and sun and water, swelled dally 

larger and longer and ripened to yellow and red, 

untll at last they were ready to eat (NS:B) 

The rlpe frult evokes a response In Rukmanl's body too --- 

pleasure was maklng my pulse beat, the blood, unbidden, 

came hot and surglng to my face" (NS 9 ) 

Thls comparison 

between the rlpenlng frult and the mother waltlng for her 

child to be born 1s made expllclt towards the latter part of 

the novel Rukmanl and Nathan watch the paddy rrpen as "a 

mother [watches] her chrld, wlth prlde and affection" 

INS 931 

The man - woman - chlld relatlonshrp 1s also 

envisaged xn terns of seed / frult lmagery 

hls seed and he wlll see her frultful" (NS 116) 

"She wrll carry 

5.5.3.3. As 1r. Herland and Nectar in a Sieve, so In The 

Handmaad's Tale, frults and flowers are assoclated w~th 

fert;l~ty 

The Glleadeans greet each other wlth the words, 

"Blessed be the fruit" (HT 19), the pregnant woman's stomach 

1s compared to "a huge frurt" IHT 261 

'ere 

Seeds and fru~ts 

are however assoclated wlth manipulated, not natural 

repronuctlon 

In Gllead, there 1s nc such thlng as male 

sterlllty -- there are only "women who are frultful and 

women who are barren" (HT 611 

the Blbllcal alluslon 

Thls lmage 1s hlghlrghted In 

God to Adam God to Noah Be fruitful, and 

multiply, and replenish the earth Am I ln 

God's stead, who hath wlthheld from thee 'he fruit 

of the womb? (HT. 881 (emphasis added)

Quite ironically, the Commander's wife, who is barren, 1s 

constantly associated with gardens / flowers The blossoms 

worn by Serena Joy, however, are wlthered, like her 

NO use for you, I think at her, my face unmoving, 

you can't use them anymore, you're wlthered 

They're the genital organs of pllnts (HT 82) 

Flowers and plants suggest the conflnlng circumstances of 

sex'Jallty and reproduction in Gllead Colour symbolism 1s 

employed in the novel -- Offred struggles to keep the Image 

of crimson tullps free from the assoclatlon wlth blood The 

entlre attlre of the handmaids 1s red In colour "Everything 

except the w1ngs around my face IS, red the color of blood, 

whlch defines us" (HT 8 ) (emphasis added), blood, of course, 

standlng for fertlllty / sexualrty Looklng at herself, 

Offred feels llke "a srster, dippedln blood" (HT 91 

5.5.3.4. Beloved's youth and exuberance IS described in 

terms of planc Images 

women drd what strawberry plants dld before they 

shot out fhln vlnes, the quallty of the green 

changed Then the vine threads came, then the 

buds By the t ~me the whlte petals died and the 

mlnt-coloured berry poked out, the leaf shlne was 

glided t~ght and waxy That's how Beloved looked 

- gllded and shining (B 79) 

The scars Inflicted on Sethe's back which Amy visuallses as 

a chokecherry tree 1s indicative of her fertll~ty and role

214 

as nurturer. The scars are mute reminders of her commitment 

to motherhood and the consequences she has to bear for ~t 

5.5.3.5. Water as a symbol of new life/ fertility occurs ln 

~eloved, The Diviners and Nectar in a Sieve. Water 1s a 

llfe - glvlng source, the assoclatron between water and 

llfe, new llfe or reblrth 1s clearly conceived here. 

5.5.3.6. The water metaphor dominates Beloved and 1s 

closely assoc~ated with Sethe She crosses the Ohio rlver 

to the land of freedom, she has new llfe - her water breaks 

and she glves blrth to Denver The water Image takes an 

alnost rltuallstlc slgnlflcance as she drlnks from the Ohlo, 

a klnd of rltual cleansing, and later, as Baby Suggs bathes 

her, providing the rltuai purlflcatlon (reblr-h) that she 

needs to enter the new community Beloved, her dead child, 

returns by walklng out of the water, and significantly, 

Sethe experiences an artlflclal delivery, as her bladder 

Spllls before she reaches the house 

5.5.3.7. Just as Sethe crosses the rlver to a new llfe, 

R~kmanl, afLer her marrlage, remarks that she has entered a 

rew phase In her llfe, the brook "belongs to a part of her 

llfe that 1s flnlshed" (NS.5) Rukmanl and Nathan name 

their daughter after a rlver, Irawaddy Ironlcally however, 

Irawaddy remains sterlle after her rnarrlage.

215 

5.5.3.8. The river 1s a dominant symbol in Laurence's The 

Diviners whlch begins with the contradiction that the river 

flowed both ways 

The river is assoclated with Royland, the 

,old Man River', 'The Shaman Dlvlner'. HIS gift as a soul- 

8;vIner duplicates hls abrllty to release earth-locked 

water, he releases pent-up spiritual resources from other's 

innermost belngs Slgnlficantly, one of the four elements 

domlnates each fictional work of Morrlson and Laurence - 

'flre' in Sula, 'alr' in Song of Soloman and 'water' and 

'earth' In Beloved. in Laurence's Manawaka works - 'earth' 

domlnates the Stone Angel, 'flre' - the Fire Dwellers, alr 

In A Blrd in the House and Water In The Divxners 

5.5.3.9. Images of b13od and rn~lk, also assocrated wlth 

fert:llty, 

work on yet another level slgnlfylng the bond 

between the mother and child 

'Mllk' and 'breasts' are the 

symbols of fert~llty and motherhood that Sethe 1s identlfled 

wlth throughout Morrlsan's Beloved - these are lmages whlch 

underscore the nurslng f~qure of Sethe, of the mother as 

nurturer 

The psychological scars of havlng her mllk stolen 

by Schoolteacher's nephews remaln wlth her throcghout her 

llfe as grlm rema~nders of the vlolatlon of her motherhood 

and are more sordrd than the scars lnfll=ted on her back 

Barbara Hill Rlgney points out that mllk and the lmage of 

motherhood are particularly assoclated wlth male Impotence 

In Beloved, as Halle watches helplessly from the loft above

216 

while Schoolteacher's nephews violate Sethe so brutally by 

taklng her mllk 

Halle's anger is impotent, and he 1s 

presented later sittlng by the churn, butter all over hls 

face, "because the milk they took 1s on hls mlnd" (B 85-861 

From the beginning of the novel, when Sethe wants to rush 

her milk to her chlld, to the end, where Sethe. Beloved and 

Denver drlnk mllk together, the image of m~lk throughout 

s~gnlfles the maternal bcndlng, the fluid connection between 

mother and daughters 

Thls Image is further strengthened 

when 1t occurs In association wlth 'blood', as Denver drlnks 

the blood of her slam slster along wlth her mother's milk 

5.5.3.10. The Image of 'blood' occurs in assoclatlon wlth 

:he menstrual cycle In Beloved 

After her escape, Sethe 

experiences twenty-elght days of freedom, whlch ev~dently 

carrles undertones of the menstrual cycle, a perlod of 

rsgeneratlon and renewal - of llfe, death and reblrth 

Samuels and Sudson-Weems observe 

llke the mecstrual cycle to whlch ~t also 

inevitably a1;udes glven Sethe's central roie as 

greaz mother, lt symbolizes a perlod of pram~sed 

new llfe, fertxllty and gestation followed by 

death Preflqured here 1s not only the flow of 

blood that takes place at the end of the cycle 

wlth the aborted ovum, but also the bloody scene 

that w ~ll taxe place at the moment that Sethe wlll 

once agaln lose her freedom, her own spbollc 

death, as well as the blood that wrll flow from 

the slam Beloved, whose life 1s abruptly aborted 

(1990 118) 

As

217 

5.5.3.11. Morag of The Diviners remembers the deaths of her 

parents, but not their lives. Yet she is painfully aware of 

the bonds of blood, of then presence lnfused into her 

being "they're inslde me, flowing unknown in my blood and 

moving unrecognized In my skull" fD 191 Also, her 

obsesslve desire "Zo have someone of her own blood" fD 2351 

prompts her to seek thls fulfilment outslde rnarrlage 

5.5.3.12. The sparsely used mllk/breast symbol in Nectar in 

a Sieve nevertheless reinforces the fertility Image 

5 .5.3 .13. There are references to the "bond of blood" 

(WET 121, "year of blood" [the year of Connle's flrst 

abortlonl 

fW3T 411, blood associated wlth chlldblrth 

(WET 96) ln Woman an the Edge of Time 

Blood and mllk are. 

for Connle, essential In establlshlng the flrst llnk bet.#een 

mother and chlld, and hence she cannot dlgest the concept of 

brooder-born bables 

HOW could anyone know what belng a mother means 

who has never carrled a ct~ld nlne months heavy 

under her heart, who has never borce a baby ln 

blood and paln, who has never suckled a chlld 

(WET 991 

Llke Sethe of Morr~son's Beloved, Connle "had loved breast- 

feeding - that deep-down warm mllky connection that seemed 

to start In her womb and spread up through her trunk lnt0 

her full dark-nippled breasts" (WET.1261. The lmages of

lood and mllk are fused again in Connie's comment on what 

she feels is the futility of technological reproduction 

What was special about being a woman here? They 

had glven ~t all up, they had let men steal from 

them the last remuants of ancient power, those 

sealed in blood and milk lWET.126) (emphasis 

added) . 

5.5.3.14. For Saru of The Dark Holds No Terrors, breastfeedlng 

does not brlng out the 'maternal' in her, on the 

contrary, 1t "evokes an intensely erotlc response', (DH.147) 

5.5.4. Tke image of the umbilical cord placenta occurs 

In The Diviners. Woman on the Edge of Time, The Dark Holds 

No Terrors and Beloved, indlcatlng, llke the blood and mllk 

lmages, the llnk between mother and chlld In The Dlviners, 

Prln's chlld 2s "strangled on the cord" (D 441, and on 

Plque's blrth, "the cord 1s cut, and the placenta comes away 

wlthout Morag's belng aware of rt" (D 3041 The lrteral 

separation between mother and daughter shapes Into a 

psychcloglcal estrangement ln the course of the novel In 

thls novel, though the umblllcal cord ]olnlng the mcther to 

the daughter 1s stretched, lt is not severed The 

"umblllcal cord" Image 1s luxtaposed wlth the "bond of 

blood" (WET.121 In Connle's reminiscences of her daughter ln 

Woman on the Edge of Time. In The Dark Holds No Terrors. 

