Mother Characters Research Articles

Suffering Mothers in Mid-Victorian Novels by Natalie J. McKnight (review)

80Victorian Review Natalie J. McKnight. Suffering Mothers in Mid-Victorian Novels. New York: St. Martin's P, 1997. xi + 162. $39.95 US (cloth). In recent years many critical works have appeared which deal with Victorian womanhood or female characters in Victorian fiction. Some of what is contained in Natalie McKnight's book Suffering Mothers in Mid-Victorian Novels will, as a result, necessarily strike us as familiar. Her specific focus on motherhood, however, is interesting and intelligently presented. This is also a timely book since it appears at a time when motherhood is being reassessed. Victorian ideals of motherhood, as McKnight points out, are still much with us and readers who are or who have considered becoming mothers will find the study carries added resonance. The book's focus is upon the figure of the mother in mid-Victorian fiction, a figure whose importance McKnight rightly states has not been adequately considered. Through discussion of motherhood in novels by Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, William Thackeray and George Eliot, this book demonstrates that mother characters are made into angels or monsters, longed for or feared, absent or punished but are "always powerfully present even in their absence" (33). Mothers are shown to be characters who in a variety of ways — emotionally, physically, economically or socially — suffer or are suffered by those around them particularly their children. The focus is more on reactions to motherhood by authors and characters rather than on mothers' own views of motherhood. McKnight argues that all four writers she discusses demonstrate, in different ways, the influences both of society's views of motherhood and of personal psychological tensions. She uses a dual historicist and psychoanalytical approach in which the psychoanalytical strand is predominant. The historicist aspects of the argument fall by the wayside in analysis of the novels which is a pity because the first chapter which sets up the historical background contains much that is of interest and worthy of further discussion. McKnight examines the image of motherhood created in the midVictorian period by the flourishing of conduct manuals for women, medical books, periodical literature on the subject and Queen Victoria's fecund image. She demonstrates that sociocultural expectations of mothers were unrealistic, contradictory and induced frustration in mothers and in those whose mothers did not live up to the ideal of almost deified selflessness. We might quibble with the ease with which some conclusions are drawn in the historical chapter and find odd that there is only slight reference to the role of religion in determining standards of motherhood, particularly suffering motherhood. There is, Reviews81 however, much that is fascinating here. McKnight shows, for example, that Queen Victoria, mother of nine and widely perceived as an ideal mother, in fact had a horror of sex, pregnancy, childbirth and babies and suffered from post-partum depression. Victoria's real and quite realistic feelings about motherhood, so far from the ideal, would McKnight suggests, "place her in the ranks of the villains in the novelistic world" (16). The second chapter discusses psychoanalytical mothering theories which become central in the examination of novels in the succeeding chapters. The discussion of the implications of mothers being the dominant caregiver is a useful one. Complete power by a mother over a child in infancy, it is argued, leads to resistance to female authority in both men and women because it reminds them of childhood frustrations. McKnight focuses on the various tensions motherhood creates in children. She draws particularly on Melanie Klein's model of hostility to the mother followed by a need for repair or reparation. Creativity in Klein's view is often motivated by guilt towards the mother and the need to make reparation. Writers' own expectations of motherhood are a key element of the chapters that follow, one chapter devoted to each of the four novelists considered. McKnight's examination is not entirely biographical but she draws psychoanalytically on each writer's relationship or lack of relationship with his or her mother. Authors, she argues, can provide missing mothers or replace unsatisfactory ones by creating mother characters. She demonstrates that Dickens and Thackeray show clearly in their novels the angel/monster extremes of motherhood and contain more...

Maternal space and (re)production in Les Rougon-Macquart, by Emile Zola

The mythological aspects of Zola's work have been described as the very foundation of his novels by such eminent critics as David Baguley, Jean Borie and Naomi Schor. Yet the differences between human mothers and maternal spaces in the mythic context remain to be examined. Baguley points out that the earth in La Terre is the central character, la Terre-Mare, that the mythic perspective surpasses the human dramas, comprising the essence of the novel. The centrality of the earth in a novel about fertility and production naturally leads to questions about this displacement of human drama by the mythic and its effects on Zola's mother characters. This paper undertakes the analysis of maternal spaces of Les Rougon-Macquart in regard to the themes of generativity and the obstetrics that structure them, exploring themes of creation, regeneration and reproduction as production-related activities, with emphasis on male participation and male usurpation of female functions.

