Martha's "Quest" in Lessing's "Children of Violence"

Abstract

Violence series illustrate some of the crucial themes and conflicts embodied in the relationship between contemporary mothers and daughters. Lessing depicts, in the persona of the heroine Martha Quest, the psychic dilemmas produced in the modern woman raised by a mother. As traditional sex roles break down and women search for autonomy, potency, and wholeness outside their maternal role, Lessing offers us a model of a woman who struggles for transcendence, and attempts to arrive at a new vision of womanhood. In the Chil