Saru describes her separation from her parents In terms of 

the Image of the severed umbilical cord. For her, the

separation is as easy as cutting off the placenta from the 

infant at childbirth, because she is not bound by parental 

affection 

She tells Manu 

Have you seen a baby being born? Do you know, 

Manu how easy lt 1s to cut the umbilical cord and 

separate the baby from the mother9 Llgate, cut 

and lts done There's scarcely any bleedlng 

elther It's as lf nature knows the chlld muse be 

detatched from the parent No, Manu, for me there 

wlll be no trauma, no bleeding (DH.34) 

In Beloved, the umblllcal cord Image occurs In the 

descrlptlon of Denver's blrth !B 103) 

5.5.5. For the mothers who devlate from the femlnrne 

Ideal of motherhood, chlldren are no more the cllched 

bundles of ]oy 

Wlth the mounting pressures of motherh>od, 

these mothers vzew therr chlldren elther as burdens, 

monsters or tyrants 

The title of Margaret Drabble's The 

Millstone evokes such a negatlve linage of the chlld 

Rosamund Stacey lnltially sees her lllegltlmate chlld as a 

millstone, a burden she must carry all her life 

She e-oices 

all negatlve lmages 3f pregnancy and chlldb~rth. "Gln, 

psychlatrlsts, hosplLals, accidents, vlllage maldens droxned 

12 duck ponds, tears, paln, humlllations" iMS 39) La:er, 

her foetus assumes emotional signlficance " ~ dld t not seem 

the klnd of thing one could have removed, llke a wart or a 

corn. It seemed to have a meaning" (MS.76) In The 

Diviners the aborted baby found in the nuisance grounds is

220 

nothing more than "a nuisance" (D 76). 

In Nectar in a 

Sieve, the pregnant Kunthi moves "gracefully despite her 

burden" (NS. 6) . Saru ln The Dark Holda No Terrors regards 

her chlldren as burdens and has distaste for the words "my 

chlldren" (DH 149) because they sounded too possessive 

Childbirth for her is associated wlth "n~ghtmares"(DH.184) 

lust as her own mother regarded her blrth as "terrible"; the 

word 'Mother' sounds llke "plnprlcks" (DH.1571 to Saru. 

Association of lnfanticlde wlth vlolent lmagery 1s evldent 

in The Eandmard's Tale - Images of stabblng a foetus wlth a 

knlttlng needle (HT 11) Lesslng's novel, remlnrscent of 

Kate Chopln's The Awakening, equates chlldren to "monsters" 

and mother to a nvlctlm" (SBD 85), bound by "invisible 

chams" ISBD 213) For Kate Brown, "the faces and movements 

of most mlddle aged women are those of prlsoners or slaves" 

(SBD 90i, Connie In Woman on the Edge of Time sees the 

canned lnfants as "bland, bottle-born monsters of the 

future" (WET.99) Merldian ln Meridian sees herself as a 

slave to her chlld's wants and feels burdened wlth the 

weight of motherhood, "he dld not feel llke anythlng to her 

but a ball and chain" (M,63i, lust as her own mother's 

reaction to motherhood was that of "a person who is belng 

buried alive, walled away from her own life, brlck by brlck" 

(M 41) Mrs.Xill feels Meridlan is a "monster" (M 85) to 

give up her child. Merldian, like Drabble's Rosamund, has

221 

mixed feelings about her child. At times, she finds hlm 

beautiful, at others she sees him as "ugly, like a hump she 

must carry on her back" (M:87). In The Sunnner Before the 

Dark, Mary Finchley asserts that children should not be 

allowed to become "tyrants" iSBD 11) In stark contrast to 

these Images, the babies of Herland are "fawns In dewy 

forest glades and brook-fed meadows' (H:100) For the 

Herlanders, motherhood is far from bang a burden, although 

Jeff ln his chlvalry asserts that "motherhood is a 

sufflcrent burden . men should carry all the others" 

(H.92) 

5.5.5.1. The physlcal act of childblrth ltself 1s 

associated with negatlve Images In Woman on the Edge of 

Time, childblrth is connected to "dirt" and "pain" 

(WET 271) , Connle sees Angelma as the "chlld of [her] sore 

and bleedlng body" (WET 98) 

In The Diviners, Morag 

associates chlldblrth wlth "stretch marks" (D 176) 

5.5.6. Culte paradoxically, the womb becomes the tomb as 

images of blrth and death are ~uxtaposed as ln The Diviners: 

"Plque, harbinger of my death, continuer of life" (D.290), 

In Nectar in a Sieve, Kunthi's son 1s "a fine boy who nearly 

took hls mother's life in exchange for his own" iNS.10). ln 

The Handmaid's Tale, the siren at the birthlng 1s like the 

"sound of death" iHT.112) and Offred's comment on the

222 

pregnant woman: nNow that she's the carrier of llfe, she is 

closer to death" (HT:26) has suggestions that the birth of 

the child brings the mother closer to death 

In Meridian, 

the bxrth of Meridian's son instils in her the urge to 

murder him, "her fingers eager to scratch him out of her 

llfe" IM 63). "To strangle that soft, smooth, helpless neck, 

to push down that kinky head into a tub of water, to lock it 

In rts room to starve" (M.67) becomes her obsessive desire 

In Morr;son's 

Beloved, Sethe fears that her womb may turn 

out to be a graveyard for her slx-month baby, but wlth Amy's 

tlmely help, her fears are allayed 

Later, the blrth of 

Denver is followed by the death of her 'crawllng already?' 

~nfanc, who returns as Beloved 

5.5.7. The monotonous rut of housekeeping and chlld- 

rearlng leads the feminist mothers to compare themselves to 

'machines' or 'aucomat (r) ons' , 

feellngs are not taken Into account 

lifeless belngs whose 

In The Swer Before 

the Dark, Kate Brown, after her awakening, realizes wlth 

lndlgnatlon what she had been dolng all along "she had been 

set llke a machlne by twenty-odd years of belng a wife and 

mother" (SBD 47) 

The mother-machine Image is used wlth 

different lmplicatlons in Woman on the Edge of Time 

Connie 

1s at first sceptical of the art~flclal techniques of 

reproduction followed at Mattapolsett and calls the brooder 

a "crazy machineu (WET:96) and its products "bottle babies"

223 

(WET:95) and "canned childLren1 " (WET:99). Another 

denigrating image, inanimate like the machine, occurs in 

Morrison' s Beloved. here, Sethe is just "property that 

reproduced itself wlthout cost'' (B:281). 

5.5.8. The concept of 'woman as womb' dates back to the 

anclent Greeks. Reduction of woman to her reproductive 

functlon not only demeans her status as a human being but 

also makes her feel frustrated at her failure to control her 

own body Offred in The Handmaid's Tale voices her 

frustration at being a handmaid, a mere vessel to carry the 

Commander's child. "We are containers, it's only the insides 

of our bodies that are important" (HT 96) After Connie's 

mother ln Woman on the Edge of Time has her womb removed, 

she is "no longer a woman An empty shell" (WET 39) 

Sybll, cynlcal about woman's part in sexual intercourse, 

remarks "who wants to be a hole?" (WET 78) 

5.5.9. Images of femlnlne motherhood or stereotyped 

images of the mother abound in the novels under study, then 

purpose being either to descrlbe the women protagonists in 

the femlnlne stage or to set the feminlst mothers against 

thelr feminine counterparts 

5.5.9.1. In Laurence's The Diviners, Morag tells Ella. "I 

make boxes for myself . . . and then get fur~ous when I find 

myself inside one" (D.188). The 'boxes' she makes for

224 

herself are those slots issued to women by the patriarchal 

order. Morag is in the transitional stage, '!caught between 

the old pioneers and new pioneers" (D:170) - she is unable 

to fit into patriarchal moulds, nor is she able to llve an 

unimpeded llfe of her own. Oscillating between the two 

extremes she sees Fan Brady on one end who is "not the 

maternal type" (D:310) and the femlnlne mother Brldie on the 

other who has "connotations of perpetual bridehood, 

something chlldish and affected about her" (D . 373) 

5.5.9.2. In Nectar in a Sieve, we come across Janakl, the 

stereotyped mother wlth her "homely face and sayglng flqure, 

for she had borne her husband several chlldren" (NS 51. 

Rukmani's mother is also an embodiment of the 'femlnlne' 

mother, constantly assoclated wlth domestlc lmayes - her 

house 1s "clean and sweet" and her chlldren are "well fed 

and cared for" (NS 11) Rukmanl too is assoclated wlth 

domestlc lmages (NS.139) The Musllm women In 'bourkas' are 

assoc~ated with "closed doors" and "shuttered windows" 

(NS 48), women who had shut the door to thelr lndlviduallty, 

the claustrophobia of the~r homes extending to thelr 

personalities 

5.5.9.3. The Image of the femlnlne mother portrayed In 

advertisements 1s a regular feature of Deshpande's fictlon 

and The Dark Holds No Terrora is no exception. Both in

225 

Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time and Deshpande's novel, 

the advertisements portraying the perfect mother In a happy 

famxly are indicators of what the protagonist cannot achieve 

In her circumstances. They are also telllng comments on the 

themes of mystique versus reallty, feminlne versus femlnist, 

and culture versus nature. 

The protagonist experiences a 

tug-of-war between what is innate in her and what is 

expected of her In a male-dominated society 

novel, Connie contemplates on this image 

In Plercy's 

Like Mrs Polcarl, she was going to have only two 

chlldren and keep them clean as advertlsemects. 

Those beautiful rooms, those clean-looklng men who 

woresulcs, those pretty sanitary bables (WET 41) 

Though she later shrugs off thls image, Sam in The Dark 

Holda No Terrors envisions herself ln such a role. 

I saw myself, the end of my sarl tucked lnto my 

walst, hair tied lnto a neat knot, smlllng at them 

all as I serJed them And all of them smlled back 

at me. A mother ln an ad, ln a movle, dressed In 

a crisply starched, lroned sarl. Wife and mother, 

lovlng and beloved. A plcture of grace, harmony 

and happ~ness Could I not achleve that' IDH 73). 

Thls lmage occurs in the beg~nnlng of the novel also 

A famlly the right size The right klnd. Llke 

tne ads A happy famlly Healthy, happy, smlling 

and in colour IDH.17) 

In Beloved, the image of the family rs evoked xn Paul D's 

deslre for a family whlch he knows is out of reach for hlm. 

and m his vehement assertion to Sethe that he wanted her 

pregnant

226 

5.5.9.4. Saru's mother is connected with domestlc images 

The novel opens with the image of the 'tulsi' which produces 

bitter memories of her mother. Saru's mother is perpetually 

associated with cooking or serving meals, an area from which 

she derlves power. The analogy to Shivaji's mother Ji3abai 

and the 'terrible' mother-goddess is also significant The 

association of Mavshi with 'kumkum' and 'black beads' 

:DH 68), symbols of her wifehood and motherliness, attract 

Sam initially, but when she sees her later as a widow, 

bereft of these symbols, Sam 1s a blt disappointed The 

image of the passive, self-sacrificing woman evokes dlsgust 

In Sam "their unconscious, unmeaning heroism, born out of 

the myth of the self-sacrxf~clng martyred woman, dld not 

arouse elther her plty or her admlratlon" (DH 98) 

Wlch 

bltter sarcasm, she comments on such women. "Smlta, the 

happy wife, and mother" (DH 107) or Padmakar's wlfe, "a good 

wlfe and mother" (DH 1201 She feels that thelr att;tudes 

are lust "thln shells that cracked at the tap of a flngerv 

iDH 107) 

5.5.9.5. The mother image occurs in juxtapos;Clon wzth 

domesticity in The Handmaid's Tale too 

Offred takes in the 

smell emanating from the kitchen with an aura of nostalgia 

It [the kitchen] smells of mothers, although my 

own mother did not make bread. It smells of me, 

In former times, when I was a mother 

This is a treacherous smell, and I know I must 

Shut it Out iHT.47)

227 

5.5.9.6. "Maternity clothes", "maternity shops" and 

"boutiques for babies" (M 9) stir images of the expecting 

mother ln The Millstone, whlch seem to reproach Rosamund 

carrying her ~llegitimate child. 

