Silent Controllers: Unconscious Emotional Abuse in “The Revolt of ‘Mother’ ”

Abstract

Violence against women in intimate heterosexual relationships taking different shapes and forms is a highly injurious symptom of structured social inequality. Emotional abuse is one that feminist scholars are indeed committed to eliminating. Mary Freeman also exposes this tricky problem in her classic short story “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” in a latent way. Through analysing the manifestation and reaction to the unconscious emotional abuse underlying the father’s aphasia, this paper finds it an undeniable form of androcentrism. Furthermore, we can tell, as the paper reviews the incomplete revolt based on the text and context as well as the reason behind the silence, the gender reversal within the story. This paper, therefore, ascertains Freeman’s attempt to transcend the binary opposition.