Ab Audire: Gifts of the Heart

Ab Audire: Gifts of the Heart opens in an explosion of colour and sound. The character of Drum Mother rides on to the stage, drumming the audience into anticipation of the upcoming event. Performer Terry Hunter and director Savannah Walling have created a solo piece in which organic sound and movement are the core. Ab Audire is one of a series of works in Vancouver Moving Theatre’s “The Samarambi Cycle”, a collection of nonverbal, audience-interactive productions featuring a family of masked and costumed characters created by the company. The work of VMT, founded in 1983 by Walling as Artistic Director and Hunter as Managing Director, showcases stylized movement, virtuoso drum dancing, percussion, clowning, and performer-produced musical scores, costumes, and masks

The experience of breast development and girls' stories about the purchase of a bra

Girls' experiences of secondary sexual characteristic development were explored via direct interview and protective techniques. In a pilot study (Study 1), 30 White middle to upper middle class 6th–8th-grade girls were interviewed about how they felt about breast and pubic hair growth, their comfort discussing these events, and their information acquisition. Breast growth was perceived as more important than hair growth, in part because the former is perceived as a more public event. Few girls reported intensely negative feelings to either change. Since responses to the direct questions were limited, 80 White 6th–9th graders were asked to tell a story (using a semi structured interview technique) about a picture of an adolescent girl, adult female, and adult male in which the adult female was taking a bra out of a shopping bag (Study 2). Affect, attitudes, and character alliances were coded. More girls attributed negative feelings to the father than to the mother character. Almost all girls describe the adolescent in the story as embarrassed. The daughter and father characters were described as uncomfortable more often than the mother character (50% vs. 10%). Positive maternal affect in the stories was associated with more advanced pubertal status, positive body images, more positive emotional tone, and lower anxiety scores. Affect ascribed to the father and daughter characters was less likely to be associated with girls' psychological functioning. Results are discussed in term sof the possible role of puberty upon parent-child relationships and communication.

Hamlet's Mother and Other Women

Carolyn G. Heilbrun's groundbreaking essay The Character of Hamlet's Mother was published in 1957 at a time when few critics thought seriously about women's issues in literature. In the years since, Heilbrun has emerged as a feminist leader through her commitment to women's writing and feminist literary critique. Now in a new paperback edition with a new preface by the author, this collection explores feminism in literary studies during the last three decades. By questioning the gender arrangements of society, Heilbrun has helped to transform them. Taken together, these graceful essays demonstrate the consistency and clarity of Heilbrun's vision and her deep respect for the lives of women who write.

The Development of Perspective Taking: Understanding Differences in Information and Weighting

2 separate aspects of perspective taking are that judgments attributed to another should depend on the information available to the other (Information effect) and on how the other's use of information differs from one's own (Weighting effect). These 2 aspects of perspective taking were studied in a moral judgment task with preschoolers, and second and fifth graders. Subjects were read a series of stories about a little boy transgressing and asked to make judgments from both their own perspective and that of a mother character in the stories. The mother story character had either the same information as the subject or only partial information. Valence of intention and consequence and the amount of mother's knowledge varied factorially. Subjects were clustered using scores derived from the judgements. 3 clusters were found that showed different levels of perspective-taking ability. There was a developmental progression in the 3 levels of perspective taking. Subjects in the Harshness cluster attributed harsher judgments to the mother perspective. Subjects in the Weighting cluster weighted information differently depending on the perspective from which they judged. Subjects in the Information-and-Weighting cluster weighted information differently depending on perspective, and also considered the amount of information available to the mother character in attributing judgments. The findings are compared to current theory on the development of perspective taking. Future research and theory need to consider the influence of both information and weighting differences on performance in perspective-taking tasks.