Drabble attempts to 

destroy the myth of motherhood, the false lmages of mothers 

propagated by men for thelr own advantage 

At the cllnlc 

for instance, Rosamund flnds the pregnant women a depressed 

and miserable lot and cannot help contrasting them wlrh the 

mystique woven around them: 

One hears much, thoush mostlv from the Interested 

maie, about the be&ty of 'a woman wlth chlld, 

shlps In full sall, and all that klnd of 

metapnorlcal euphemism 1M 65, 

In reality however these metaphors are lnvalld as the welght 

of evldence 1s overwhelmrngly the opposlte 

5.5.9.7. Domestrc lmages are lrnked to Kace Brown ln the 

beginning of Dorls Lesslng's The Summer Before the Dark. 

"She carefully carrled her tray, and she was thlnklng about 

the washzng-up whlle she continued her prlvate stock-taklng, 

her accounts makrng" (SBD 91 

Wlth her qualltles, she seems 

to conform to the ldeal of femln~ne motherhood. "a beautiful 

woman, a wonderful mother, a cook for the angels, a 

marvellous belng, all warmth and kindness, wlth not a fault 

In her" (SBD.17) 

She plays the role of "provider of 

lnvls~ble manna, consolation, warmth, sympathy" (SBD 47) 

Other degrading images associated with her are lndlcative of

228 

her existence merely in terms of the functions she is 

expected to perfonn, images of mother as "servant", "door 

mat" (SBD: 92) ; as "invalid" (SBD: 851 , as "grindstone" 

(SBD:87); as "nurse" (SBD:91), as 'prisoner or slave" 

(SBD:901, and the image of mother as pacifier - ',the oilpourer, 

the balancer, the all-purpose famlly comforter" 

(SBD 204). Kate plays her different roles as if she is 

"trying on ideas like so many dresses off a rack" (SBD:66) 

Like the dresses off the rack, the role of wlfe and mother 

are also unsulted for her, they are 111-fltting and 

unsatisfying 

5.5.9.8. Meridian opens wlth the Image of the 'mummy' who 

1s described as an 'obedient daughter', 'devoted wife', 

'adoring mother' and a 'goddess' iM.5-6) There 1s a 

caustlc comment on the stereotyped lmage of woman prolected 

in magazines. "woman was a mindless body, a sex creature, 

something to hang false hair and nails on" (M.651 The 

femrnine mocher, Mrs Hl11, who suppresses both her anger and 

love and channels them lnto her househod dutles expends all 

her energy Into "the lronlng of her children's clothes" 

(M:73) 

5.5.9.9. Amy's "mama's song" in Beloved reverberates wlth 

echoes of a "cradle" in a "quiet cozy home" (B:100) --- thus 

reiterating the association of the mother with serenity,

229 

warmth and shelter and at the same time emphasizing the 

stark contrast to Sethe's vulnerable situation as she gives 

birth to Denver. 

5.5.9.10. Images of the stereotyped woman are seen maznly 

through the perspectave of Terry and Jeff in Herland, the 

former who thinks pretty women are lust "game", and homely 

women "not worth cons~dering" (H.91, and the latter who 

mposes "rose-colored halos on his womenfolks" (H.9) Jeff 

sees women as "clinging vines" whlle Terry davldes them into 

two categories - ',desarable and undesarable women" (H.21), 

viewang them as "sort of a natlonal harem" (H 13) Gilman 

alms at destroying both these extreme viewpoints concerning 

women - that of ideallsing them and that of treatlng them as 

mere oblects of deslre Even Van, whoe views are moderate 

when compared to Jeff and Terry, sees the women through the 

lens of patriarchy ---- lnltially he feels that since 

Herland 1s a civlllzed country, there should be men 

somewhere, but he gradually accepts the fact that women need 

not be frivolous as he looks at the faces that are "calm, 

grave, wlse, unafraad, assured and determined" (H:19) 

5.5.9.11. Through an adept employment of images, Gilman 

explores the question of "what is femlnine and what is 

masculine, what is manly and what is womanly, what is 

culturally learned and what is biologically determined male-

female behaviour" (Lane 1979:xiil) . 

230 

To destroy the feminlne 

stereotype, she invests the women of Herland with both 

'feminine' and 'masculine' traits, bringing them to the 

realm of androgyny. The Herlanders are "like schoolboys, 

not shy girls" (H.301 with their "cropped hair" and "sexless 

costume" (H:841. 

Moreover, "they are not, in the girl 

sense, beautiful" iH.191, causlng Terry to comment that 

though their main concern is motherhood, the '!women aren't 

womanly" (H:581 

As the women are striklngly deflcrent rn 

what 1s called femininity, the narrator Van 1s led to the 

conviction that those 'femlnine chams' we are so fond of 

are not femznlne at all, but mere reflected masculln~ty - 

developed to please us because they had to please us, and in 

no way essential to the real fulfilment of the great 

process" (H.591 

5.5.9.12. Emotlon as opposed to reason, Lntuitlon as opposed 

to lncellect, is said to be characteristic of women. 

according to the patrlarchal claim 

Herland overrules this 

notlon by portraying 'de-feminized' mothers as strong, clear 

th~nkers iH 6Bi wlth the qualrtles of "clear rntelllgence 

and dependableness" (H.691 

Physically too, they are tall, 

strong and healthy, wlth no traces of 'femlnine vanivf', no 

'frills and furbelows" (H:B1) nor are they the 

"underflannels - and - doughnuts mother" iH.142) wrapped in 

their "pink bundle of fascinating babyhood" (H.691. Thls

231 

prompts Terry to remark that the Herlanders were not human, 

but just a pack of females (H:80). Since they lack modesty, 

patience, submissiveness and "natural yielding that is 

woman's greatest charm" iH:98) and are equally deficient in 

sex appeal, Terry reduces them to "a parcel of old maids" 

(H:134) 

5.5.9.13. The lmage of the home undergoes a revision in 

Herland as the scope of motherhood is broadened to a wider 

social arena 

Gllman, as part of her feminist project, 

disentangles motherhood from the confines of the home, 

placlng it in the uninhibited soclal sphere. She felt that 

motherhood, as restricted by the home, curbed women's 

nature, and hence she attempts to erase the deflnltlon that 

equates the mother to the home 

As representative of the 

patriarchal volce. Terry clams that women should .work at 

home, while the world's work is the prerogative of men. To 

the Herlanders, Terry's statement "Women are loved - 

ldollzed - honored - kept in the home to care for the 

children" (H.61) seems atroclous, first of all because they 

cannot understand the concept of a home, and secondly, they 

find it unseemly that a woman be so confined. 

5.5.10. Religious, mythologlcal and historical images are 

used to describe the feminine mother, elevating her into a 

goddess and expecting her to behave like one, suppresslng 

her innate nature.

232 

5.5.10.1. In the first chapter of Meridian, the mummy which 

had once been Marilene O'Shay, 

'an ideal woman' is 

described as "a goddess" (M:61. The indication, no doubt, 

1s that Meridian 1s not going to be all that this woman was. 

In The Dark Holds No Terrors however, the lmage of the 

terrlble mother, the temple-goddess, is evoked. 

She looked a dreadful cursing kind of Devx, 

anyway The women sometimes called her 'Mother" 

Imagine, I thought, havlng a mother like that 

(DH:91). 

Baru also sarcastically compares her mother's relation wlth 

her brother Dhruva, to the historical flgure Ji~abai, who 

moulded a brave son, Shiva]~ (DH 75) 

5.5.10.2. Eschewing patriarchal rellgion, Herland elevates 

motherhood to a religious cult. Motherhood here 1s not only 

a soclal servlce but also a "sacrament" (H 69) 

Thelr great 

"Mother Spirit" (H 11) 1s to them what thelr own motherhood 

is - only magnlfled beyond human llmlts, it IS a 'power' 

fH.112) 

Thelr 'Temple Mother' (H 1141 1s developed from 

the central theory of a lovzng power, and they assume that 

1ts relatlon to them is motherly - that it deslred thelr 

welfare and development. All mothers In Herland are 'holy' 

(H 1401, and every thought In cofinectlon to maternlty is 

considered 'slmple yet sacred' (H 1401 

All their wlde mutual love, all the subtle 

interplay of mutual friendship and service, the 

urge of progressive thought and invention, the

deepest religious emotion, every feeling and every 

act was related to thls great Central Power, to 

the River of Life pouring through them, which made 

them the bearers of the very spirit of god 

(H:140). 

Atwood's The Handmaid's 

Tale however makes an ironical 

employment of Blblical rmagery - the Gileadean regime 

operates with Bibllcal sanction 

The architects of Gilead 

desire to create a replica of the Kingdom of God on earth by 

closely following the tenets lald down in the Blble. 

The 

regime ]ustifles lts racist and sexlst pollcies as havlng 

Blblxcal precedent 

As Atwood remarks "A new regime would 

never say, 'we are socialist, we are fasclst' 

They would 

say they were servlng God . . You can develop any set of 

beliefs by uslng the Blble" (Vevalna 1993 224). 

