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Most Children Start Off Learning Most Of Everything They

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Most children start off learning most of everything they know (how to talk, how to think and how to live) from their parents. This seems especially true when delving into the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. Analyze the similarities and differences between Maureen from The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Natalie from Next to Normal, this paper explores how a mother’s mental illness can affect the behavior, capacity to interact in relationships, and mental health of her children. Mental illnesses are impacted by the individual’s environment, as well as the genes they inherit (Mayo). By taking a deeper look into the lives of these two plays’ characters, and the environments from which they come, a clearer picture of how …show more content…

Diana, Natalie’s mother, suffers from schizophrenia and depression. She is always envisioning her son instead of developing a real relationship with Natalie. This causes Natalie to feel neglected and alone, as she illustrates in her song “Superboy and the Invisible Girl”. Natalie suggests that her mother wishes Gabe was alive instead of her and that to her parents, she is unseen. This perception she has of her mother’s mind sparks Natalie’s depression. Natalie, unlike Maureen, has a father, Dan, who is there to give her a stable vantage point of reality. Dan is so focused on helping Diana that he does not realize just how much Natalie is hurting. This unintentional neglect causes Natalie’s depression to increase and she breaks. Natalie still has stability, however, and even though she has developed this mental illness, it does not consume her in the end. A child decides how to behave based on the observations they make of their parents actions. Both plays do a brilliant job of showing that a child will follow their parents lead when grown up. Maureen grew up in an abusive environment and this causes her to have outbursts of abuse, both verbally and physically. Since Mag claims to be unable to get her own Complan nutritional drinks and porridge because of her bad back, Maureen ends up doing everything for her. She tends to treat

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