Mother Characters in Racine

Mother Characters in Racine

The Comic Function of Two Mothers: Belisa and Angela

Much of the existing criticism dealing with the mother figure in the comedia consists of broad generalizations. The present study analyzes the comic function of two very different mother characters in an attempt not only to provide a greater understanding of their respective comedias (Lope's La discreta enamorada and Mira's La casa del tahur ), but also to demonstrate that such generalizations tend to obscure important distinctions rather than illuminate them. (AW-C)

Geographic variation in Pemphigus populitransversus (Insecta: Aphididae)*†

The geographic variation of 33 morphological characters of two morphs of the gall-forming aphid Pemphigus populitransversus is studied in 214 locality samples. Among-locality variation ranges from 1 to 69% in the elongate morph and from 0 to 44% in the globular morph. The design of the study permits separation of interlocality correlations from intralocality correlations. The former are partly a function of the latter, confirming early observations on another Pemphigus species and on ticks. Factor analyses of both correlation matrices for both morphs yield four factors. Within localities these factors agree for the two morphs; among localities only one factor corresponds. Multiple discriminant analyses among localities of the two data sets do not correspond. There is little correlation between characters of stem mother and alate morphotypes within localities but such correlations are strong among localities. Maps are furnished for characters representing the independent dimensions of variation for each morph. Patterns of variation are shown to be significant by spatial autocorrelation analysis for both morphs but are much more marked in the elongate morph. Significant positive autocorrelation occurs up to 1000 km in the elongate morph – mostly only up to 200 km in the globular morph. There are two to three geographic variation patterns in the elongate morph, whereas in the globular morph the classes of patterns are less well defined and involve few characters. The environmental factors to which the globular and elongate morphs are adapting would appear to have different autocorrelation patterns. In each morph the patterns are clearly different and cannot be explained by a single microevolutionary process. The findings are compared with an earlier study in the related and largely sympatric P. populicaulis.

Geographic Variation in Variability of Pemphigus Populicaulis

Bird, J., B. Riska, and R. R. Sokal. (Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794) 1981. Geographic variation in variability of Pemphigus populicaulis. Syst. Zool., 30:58-70.-Geographic variation of variability profiles is studied based on stem mother, alate and gall characters of the aphid Pemphigus populicaulis. Significant differences among the coefficients of variation of the suite of characters in every locality were found by two methods-Bartlett's test for homogeneity of variances (using log-transformed data) and Friedman's nonparametric test for randomize'd blocks. Nine characters are highly variable and six are consistently low in variability. Coefficients of variation show significant heterogeneity among localities for every character by Bartlett's test, and for all but two characters using a modified Friedman's test. The variability profiles of the 66 localities were clustered into three groups based on both size and shape by the k-means algorithm. A mixture of two types of profiles occurs throughout the middle latitudes of the study area, while the third type is found in its northern and southern regions. This geographic pattern may in part be due to the year of collection. Attempts to relate the magnitude of the coefficients of variation to several ecological indices were unsuccessful. [Variability, variability profiles, geographic variation, coefficients of variation, Pemphigus.] This study investigates whether relative morphological variability varies geographically. A measure of variability is a fundamental parameter in evolutionary research because of the intimate relationship between natural selection and variability. Natural selection shapes variability and is in turn limited in its potential effects by the extent of the variability of a given character. Low variability in a

Geographic variation in Pemphigus populicaulis (Insecta: Aphididae) in Eastern North America*,†

The geographic variation of 33 morphological characters of the gall-forming aphid Pemphigus populicaulis is studied for 118 localities east of 100oW longitude. Variation can be partitioned into within-gall, among-gall and among-locality components. Among localities variation ranges from 26 to 54%, being significant for all characters. Variation among galls within localities ranges from 24 to. 56%, that within-galls from 8 to 4796. The design of the study permits computation of character correlation matrices within and among localities. Gall size is correlated with tnorphometric characters only on an interlocality but not on an intralocality basis. Interlocalily correlations are a function of intralocality correlations, confirming earlier predictions. There is little correlation between characters of stem mother and alate morphotypes within localities, whereas among localities such correlation is appreciable. This phenomenon may be caused by aspects ol the environment that vary among localities but remain reasonably constant through the earlv life cycle of the aphid. When subjected to factor analysis both correlation matrices yield four factors. Multiple discriminant analysis of the data set results in five interpretable significant axes. Maps are furnished for characters representing the independent dimensions of variation and for discriminant function scores. The patterns of variation can be shown to be significantly nonrandom by Mantel's test and by spatial autocorrelation analysis. All variables are significantly positively autocorrelated at 200 km, many at 400 km and a few at 600 km; few general statements can be made about significant autocorrelations at higher distances. The positive autocorrelation at relatively short distances may be related to the pool of clones from which the genotypes of any one locality sample are taken. There are three correlogram patterns that can be associated with four clusters of variation patterns of characters. The separate patterns presumably cannot be explained by a single microevolutionary process.