5.6.0. The Demeter - Persephone myth, the archetype of 

the mother-daughter separatlon/union, forms the underly~ng 

pattern In Margaret Laurence's The Diviners 

Morrison's Beloved 

and Toni 

5.6.1. Although the separatron between 

Demeter and Persephone 1s an unwilling one and 1s nelther a 

questlon of the daughter's rebellion agalnst the mother, nor 

the mother's relection of the daughter - thls paradigm has 

been made use of to denoce not only the physlcal but also 

the psychological estrangement between mother and daughter 

In The Diviners, the separation between mother and daughter, 

and Pique's return towards the later part of the novel

234 

followed by her subsequent departure bears distinct echoes 

to the Demeter - Persephone myth. The novel 1s a 

reiteration of the mother's need of the daughter and the 

daughter's need of the mother. Pique's physical journey 

parallels Morag's psychological journey, thus enabling her 

to recognize her ldentlty and redeflne herself as a woman, a 

mother and an artlst. Plque's physlcal movement 1s integral 

to Morag's mental journey whlch in turc motivates her 

artlstic endeavour 

Thls structural and thematlc 

relatlonshlp Helen Buss calls the 'Mother-Daughter-Creatlve 

Sp~rlt Triad" (Buss 1985.66) 

Demeter -like, Morag's 

creatlvlty :s channeled lnto her wrltlng The novel 1s in 

fact a female Kunstlerroman where the growth of the woman as 

mother parallels her growth as artlsc 

The wrlter-llterary 

product and mother-child parallels penade the book - it 1s 

the baslc prxnciple of structure on whlch the novel 

operates 

Talklng of the mother/chlld and wrlter/creatlon 

analogue, Helen Buss comments 

In the case of the female artist, the word 'child' 

mat be taken In more than a symbollc sense Thls 

does not mean that the female artlst must 

literally become a mother, but lt does mean that 

she must find the mother wlthln herself to become 

a whole woman, and she must be a whole woman to be 

an artlst (1985.64) 

5.6.1.1. The interdependence between mother and daughter 

can be seen as an extension of the woman - woman bond, a 

reassertion of female sorority. The tltle of Allce Walker's

235 

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens reaffirms the importance 

of the 'mother-daughter-creative spirit triad' Walker 

views literary women as daughters of the female literary 

tradition and as inheritors of their mother's creative 

spark When she says. "Yet so many of the storles that I 

write, that we all wrlte, are my mother's stories" she 

echoes one of her llterary mothers, Virglnla Woolf, who 

stated that "we think back through our mothers". 

5.6.1.2. The mother-daughter relationship In The Diviners 

1s a statement of the Interdependence between the past and 

present. A hauntrng obsesslon wlth the past colours the 

novel whose structure alternates between the past and 

present The presentidaughter is inextricably woven to and 

1s dependent on the past/mother The past alters the 

present and the present alters the past - therefore the 

plcture of the past 1s different when seen through the lens 

of the present memory Also, the ]uxtaposition of the past 

and present 1s clearly ev:dent in the re-enactment of the 

mother's past problems by the daughter When Morag does not 

understand her daughter, she does not understand herself 

!4orag's discovery of her self as a woman, as a wrlter, as a 

Canadian, is In relation to her daughter's identity. Pique, 

In a way, 1s an extension of Morag's self - she therefore 

continues Morag's quest Both Morag and Plque discover 

their identlty by returning to and accepting the past This

236 

takes place on a literal level too as Pique, like 

Persephone, returns to her mother and discovers herself 

through her, the reconciliation between past and present 1s 

in fact the reconciliation between mother and daughter 

According to Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, to forget the 

past is to ignore a matriarchal heritage which would enable 

the herolne to find her own "distinctive female powerw 

(cited in Hirsch 1989:44) In The Madwoman in the Attic, 

the two feminlst wrlters see in motherlessness the emblem of 

female powerlessness Maternal absence and sllence, they 

argue, rob the heroine of Important role models for her 

development, of the matriarchal power whlch could facilitate 

her own growth into womanhood. The assumption is that even 

within patriarchy, as the Demeter-Persephone relat-on 

illustrates, women can be powerful lf connected with each 

other 

5.6.2. To rewrlte the story of mother-chlld relationship 

from the maternal perspectlve. ln particular from the 

perspective of the mother of a daughter, Toni Morrlson 

adapts the woman-centered myth of Demeter and Persephone 

It is in then nurturing functlon that the parallel between 

Demeter and Sethe 1s most strrklngly obvlous. Just as 

Demeter, the goddess of graln, nourashes the entlre world, 

Morrison's Sethe has "milk enough for all" Demeter and 

Persepkone's tale is told from the perspectlve of a bereaved

237 

Demeter, searching for her daughter, mourning her departure, 

and effecting her return through her own divine power. The 

breach caused by rape and death is undone by the mother's 

power to fulfil a mutual desire for connection. Beloved, 

llke the story of Demeter and Persephone, is about the 

temporary reunion between mother and daughter as Beloved 

emerges from the other side to question her mother But 

just as in the Demeter - Persephone myth, separation and 

loss are inevitable, so must Beloved return to the dark slde 

from where she came 

5.7.0. In flne, maternal discourse has carved for Itself 

a niche ln feminist wrltlng as the mother 1s no longer the 

shadmy figure of androcentrlc wrltlng nor the ecllpsed 

flgure of gynocentrlc wrltlng, wrltten from the daughter's 

perspective, maternal silence gets translated into macernal 

anger through a maternal narratlve Maternal narratlve 

however remalns double-voiced as the woman-narrator has to 

~nvarlably speak both as mother and daughter It 

nevertheless provides a vlable area for the mother to 

channel her creat:ve urges by provldlng a vantage point from 

wh1c.i she can voice herself Further, the use of the 

utoplan genre facllltates femlnlst writing by making the 

imposslblllties in an androcentric culture seem plausible In 

a gynocentrlc one.

CONCLUSION 

Since the patriarchy commanded women to be 

mothers, we had to rebel with our own polarity and 

declare motherhood a reactionary cabal. Today a 

new synthesis has emerged; the concept of motherright, 

affirmation of a woman's chlld-bearing 

and/or child-rearing when rt is a woman's 

cholce It is refreshing at last to be able to ' 

come out of my mother-closet and yell to the world 

that I love my dear wonderful delicious child. 

- Robin Morgan 

6.1.0. The introductory chapter made a global sumey of 

the changlng attitudes towards motherhood ln the context of 

the feminist movement, highlighting issues such as the 

creatlon of the mystlque of motherhood by religlon / myth, 

patrlarchal expectations of a mother and her reactlon to the 

role, biological, psychological and soclal problems involved 

In bearing and rearing children; and the increasing 

difficulty in balancing motherhood and career. 

It also 

Introduced the authors and texts proposed for study, placlng 

:hem Ln their respective cultural milieu. 

6.1.1. 'Funinine Motherhood' --- the second chapter --- 

focused on the manner in which patrlarchal lnstltutlons wlth 

religious sanction mould women into feminlne mothers, as a 

consequence of which motherhood becomes synonymous wlth 

femininity. The major points of focus of this chapter were

239 

- the ways in which feminine motherhood socially conditioned 

mothers through reductive images; identified women only with 

their mother-role, valuing them only for their chlld-bearlng 

capacltles; demanded a renunciation of aims and interests of 

mothers, inculcating in them the abillty to relate to others 

only through their famillal role; instilled In them a deslre 

for sons rather than daughters so that the patriarchal rule 

was perpetuated; confined mothers to the domestic sphere 

creating 'The Angel in the House', asserted that mother - 

love was supposed to be unconditional as female anger 

threatened the institution of motherhood, used religion, 

myth, customs and rituals to determine familial structures 

that subordinate women. 

6.1.2. The thlrd chapter --- 'Feminist Motherhood' --- 

highlighted how the conflict between women's desires and the 

domlnant values of motherhood which made women volce then 

protest led to a change ln attitude towards motherhood, 

culminating ln 'femlnlst mothers'. Thls chapter dealt wlth 

the revolt of the protagonlsts agalnst their mothers whlch 

was not so much a personal attack on the mothers as it was 

against the lnstitutlon they represented; the debunking of 

the maternal instlnct through the protagonist's questioning 

or relection of the maternal role foisted on her, the 

attempt of the protagonist to break free from the image of 

the angel in the house by taking up a career, the veering of

240 

the mothers towards a more personalised mothering, free from 

the dictates of patriarchy; and a change in parenthood 

patterns wlth the involvement of fathers In the rearing of 

children, making motherhood an 'androgynous' activity rather 

than a 'feminine' one. 

6.1.3. The fourth chapter --- 'Technological 

Motherhood'--- discussed the ideological treatment of 

technological motherhood and its relation to feminine / 

femlnist motherhood. It explored the questions: Does 

women's liberation require a biological revolution? Should 

women relinquish thelr reproductlve roles and take recourse 

to techniques of reproduction or should they retain then 

reproductlve powers in order to gain the actual experience 

of mothering, at the same time ensuring that it is not 

talnted by the patriarchal lnstltutlon of motherhood? The 

ongoing debate between supporters and detractors of 

technolog~cal motherhood as reflected in select femlnlst 

utoplas and dystoplas was studied in this chapter. 

6.1.4. The focus of the flfth chapter --- 'The Aesthetics 

of Motherhood' shifted from thematic to aesthetic aspects of 

motherhood, indicating how a self-consc~ous feminist 

narrative polnt of view, structure, genre, imagery and myth 

contributed to working out the problematics of motherhood.

241 

6.2.0. A quick recapitulation of the previous chapters 

points towards differing attitudes of the women characters 

towards motherhood - some accept it meekly and 

unquestioningly, others accept lt wlth an iota of 

scepticism, yet others accept ~t though they consider it a 

burden, some others accept it on thelr own terms, ignoring 

or questioning certain norms, some women totally rebel 

against foisted roles while others relect lt outright. 

Between acceptance, questioning and relectlon lie a range of 

attitudes whlch may be conservative, revolutionary. 

reactionary or radical. It hence becomes increasingly 

d~fficult to taper down these wlde-ranging claims to one 

Single deflnltion of femlnist motherhood Taking Into 

account the differences in cultural background of the 

femlnlst authors studled here, lt would be best to conslder 

the pluralistic attitudes towards motherhood, rather than 

tylng oneself to a single definition. 

6.2.1. What, then, 1s fem1n:st motherhood? If lt 1s not 

a blind acceptance of motherhood, does it necessarily mean 

that 1t 1s a rejection of motherhood? The emerglng femlnist 

mothers del~neated in the prevlous chapters at some point or 

the other in thelr lives questlon or rebel agalnst the 

normally accepted Ideals of motherhood. But although Saru, 

Kate, Meridlan and Morag, at some stage, relinquish their 

mother-role, they later try to redefine it. The endings of

242 

The Dark Holds No Terrors and The Swmer Before the Dark 

project the protagonists on the verge of a return to thelr 

mother-role, but it is clear that they will do so with an 

Intensified consciousness of their situation and an 

unwavering determination to rewrite relationships and 

counter patriarchal impositions; Meridian in Ueridian gives 

up her role as a personal mother, but extends mothering to a 

wlder social arena. Morag of The Diviners comes to a deeper 

understanding of her self and her relationship to her 

daughter after she purges herself of the ambivalence 

surrounding motherhood. But the message that feminzst 

motherhood 2s not a total relectlon of motherhood, but a 

questlonlng of the impositions laid on it, resonates most 

loud and clear in Drabble's The Millstone whose protagonist 

proves that motherhood can be a fulfilling experlence if it 

1s independent of the dictates of patriarchy. Whlle for the 

other protagonists, the cholce is an inescapable either/or. 

motherhood or ind~viduation, motherhood or creativity, 

motherhood or freedom, Rosamund is able to successfully 

experlence the best of motherhood and satisfactlon through 

work, at the same tlme retaining her ~dentlty and the 

freedom to exercise her choice. 

6.2.2. Feminist motherhood, therefore, leaves the choice 

to women, whether to mother or not. It is in exercising 

this choice that women actually experlence unconditioned

243 

freedom: those with an aptitude for mothering take it up 

whlle those without it are also deemed 'normal' in every 

way. 

The other extreme of resenting child-bearing and 

child-rearing, viewing motherhood from a purely antagonistic 

stance is yet another kind of lie. 

r2 asserc rca: m-rkerhood ls a rcrrure cc any 

~.:3egenfa.:, l?-.rel?rgen: 'do-an 1s secc:ner.cal - as 

far rerr7:ed fr-n act'lal ex:erlence - as :c asserr 

that motherhood is the true and hlghest fulfilment 

any woman could deslre (Harris 1975 254). 

As mothermg beglns to be viewed as one cholce among many. 

feminism and motherhood are no more in diametrical 

opposltlon. Feminists do not attack family or mothering. 

except as defined and restricted under patriarchy, they do 

not denigrate motherhood, but remove the pressures from ~ t , 

making it truly voluntary 

The motherhood role is congenial 

to some women, whlle others are put off by its demands, some 

feel they are unable to perform the role as 

inst~tutlonallsed by soclety and yet another sectlon of 

women have an in-between stance - they would en]oy 

mother if it weren't a twenty-four-hour lob 

being a 

Femlnism 

accomodates all these positions, maklng motherhood as well 

as 'non-motherhood' a genulne optlon for those who prefer 

lt, making one as esteemed and acceptable as the other. As 

Jessie Bernard asks 

Instead of coercing [women] Into motherhood. 

making them feel that not becoming a mother is a 

misfortune or, worse, pitiable, why not appreciate

them for their good qualities rather than 

denigrating them for the lack of maternal 

aptitude? Or structure motherhood in a more 

congenial fashlon? l1974:35) 

The feminist agenda finally aims at removing the stigma from 

non-motherhood and giving it a positive, valued and 

desirable status, thus creatlng free, uncoerced, genuine 

choices between motherhood and other llfe-patterns. ~ o all t 

feminists underplay the role of the mother. 

What many 

object to is the insistence that all women must become 

mothers, that motherhood is every' woman's destlny, that only 

through bear~ng children can women flnd fulfilment 

Feminrsts finally polnt to a world in which motherhood, 

strlpped of its mythlc compulsions, will be Infused with as 

much declsion and conscious lntelllgence as any other 

dlff~cult and freely chosen work 

In such a world, they 

emphasrze, maternal affection w ~ll become all the more 

rlcher and steadier because it wlll be a decision freely 

taken 

6.3.0. As Meridian, Saru, Kate, Morag and Rosamund begln 

to ask if self-realizat~on by way of work or career 1s in 

any way Inferlor to self-realizatron by way of motherhood, 

Or what is so sacred about self-sacrifice or noble about 

wanting children, the concept that is being repeatedly torn 

apart is that mother-love 16 natural and every woman 1s born 

with the maternal instinct. 

As mother-love is no more

considered natural, conversely there is no such thing as the 

'unnatural mother'. The definition of a 'good mother' could 

hence be re-written as one who has the time, the means and 

the will, not the blood or instinct, to mother. 

The 

capacity for mothering is therefore not instinctive but 

imitative it is associated with the upbring~ng and cultural 

condlt~ons under whlch women experience their maternity. AS 

Oakley wrltes, the behavlour of women as mothers 

owes nothing to then possession of ovaries and 

wombs, any more than the behaviour of men as 

fathers proceeds directly from thelr possession of 

alternative genitals 11976 199) 

thus dlscred~t~ng the definltlon that a woman is her womb 

Further, rt 1s clalmed that the maternal xnstincr has more 

to do wlth physiological foundations than psychological 

phenomena 

Maternal functions undergo a psychological 

transformation lnto maternal love 

Wlth maternal lnstlnct 

belnq demcunced as a cultural flctlon, femln~sts d~scredlt 

the argament that maternal love, a deslre so commonly and so 

compellingly felt ought for that very reason to be 

considered organic and universal 

6.4.0. Marge Plercy's Woman on the Edge of Time throws up 

an interesting and much sought after possibll~ty for change 

ln attrtudes towards motherhood, namely the involvement of 

fathers too In child rearing Wlth the firm entrenchment of 

feminlst motherhood in our culture, Piercy's utopian vlsion

246 

is being translated into reallty. the previously existing 

mother - child lnteractlon is converted to interaction 

between parent and child. The concept of 'mother' 1s 

extended to mean any person of either sex. A growing 

awareness of the lmportance of fathering has been created in 

soclety where full-tlme mothering is no longer the norm. 

With tlme, stereotypes have changed. Fathers have become 

frlends, and as work and career have become an Integral part 

of a woman's life, mothers no longer bear the demlgod tag 

The role of the mother today depends on how effectively the 

partner plays the role of the father The reallzatlon that 

fathers are parents too, and the recognltlon that what 

chlldren need 1s the warm, loving attentlon of a few 

cons1s:ent caregivers, not the full time devotlon of the 

mother alone --- amply illustrated in Eerland and Woman On 

the Edge of Time --- are factors that have revamped the 

maternal rcle The advent of women lnto the professional 

stream and tbelr new role as pravlder, has necessitated a 

reshuffl~ng of roles, enabllng men to explore their homemaking 

aptltude The sharlng sf the provider role by the 

mother calls :or a sharing of the 3urturer role by the 

father Role sharing, however, does not mean role reversal, 

it d3es not mean that the mother takes over the provlder 

role exclus~vely and the father the chlld-care role. Nor 1s 

role sharing the same as mere helping Just helping does

247 

not relieve the mother of her responsibilities; it is the 

psychological responsibility that makes the integration of 

the mother role and worker role so difficult. 

With the 

elimination of the sexual divlsion of labour and the public 

/ privato dlchotorny, 'motherhood' extends to 'parenthood', 

no longer adhering to gender-based roles. 

Thls changing 

Image 1s increasingly reflected In the med~a, most obviously 

in advertisements whlch have switched over from the 

dellneatlon of the devoted mother-at-home to the independent 

woman-at-work, and, conversely, from the macho image of the 

man to a more 'homely' one - of the father in the kltchen, 

the father wlth hls daughter, his son. 

6.4.1. Such a masslve change, especially with regard to 

notrons deeply embedded m the human psyche sxnce centuries, 

has not met wlth universal consent 

Even today, mothers 

continue to be confined to thelr home-bound responsibllltles 

which Includes twenty-four hour mothering with little or 

absolutely no involvement from their partners. Brlnging men 

rnto the parenting process and domestlc work has not been an 

easy task. Wantlng, and even demanding, a partner's equal 

partlclpation, does not guarantee securing it. Lack of co- 

operation from thelr partners is what has made many mothers 

such as Morag of The Diviners and Rosamund of The Millstone 

opt for single parenthood 

Women like them, who attempt to 

integrate work and motherhood, find it easier to do so

248 

without a spouse than to try to secure the help of one 

Single mothers see men as a hindrance rather than a help in 

combining work and motherhood To them, balancing career, 

housework, children and husband seems a tougher job than 

managing career, housework and children 

6.4.2. Should the cholce then be an either / or one - as 

Meridlan of Meridian and Kate of The Sumxner Before the Dark 

are forced to make - a choice between family and career? Or 

1s it practically possible to integrate motherhood wlth 

career as Rosamund of The Millstone succeeds In achieving? 

For many femlnlsts, motherhood loses lts significance unless 

:t is interwoven wrth work outslde home. Srmcne de Beauvolr 

remarks 

[A woman1 cannot consent to brlng forth 1:fe 

unless llfe has meaning, she cannot be a mother 

wrthout endeavouring to play a role In the 

economic, pollt~cal and soclal llfe of the tlmes 

the woman who en]oys the rlchest individual 

lzfe wrll have the most to glve her chlldren and 

wlll demand the leasr from them, she who acqulres 

In effort and struggle a sense of true human 

values wlll be best abie to brlng them up properly 

(1971.540) 

In thls context, the dlstlnction between workxng women and 

working mothers cannot be overlooked 

The predicament of 

the worklng mothers is even more lntense as thelr task 

lncludes ownlng physlcal and emotional responsibll~ty for 

their children, husband, home and career. Added to thls 1s 

the plaguing sense of yullt that is foisted on them by an

249 

androcentric society which repeatedly asks: Are worklng 

women good mothers? In Meridian, The Summer Before the Dark 

and The Dark Holds No Terrors, worklng fathers are never 

consldered a problem, only worklng mothers are because 

child-care has always been a mother's exclusive duty It is 

however be'lng established today that working mothers enJoy 

then chlldren more and are less irritable with them than 

the full-time mothers, and that the employment of mothers 

has no deleterious effect on the children's phys~cal, 

soclal. ~ntellectual or emotional development 

6.4.3. When they are not able to fit Into patriarchal 

moulds. Morag (The Diviners). Rosamund (The Millstone1 and 

Ira [Nectar in a Sieve) opt for slngle parenthood. An 

extended possiblllty from single motherhood is lesbian 

motherhood Though we do not come across lesbxan mothers ln 

the texts undertaken for study, lesblan motherhood is yet 

another optlon available for women Bct lesblan morherhood, 

also consldered 'deviant', comes under the censure of 

soclety According to a socxety whose focus is "the best 

Interests of the child", llvlng w ~th a lesblan mother 1s 

detrimental :o the child However, some feel that the chlld 

would be safe if the woman behaved like a mother to her 

child and dld not flaunt her lesbianism or live with a 

lesbian lover or engage In lesbian politlcs The posslble 

harm that is considered is - that of a potential lesbian or

250 

gay identity in the chlld, harm of stigmatization of the 

child because of having a lesblan mother, harm of living in 

an immoral or illegal environment (Robson 1992 175). 

6.5.0. The ambivalence characterlsing the mother - 

daughter relationships in Meridian. The Dark Holds No 

Terrors, The Diviners and The Summer Before the Dark poses 

a question: Is mother-hate the precondltlon for female 

liberation and self-determlnation? Do the daughters 

necessarily have to rebel agalnst their mothers and overcome 

then claustrophobic influence In order to establish an 

Independent identity? Why does the mother always exert a 

negatl.de xnfluence and why doesn't her daughter imblbe her 

?osltlve values3 Why do the daughters strlve hard to 

separate both physically and psychologically and why 1s this 

comlng apart so painful? 