The Absent Father in Child Neglect

Permanent absence of the father is probably disadvantageous to a child's development, but the precise linkage to developmental deficit has remained unclear. The tenability of two rather contrasting hypotheses was tested in this study of 125 low-income families, of whom forty-six were referred as neglectful: (a) that the father contributes directly in income and to household maintenance and indirectly by bolstering the mother's morale and functioning, (b) that the mother's character structure largely determines whether there will be a father-figure present. A decrement in the physical care of young children was found in fatherless families not explainable solely by family income, which was lower than in the intact family. However, fatherlessness had no impact on the child's "psychological" care nor on his consequent level of intelligence. The paternal personality and whether or not there is a father present appear related to the mother's personality and the intactness of family of origin. Both hypotheses, then, were partially supported.

The Character of Hamlet's Mother

HE character of Hamlet's mother has not received the specific critical attention it deserves. Moreover, the traditional account of her personality as rendered by the critics will not stand up under close scrutiny of Shakespeare's play. None of the critics of course has failed to see Gertrude as vital to the action of the play; not only is she the mother of the hero, the widow of the Ghost, and the wife of the current King of Denmark, but the fact of her hasty and, to the Elizabethans, incestuous the whole question of her falling off, occupies a position of barely secondary importance the mind of her son, and of the Ghost. Indeed, Freud and Jones see her, the object of Hamlet's Oedipus complex, as central to the motivation of the play.' But the critics, with no exception that I have been able to find, have accepted Hamlet's word fraility as applying to her whole personality, and have seen her not one weakness, or passion the Elizabethan sense, but a character of which weakness and lack of depth and vigorous intelligence are the entire explanation. Of her can it truly be said that carrying the stamp of one defect, she did in the general censure take corruption from that particular fault, (I. iv. 35-36). The critics are agreed that Gertrude was not a party to the late King's murder and indeed knew nothing of it, a point which on the clear evidence of the play, is indisputable. They have also discussed whether or not Gertrude, guilty of more than an o'er-hasty marriage, had committed adultery with Claudius before her husband's death. I will return to this point later on. Beyond discussing these two points, those critics who have dealt specifically with the Queen have traditionally seen her as well-meaning but shallow and feminine, the pejorative sense of the word: incapable of any sustained rational process, superficial and flighty. It is this tradition which a closer reading of the play will show to be erroneous. Professor Bradley describes the traditional Gertrude thus:

A STUDY OF TWO HUNDRED AND TWO CASES OF CONGENITAL SYPHILIS

I have had 202 cases of congenital syphilis under my care, and in making a more or less intensive study of these patients collectively as well as individually I have noted a few interesting details which I hope may be of benefit to physicians in their continued attempt to overcome the infection. For my records I endeavored to secure an accurate parental history with especial attention to the duration of the mother's infection, the amount and character of the treatment she had received, the number and order of pregnancies and the outcome of each, as well as the notation of symptoms in the syphilitic infant, and the tabulation of the character, frequency and diagnostic value of the various stigmas found in the late syphilitic patient and their influence on prognosis, serologic observations and the luetin test. INCIDENCE In 80 per cent of the mothers it was impossible to determine the

METASTATIC CONJUNCTIVITIS IN GONORRHEA.

Although gonorrhea was known to the ancients and ophthalmia neonatorum to the early Greeks and Arabians, 1 the true relation of the parent disease to its affiliated inflammations of the eye was still very imperfectly understood even at the beginning of the eighteenth century. While many of the primitive physicians appear to have fully recognized the ophthalmia of infants, it was not until 1750 2 that it was believed to depend on the vaginal discharge of the mother. Before this the theories as to its origin were rather vague, the old physicians of India, for example, ascribing it to the bad character of the mother's milk. In later years the ophthalmia of adults was thought by some to be due to gonorrheal virus seeking another outlet in consequence of suppression of the urethral discharge. Acting on this view Jungken 3 recommended, in his text-book, the reestablishment of the flow from