6.5.1. A psychoanalytlc framework for femlnist thinklng 

has lts llmltatlons in that lt follows Frend In blamlng the 

mother for the daughter's victlmizatlon Nancy Chodorow's 

psychoanalytlc femlnlsm 1s mother- directed and so are Nancy 

Frlday's My Mother / My Self: A Daughter's Search for 

Identity and Marle Cardinal's The Words To Say It. Among 

the texts studied here Walker's Meridian and Deshpande's The 

Dark Holds No Terrors, adopting a daughter's perspective, 

blame the mother for the daughter's predicament. Lesslng' s

251 

The Summer Before the Dark and Laurence's 

he Diviners 

however are more positive portrayals of the mother - 

daughter interaction; probing into the causes of mother - 

accusation, they make the mother's voice heard as well. The 

lnitlal anblvalence in the relatlonshlp is resolved when 

each begrns to derive strength and redefine themselves 

through the other, reiterating the fact that thls 

reiat~onship need not always be a stifllng one, thus adding 

welghL to Adrlenne Rlch's statement that the loss of the 

mother to the daughter or the daughter to the mother, is the 

essentlai female tragedy 

Seen from thls perspectlve, 

mother-hate can be vlewed as an exception rather than the 

rule, for the daughter's llberatlon. 

6.6.0. Wlth a developing femlnlst orlentatlon towards 

motherhood, the women dellneated above flnd themselves in a 

posltlon to perceive, analyse and crltlclse the soclal 

construction of motherhood But such an awareness does not 

necessarlly make the search for and development of 

aiternatlves much easler 

The path to femln~st motherhood 

1s fraught with varlous dilemmas, guilt, tenslons and 

conflicts. 

The woman's autonomy as a separate belng 

conflicts wlth the ch~ld she bears but is not able to rear 

Leaving the old world of feminine motherhood behind is 

difficult not only because the traditions and conventions 

associated with the mother wield a heavy welght, but also

252 

because thls existence has held for women certain 

advantages. As they dare to defy the constraints upon them, 

they leave behind this security and risk enforced 

estrangement and the terrors of isolated life 

Gordon, in her book Feminist 

Tuula 

Mothers, talks of the 

pleasures, pains, contradictions and difficulties in the 

lives of mothers who are feminists. 

many women experienced gullt and paln, when their 

power as mothers of thelr chlldren was contrasted 

to a framework of Imitations that they lived In. 

The world was seen as uncarlng and unlust, 

mediating between thls world and thelr ch~ldren 

was a hard and emotional task, and mothers felt 

relatively powerless (Gordon 1990 131) 

The Inadequacles felt by the new mother, who 1s exposed to 

chlldcare demands by the social relations of :he 

famlly, leaves her feellng an unnatural or bad parent 

parrlarchal 

As a 

mother, she 1s supposed to meet all the child's needs 

slngle-handed, to care for and stimulate the chlld's 

physical, emotional and mental development, and to feel 

fulfilled ln dolng so 

But when In reality, she 1s unable 

to cope wlth these varlous responslblllties, she experiences 

the full welght and burden of maternal gullt, that 

dally, nxghtly, hourly, Am I doing what is right? 

Am I dong enough? Am I dolng too much' The 

lnstitutlon of motherhood flnds all mothers more 

or less guilty of havlng failed their children 

IRlch 1976.2231 

Worklng women especially, who had to tackle a publlc role 

along with their private one had to consider how much they

253 

should orientate themselves to their children, and how much 

to their work. At thls juncture, they begin to experience 

tremendous pressure: they are torn between feelrng that 

their chlldren needed more from them than they were glving; 

and at the same tlme, did not want to slacken thelr work. 

The solutlon lay neither ln withdrawlng into the family nor 

In shutting off thelr responsibilltles In thrs ambivalent 

situation, women, at one level, experience pleasure in 

maternal love, then reproductive capacltles and maternal 

competence, they welcome the responsibilzty that confirms 

thelr potential as women; yet, on another level, they are 

aware that they carry out thelr responsib~litles In a 

soclal, materlal and cultural environment which does not 

prlvllege mothers In such an atmosphere, medlatxng between 

work outslde and chlldren at home becomes physically and 

emotlcnally taxlng 

6.6.1. The experiences of Kate (The Summer Before the 

Dark1 and Sari (The Dark Holds No Terrors) reveal that the 

patriarchal flnger of accusation 1s perpetually polnted at 

the mocher for anythlng that goes wrong In the famlly 

S(mother1 love, the scapegoatlng of mothers, mother-blame, 

the pathogenic mother - are the consequences of the unequal 

dlstr~butlon of power in a soclety, the natural outgrowth of 

a society that approves sexual divislon of labour, seelng 

chlld-rearing as exclusively women's work. Almost every

254 

conceivable human woe is attributed to the mother. The 

father's failures are considered less serious than the 

mother's mlstakes because fathers are out of the child's 

life most of the time The mother, caught in a vicious 

circle, is held responsible for the children's psychological 

and behavloural problems. Kate and Sam comprehend that if 

they work, they are accused of child neglect, if they stay 

at home and devote themselves to the chlldren, they are 

berated for smothering their offsprlng. The absent or cold 

father 1s rarely seen as the cause of problem chlldren. 

Mothers, on the other hand, are warned about the dlre 

consequences of llttle or too much love and are therefore 

told to perform thelr task wlth great diligence as even one 

false move or dereliction of duty could mark the chlld for 

ever. 

6.6.2. Freudian psychoanalysls has been the chlef factor 

in singllng out the mother for speclal attention 

Freudlan m:croscope, 

Under the 

the mother became the scapegoat for 

anythlng that went wrong in the famlly 

comments In thls context 

Betty Frleden 

It was suddenly discovered that the mother could 

be blamed for almost everything In every case 

history of troubled child, alcoholic, suicidal, 

schizophrenic, psychopathic, neurotlc adult, 

Impotent, homosexual male; frlgld, promlscuous 

female: ulcerous, asthmatic, and otherwise 

drsturbed American, could be found a mother 

[Frledan 1971:1891 .

255 

The Sunmar Before the Dark and The Dark Holds No Terrors 

henceforth ralse the questions If mothers are really so 

dangerous for children, why does soclety insist on forcing 

the care of chlldren on them? Why are they solely assigned 

the exclusive care of children? 

6.7.0. The opposing stances taken by the authors of Woman 

On the Edge of Time and The Handmaid's Tale are polnters to 

the fact that the hottest bone of contention and the most 

volatlle and multi-faceted controversy among various groups 

of feminists themselves is the issue regarding technological 

motherhood Whlle various other technologies have been 

accepted and lmblbed In soclety almost overnlght, the Issue 

of repraductlve techniques continues to be flercely debated 

over, years after lts inception This is due to the fact 

that no other technology affects human belngs so personally 

as does reproductlve technology, br1nglr.g in its wake 

several ethlcal, soclal and legal concerns as well 

Although there 1s no doubt that new developments lr. 

reprod-ctlve technology have made it possible for rnfertlle 

women to have thelr own chlldren, it 1s also true that these 

new possib~lities often exert pressures that restrlct 

women's reproductlve freedom and choices Moreover, these 

technologies are unevenly available, thus reinforcing 

racial, cultural and economic inequalltles

256 

6.7.1. The 'Baby M' case should be mentioned in this 

context In this instance, a woman, Mary Beth Whitehead, 

contracted wlth a man, William Stern, to be artlflclally 

inseminated with his sperm, carry a baby to term, and 

deliver it to hlm upon blrth, for a fee of ten thousand 

dollars However, the mother changed her mind, refused the 

fee, refused to deliver the baby, and fled with her husband 

and children. A hlghly publlclsed custody battle ensued in 

whlch the judge allocated the baby to Stern and hls wife, an 

upper mlddle class couple, stripping the contractual mother, 

who belonged to the worklng class, of ail parental rlghts 

(Elchler 1988 294) The 'Baby M' case provldes strong 

evldence that publlc, ludicla1 and leglslatlve accomodation 

lags considerably behlnd the sclentlf:~ and soclal reailty 

reflected In the reproductive alternatrve Wlth the 

commerclalrzatlon of chlldbearlng and the separation of 

motherhood Into genetlc, uterlne and socla; motherhood, a 

problematic qcestlon whlch arlses 1s In the case of 

confllcr, who would be recognized as the legal mother - the 

genetlc mother, the uterlne mother or the soclal mother' If 

the ckld 1s produced through AID and egg donation, who 1s 

legally the parent' The semen donor, the egg donor, or the 

soclai father and mother? In AID, technically lt 1s 

irrelevant whether an egg is fertilized wlth the semen of 

the husband of the woman lnvolved or wlth somebody else's

257 

semen, socially, ethically and legally, however, it makes a 

very significant difference. 

6.7.2. Familial structures are also affected by 

reproductive technology The age-old concept of 'family' 

undergoes a restructuring, a revlslon of what it means to be 

a parent, and the rights and obligations attached to this 

Status Apart from exceptional cases such as adoption, 

foster-parenthood and step-parenting, by a 'parent' we 

generaily assume that biological and social components merge 

In one person Thls concept undergoes a sharp change due to 

reproductlve techniques, creatlng further diversity In 

family conflguratlons Motherhood has been irrevocably 

changed, affecting the experience of pregnancy and parentchild 

relat~onshlps Pre-conception contract'Ja1 arrangements 

affect chlldren the most who suffer intensely when kept in 

lgncrance of blologlcal origlns Detractors of 

technological motherkood therefore feel that lt turns 

chlldrer. lnto a commodity, pregnancy Into a purchaseable 

service and reduces the woman to a breeder, a means to an 

end Parenthood becomes comodlfled, pregnancy ]udlclallsed, 

reprodllction medlcallsed, and control over one's own 

reproductive processes, diminished In the process 

6.8.0. Are feminism and motherhood ln diametrical 

opposltlon? 

Is it impossible to be both a feminist and a

258 

mother at the same time? Why do feminists who are mothers 

experience a conflict between their feminist leanings and 

maternal experiences' Why was lt necessary for women to 

relect their own biology, relinquish a part of themselves to 

be feminists? Is it possible to integrate feminism and 

motherhood so that the two are no longer at odds? Feminlsm 

began as a natural and inevitable reactlon against the 

poiitlcs of patriarchy which instltutlonalised all familial 

structures to subordinate women and used them to lts own 

advantage Since patrlarchy Insisted that all women to be 

mothers, women had to rebel against their own potential 

motherhood, declaring 1t a restrlctlon and imposition on 

thelr minds and bodles. in order to combat patrlarchy, they 

had to give up a part of their self In recent tmes 

however, the decislon regarding whether to mother or not, or 

when and how to mother, 1s no more dictated by patriarchy, 

but left to the woman's discretion As Drabble's The 

Millstone illustrates, women can Integrate femrnlsm and 

motherhood In perfect unlson and experience both to the 

fullest satisfaction. 

6.8.1. Conslderlng the problems that the emerging mothers 

- Rosarncnd, Morag, Kate, Mer~dlan and Saru - face, may lead 

one to wonder if feminlne motherhood was a more desirable 

condition than feminist motherhood. Dld feminlne motherhood 

give women more power that femlnlst motherhood? Did

259 

feminine motherhood allow them greater security and more 

comfort? 

Is the sacriflclng of personal comforts a heay 

price to pay for gaining personal freedom? 

No doubt, 

feminlne motherhood does sometimes have its compensations - 

emotional and financial security, a certain amount of power 

withln the home, a complacency and sense of satisfaction on 

garnlng soclal acceptance, whlle the road to femlnist 

motherhood has been a lonely one for many women, involving 

various tensions, rlsks, gullt and soclal disapproval. 

Yet 

the femlnlst mothers are not prepared to trade lndlvlduallty 

for security - they gear themselves to face these conflicts 

and dllemmas 

As Betty Frledan remarks 

I wonder if a few problems are not somehow better 

than this smliing empty passlvlty If they are 

happy, these young women who live the femlnrne 

mystique, then 1s thls the end of the road7 Or 

are the seeds of something worse than frustration 

Inherent In thls image7 11971.641 

6.8.2. Motherhood, therefore, is seen as a 'dls-ease' 

rather than a dlsease The dlfficultles of mothering are 

mewed In the context of a soclety whach does not value 

motherhood or afford women control over then llves Only 

ln a soclety where women would not have to endure the 

censure of iess-than perfect motherhood and less-thanperfect 

career performance, In a soclety where lobs are 

structured in such a way that the famlly does not become the 

sole responsibility of the woman, would motherhood become a

260 

fulfilling experience, with the resentment cut out and the 

problem of establishrng an effective balance between self- 

fulfilment and family obligations resolved. 

6.9.0. Th~s dissertation opens up subjects related to 

motherhood that could lend themselves for further study 

The relationship between wrltlng and motherhood can be 

explored, employing the creativity metaphor, grounded in 

mother-daughter / artist-creation parallels 

Further, 

maternal discourse, whlch had been stifled tlll recently by 

both androcentrlc writlng (in whlch the mother 1s negated) 

and gynocentrlc wrlting (where the story 1s usually told 

from the daughter's perspectlvel , now comes to the fore as 

mothers begln to speak / write, transmuting then sllence 

Into anger, no longer remalnlng the sllent m(other), thus 

dlscredltlng the notlon that "mothers don't wrlte, they are 

wrltten" 

Comparison of gynocentrlc texts wrltten from a 

materzal view polnt and those wrltten from a dauahter's 

perspective, would provlde scope for an lnterestlng study 

6.9.1. Vlewlng motherhood as a soc~ally constructed 

lnstltutlon, whlch In ~ t s present form, undermines the 

mother's mental health and produces chlldren who are 

ambivalent towards their own mothers, lt is obsewed that 

maternity and motherhood become springboards towards female 

hysteria. 

'Motherhood and Madness' could be another sublect

261 

for exploration, and Gloria Naylor's The Women Of Brewster 

Place, 

Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, Margaret 

Atwood' s Surfacing, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, Marge 

Piercy's Woman On The Edge of Time, the posslble texts 

chosen for thls study. 

6.9.2. 'Mother-daughter Relatlonshlps in Women's 

Autoblographles' is yet another area that would provlde 

scope for further study Here, the daughter - 

autobiographer becomes the recreator of her maternal parent, 

and the controlling adult In the llterary relationship 

The 

autoblographles of Maya Angelou, Slmcne de Beauvolr, Sally 

Carlghar, Nikkl Glovannl, Jane Howard, Maxlne Hong Klngston 

and Margaret Mead can be taken up for this study. 

6.10.0. In flne, th~s 

study reveals that the lnstltutlon 

Of motherhood 1s not totally absllshed, ~t only gets amended 

glvlng way to a more tolerant acceptance of the plurallstlc 

attitudes towards motherhood. The fact however remalns that 

the institution of motherhood 1s defxntely shaken, in the 

process upsetting various religious, soclal and famllla; 

patterns 

The march towards a new motherhood has brought 

with it many tenslons and conflicts in a woman - the 

confilct between self-preservation and maternal feelings, 

between the individual and the mother In a woman. Yet, the 

consensus that emerges in the end 1s that feminists mothers

262 

are prepared to face the dilemmas that this awakening brlngs 

rather than letting themselves wallow in the happy passivity 

of ferninme motherhood.

SELECT BIBLIOaRAPHY 

PRIMARY SOWRCES 

Atwood, Margaret 1986: The Randmaid's Tale. Boston: Houghton 

Mifflin. 

Deshpande, Shashi 1980. The Dark Holds No Terrors. 

Delhi: Vikas Publishers. 

New 

Drabble, Margaret 1965 The Millstone 

and Nicolson, 1978. 

Gllman, Charlotte Perklns 1915. Herland. 

Books. 1979. 

Laurence, Margaret 1974 The Diviners. 

and stewart-s ant am ~td., 1985 

London: Weidenfeld 

NewYork: Pantheon 

Toronto: McClelland 

Lesslng, Doris 1973. The Smer Before the Dark 

Brltain. Penguln Books, 1982 

Great 

Markandaya, Karnala 1954: Nectar in a Sieve 

Publishing House, 1980 

Bombay Jalco 

Morrison, Toni 1987 Beloved. 

Llbrary 

NewYork. New Arnerlcan 

Piercy, Marge 1976 Woman On The Edge of Time 

Alfred A. Knopf . 

NewYork 

Walker, Alice 1976. Meridian. NewYork. Harcourt. 

SECONDARY SOURCES 

Albinski, Nan Bowman 1988: Woman's Utopias in British and 

American Fiction. London. Routledge.

Alladi, Uma 1986: "Nobody / But Nobody / Can Make It Out 

Here Alone: Mother-Daughter Relationship in the Novels 

of Contemporary Afro-Amerlcan Women writers". Indian 

Journal of American Studies. 16(1), pp.101-105 

------------ 1989: Woman and Eer Family : Indian and Afro- 

American - A Literary Perspective. New York: Envoy 

Press, 1989. 

Arora, Neena 1991: Nayantara Sahgal and Doris Lessing : A 

Feminist Study in Cormparison. New Delhi: Prestige 

Books. 

Bach. Kathleen K 1987 Research Guide: Surrogate 

Motherhood. New York : Wllllam S. Hein Company. 

Badinter, Elisabeth 1981 Mother love . Myth and Reality. 

New York : MacMillan. 

Banerll, Niroj 1990. Kamala Markandaya : A Critical Study 

Allahabad : Kitab Mahal. 

Beauvolr, Simone de 1971: The Second Sex. Ed 

H.M.Parshley New York. Knopf 

and trans 

Berets, Ralph 1990 "A Jungian Interpretation of the Dream 

Sequence In Dorls Lesslng's The Summer Before the 

Dark" Modern Flction Studies 36 (3), pp 117-130. 

Bernard, Jessie 1974 The Future of Motherhood. 

The Dial Press 

Bernard, Jessle 1975 Women. Wives, Mothers 

Options Chicago Aldlne Publishing Co 

New York 

Values and 

Brandt, Di 1993: Wild Mother Dancing : Mternal Narrative in 

Canadian literature. Manitoba : University of Manitoba 

Press.

Budhos, Shirley 1987: The Theme of Enclosure in Selected 

Works of Doris Leasing. New York : Whltson Publishing 

CO. 

BUSS, Helen M. 1985: Mother and Daughter Relationships in 

the Manawaka works of Margaret Laurence. Canada : 

University of Victoria. 

Cederstrom. Lorelei 1990. "Doris Lessing's Use of Satire in 

The S-er Before the DarkN. Modern Fiction Studies. 

36(3), pp.131-45. 

Ceplair, Larey (ed) 1991. Charlotte Perkins ailman : A Non- 

Fiction Reader New York . Columbia Unlverslty Press. 

Chandra, Suresh 1993 "Women's Liberation in the Flction of 

Margaret Atwood and Shashi Deshpande". Meerut Journal 

of Comparative Literature. VIiZ), pp.77-85. 

Christian. Barbara 1985 Black Feminist Criticism, 

Perspectives on Black Women writers. New York: 

Pergamon Press 

Colllns. Patricla Hlll 1990 Black Fainist Thought . 

Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of 

Environment. Boston . Unwln Hyrnan. 

Cooper - 

Novel .ists 

Clark, 

London Dlana 1986 Interviews with Contemporary 

The MacMlllan Press Ltd 

Creighton, Joanne V. 

Methuen & Co 

1985 Margaret Drabble London 

Cunninghan, Gall 1982: "Women and Children Flrst: the novels 

of Margaret Drabble". Twentieth-Century Women 

Novelists. ed. Thomas F.Staley. London : MacMillan. 

Daly, Mary 1973. Beyond God the Father : Toward a Philosophy 

of Women's Liberation. Boston : Beacon Press

Davidson, Arnold E. 1981 The Art of Margaret Atwood. 

Essays in Criticism. Toronto : Ansasi. 

Davidson, Cathy N. & Broner, E.M. 1980 The Lost Tradition : 

Mothers and Daughters in literature. New York : Ungar. 

Degler, Carl N. 1989: "Charlotte Perkins Gilman on the 

Theory and Practice of Feminism". Charlotte Perkins 

Gibn . The Woman and Her Work ed. Sheryl Meyerrng 

London . Ui4I Research Press. 

Dhawan, R.K. (ed) 1991: Indian Women Novelists New Delhi. 

Prestige Books. 

Donchln. Anne 1989. "The Growing Femlnist Debate over the 

New Reproductive Technologies'' .Hypatia, 4 (3) ,pp 136-49. 

Elchler, Margrit 1988. Families in Canada Today . Recent 

Changes and their Polacy Consaquences 

Elsenstein, Hester 1984 Contemporary Feminist Thought 

London . Unwln. 

Ellman, Mary 1968 Thinking About Women New York 

Harcourt Brace Jovanovlch Inc 

Frledan, Betty 197i The Feminine Mystique Harmondsworth. 

Pengum. 

Garner, Shrrley Nelson et a1 (edl 1985: The X(other) Tongue: 

Essays in feminist psychoanalytic interpretation. 

Ithaca. New York Cornell University Press. 

Gerson, Kathleen 1985 Hard choices : How women decide about 

Work, Career and Motherhood. Berkely : University of 

California Press. 

Godard, Barbara (ed) 1987. Gynocritics : Fminist Approaches 

to Canadian and Quebec Women's Writing. Toronto, 

Ontario . ECW Press.

Gould, Joan 1988: Spirale : A Woman's Journey through family 

life. New York : Random. 

Gordon. Tuula 1990. Feminist Mothers. New York : New York 

University Press. 

Gubar, Susan 1989: "She in Herland : Feminism as Fantasy". 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman : The Woman and Her Work. ed 

Sheryl Meyering London : UMI Research Press 

Gunnars, Kristjane (ed) 1988: Croasing the River : Essays in 

Honour of Margaret Laurence Winnipeg, Manitoba . 

Turnstone Press 

Hall, K Graehme 1989 "Mothers and Chlldren . Rlsing with 

the Resistless Tide ln Herland". Charlotte Perkins 

Gilman . The Woman and Her Work ed. Sheryl Meyerlng 

London UMI Research Press. 

Harrls, Janice H. 1975 "Our Mute. Inglorious Mochers" 

Midwest Quarterly XVI I3 I 

The 

Harrrs, Trudier 1991 Fiction and Folklore The Novels of 

Toni Morrison Knoxville The Unlverslty of Tennessee 

Press. 

Hengen, Shannon 1993. Margaret Atwood's Power Mirrors, 

Reflections and Images in Select Fiction and Poetry 

Toronco Second Story Press. 

Hlll, Mary A 1980 Charlotte Perkins Gilman . The Making of 

A Radical Feminist Phlladelphla Temple Universlty 

Press 

Hxrsch, Marlanne 1989 The Mother/Daughter Plot Narrative, 

Psychoanalysis, Feminism. Bloomingcon : Indlanna 


-----.------ 

1990 "Maternal Narratives : Cruel Enough to 

Stop the Blood" Toni Morrison. ed. Wllfred D Samuels 

& Clenora Hudson-Weems Boston : Twayne Publishers.

Howells, Coral Ann 1988: "In Search of Lost Mothers : 

Margaret Laurence's The Diviners and Elizabeth Jolley's 

Hiss Peabody's Inheritance. ?.riel. 19(1), pp.57-70. 

Jones, Carolyn M. 1993: "Sula and Beloved : Images of Cain 

in the Novels of Ton1 Morrison". African American 

Review. 27141. pp.615-26. 

Jung, C.G 1972: Four Archetypes 

Routledge & Kegan Paul. 

London & Henley : 

Karplnski, Joanne B. 

Perkins Oilman. (ed) 1992. Critical Essays 

New York . G.K.Hal1 & Co. 

Charlotte 

Ladd, Rosalxnd Ekman 1989 "Women in Labor . Some Issues 

Rbout Informed Consent" Eypatia 4 (3;. 

Lane, Rnn J 1979 "1ntroduct;on". Herland New York 

Pantheon Books 

-...-.--.-.-- 1990. To Eerland and Beyond The Life and Work of 

Charlotte Perkins Oilman New York . Pantheon Books. 

Langland, Elizabeth 1987 "Patrlarchal IdeoloW and Marglnal 

Motherhood ln Vlctorran Novels by Women',. 19 i3), 

pp.381-94. 

Lldoff. Joan 1993 "Fluld Boundarles The Mocher - Daughter 

Story, the Story - Reader Matrrx". Texas Studies in 

Literature and Language 35i41, pp 398-419 

;lsclo, Lorralne 1992 "Beloved's Narrative . Writlng 

Mother's Milk" Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. 

11111, pp 31-45 

Lorber. Judith 1989: "Choice, Gift, or Patrlarchal Bargain? 

Women's consent to In Vitro Eertillzatlon in Male 

Infertility". Eypatia. 4131, pp 23-36.

Mala, R. 1989: The Predicment of the Indian Woman : The 

Eeroines in the Novels of Shashi ~eshpande - A Select 

Study. An unpublished M.Phil Dlssertation, Pondicherry 

University, July 1989. 

Margolis, Maxine L. 1984: Mothers and Such : Views of 

American women and why they changed. Berkeley : 

University of California Press. 

Martln, Carol A. 1983. "No Angel in the House . Victorlan 

Mothers and Daughters in George Eliot and Elizabeth 

Gaskell" . The Midwest Quarterly XXIV (3), pp.297- 

314. 

Mballa, Doreatha Drummond 1991. Toni Morrison's Developing 

Class Consciousness. Selinsqrove . Susquehanna 

Unlverslty Press. 

McKay, Nellie Y. (ed) 1988: Critical Essays on Toni 

Morrison. Boston, Massachusetts . G K Hall & Co. 

McLaren, Arlene Tiqar (ed) 1988. Gender and Society . 

Creating a Canadian Women's Sociology Toronto : Copp 

Clark Pitman Ltd. 

Meyerlng, Sheql L (ed) 1989 Charlotte Perkins Oilman 

The Woman and Her Work London . UMI Research Press 

Mol, Tor11 (ed) 1987. French Feminist Thought A Reader. 

Oxford . Basil Blackwell. 

Morley, Patrlcia 1991. Margaret Laurence : The Long Journey 

Home. Montreal : McGl11-Queen's Unlverslty Press 

Murphy, Julien S 1989: "Is Pregnancy Necessary? Feminist 

Concerns About Ectogenesis" Eypatia. 4 (3), pp.66-83 

Nadel. Alan 1988: 'Reading the Body : Alice Walker's 

Meridian and the Archaeology of Self". Modern Fiction 

Studies. 34 (1).

Nelson, Hilde Lindemann h Nelson, James Lindemann 1989: 

"Cutting Motherhood in Two : Some Suspicious Concerning 

Surrogacy". Hypatia. 4(3), pp.85-94. 

Nicholson, Colin (ed) 1990: Critical Approaches to the 

Piction of XargarOt Laurence. Vancouver : University 

of British Columbia Press. 

Oakley, Ann 1976: Woman's work : The housewife, past and 

present. New York : Random. 

Peterson, Elizabeth A. 1992: African-American Wmen : A 

Study of Will and Succaas Jefferson . McFarland & Co. 

Peyser, Thomas Galt 1992: "Reproducing Utopla : Charlotte 

Perkins Gilman and Herland". . Studies in American 

Fiction. 20(1), pp.1-16. 

Plckerlng, Jean 1990 Understanding Doris Lessing. Columbla: 

Unlverslty of South Carollna Press. 

Prasad, Madhusudan 1984. Perspectives on Kamala Harkandaya. 

Ghazlabad : Vimal Prakashan 

Rich, Adrienne 1976. Of Woman Born : Motherhood 

Experience and Institution New York Norton. 

as 

Rignej, Barbara Hlll 1978 Madness and Sexual Politics in 

the feminist novel: Studies in Bronte, Woolf, Lessing 

and Atwood. Madison : Unlverslty of Wlsconsln Press. 

---.--.----- 

1990 The Voices of Toni Morrison. Columbla 

Ohlo State Unlversity Press. 

Robson, Ruthann 1992. "Mother : The Legal Domestlcatlon of 

Lesbian Existence" Rypstia. 7(4), pp.172-185. 

Rosslter, Amy 1988: Prom Private to Public : A Feminist 

Exploration of Early Mothering. Toronto : The Women's 

Press.

Rumsey, Jean P. 1990: "Constructing Maternal Thrnking". 

Eypatia. 5 (3) . 

Ruthven, K.K. 1984. Feminist Literary Studies. Cambridge. 

Cambridge Unrversity Press. 

Salat, M.F. 1992 "Dehumanization of the Male : A Note on 

Margaret Laurence's Fiction" Meerut Journal of 

Comparative Literature md Language. V(11, pp.58-65. 

Samuels, Wilfred D and Hudson-Weems, Clenora 1990: Toni 

Morrison Boston : Twayne Publishers 

Sangari, Kumkum 1983: "The Politics of Utopia Charlotte 

Perkrns Gllman's Herland" Indlan Journal of American 

Studies 13 (21, pp.9-25. 

Sapler, Roberta led1 1972 Female Liberation History and 

Current Politics. New York . Alfred A.KnopE. 

Scharnhorst, Gary 1985. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Boston : 

Twayne Publishers 

Shanley, Mary Lyndon 1993. "Surrogate Mothering and Women's 

Freedom A Crltique of Contracts for Human 

Reproduction". Signs. 18 (31 , pp. 618-639. 

ShowaLter, Elalne 1989 "Towards A Femlnrst POetlCS" 

Contemporary Criticism An Anthology ed 

V S.Sethuraman. Madras : MacMillan Indla Ltd 

Snitow, Ann 1990 "Beloved". Toni Morrison. ed Wllfred 

D Samuels & Clenora Hudson-Weems Boston Twayne 

Publishers. 

Sprague, Clalre 1987: Rereading Doris Lessing . Narrative 

Patterns of Doubling and Repetition. Chapel Hill and 

London . The University of North Carolina Press

Sprengnether, Madelon 1990. The Spectral Mother : Freud, 

feminism and psychoanalysis. Ithaca : Cornell 


Springer, Marlene (ed.) 1977. What Manner of Worn : Essays 

on English and American Life and Literature. Oxford . 

Basil Blackwell. 

Staley, Thomas F 1982. Twentieth-Century Women Novelists 

London : The MacMlllan Press Ltd. 

St.Andrews, Bonnle 1986: Forbidden Fruit . On the 

relationship between women and knowledge in Doris 

Leasing, Selma Lagerlof, Kate Chogin and Margaret 

Atwood New York . Whltson Publishing Co. 

Stewart, Grace 1981 A New Mythos . the novel of the artist 

as heroine. Montreal EPWP 

Sultana, Tauslff 1990 "Maternal Bonds Imases of Black 

Mothers in Ton1 Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Sula" 

Indian Journal of herican Studies 20 (1), pp 35-39 

Thomas, Clara 1976 The Manawaka World of Margaret Laurence. 

Toronto McClelland and Stewart Ltd. 

Tong, Rosemarle 1989. Feminist Thought. London Unwin 

H yman 

Umeh, Marie A 1987, "A Comparative Study of the Idea of 

Motherhood in Two Third World Novels" CLA Journal 

XXXI(l), pp.3:-43 

Uroff, Margaret D 1973 "Sylvla Plath on Motherhood". The 

Midwest Quarterly XVIl), pp.70-90. 

VanSpanckeren, Kathym and Castro. Jan Garden Ieds) 1988 

Margaret Atwood . Vision and Poems. Carbondale : 

Southern Illinois University.

Veevers, J.E. 1991: Continuity and Change in Marriage and 

P-ily. Toronto : Holt. Rinehart and Winston of Canada 

Ltd. 

Vevaina, Coomi S. 1993: "Wastelanders in this New Gilead : 

An analysls of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale". 

lunbivalence : Studies in Canadian Literature. ed. 

Chandramohan. New Delhz : Sterling Publication. 

Wali, S.K. 1987: Kamala Markandaya's 'Nectar in a Sieve' : A 

Stylistic Study. Jaipur : Printwell Publishers. 

Walker, Alice 1983: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. San 

Diego : Harcourt. 

Weedon, Chris 1987. Feminist Practice and Post Structuralist 

Theory Oxford : Basil Blackwell. 

Wincheil, Donna Haisty 1992. Alice Walker. New York. 

Twayne Publishers. 

Wion, Phll~p K. 1985: "The ?&sent Mother in Emlly Bronte's 

Wuthering Heights". American Imago. 42(2), pp.143-63. 

Yalom, Marilyn 1985: Maternity, Morality and the Literature 

of Madness. University Park . Pennsylvania State 


Zerillr, Llnda M.G. 1992: "A Process Without A Sublect. 

Simone de Beauvolr and Julia Krlsteva on Maternity". 

Signs. 18(1), pp.111-35

the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?