Mothers In Maternal Horror

Billy’s mother often enjoys being with her 30 year old son, sometimes treating him as if he is still a child. This is displayed when Billy’s mother takes him out after work to lie on the grass and tease his hair. Billy tells her about his dream to go to college and find a wife. However, upon hearing this, she “laugh[s] at such foolishness” (295). Billy exclaims that he’s 30 years old already only to receive the response, “‘Sweet-heart, do I look like the mother of a middle-aged man?’” (295). Billy’s mother treats him like a baby and emasculates him to the point where he is unable to grow. This causes Billy to be constantly scared, uncertain, and compliant with the Nurse and any other women of authority. Only after his night with Candy does he seem to act more confident and not respond much to Nurse Ratched’s shaming (314). Nonetheless, his confidence doesn’t last long after the Nurse threatens him to tell his mother in which he is then seen to be begging for her mercy. This scene shows how the the women of the ward uses the men’s insecurities to weaken them and force them to act a certain way, as shown by

Mothers are typically seen as kind, loving, and nurturing, at least in a perfect world, that’s how they are. Rather, in the real world many of us wish that is how all mothers are. Various situations can lead to a woman to be too mothering. It is a factor that transcends real life. This conflict causing dynamic is very prevalent in numerous stories, films, and plays. Two plays where it is shown in significance are Machinal and The Glass Menagerie. In both cases, the actions taken by the mother roles in the shows, resulted in some of the character’s roles ending in unfortunate events of some sort.

Motherhood is a word that could mean many things to different people. Motherhood is revered by many and abhorred by some. Some individuals associate motherhood to be an act of child raising, caregiving and mentoring. Be that as it may, some others see motherhood as a stressful entanglement, self-torturing sacrifice as well as a life devoid of restful sleep and relaxation. Most mothers would lay down their lives to save their child or to provide for them. John Gardner introduced us to a monstrous mother and her blood-thirsty and self-seeking son; Grendel. His quest to find the true meaning of life have brought him before near death experiences; one of which cost him his life. During one of his troubling

One story that references the fear society has towards certain woman is “Between the Pool and the Gardenias”. When Marie finds a dead baby in the street she names it Rose and talks to it about her problems especially her old miscarriages. She also talks to the dead baby about how she wishes her life would be better and she imagines that the house she cleans is her own, and the guy that she slept with once loved her. She imagines her ancestors coming to visit her, but sadly none of these things are real. As the baby starts to rot away Mary decides to bury the infant near the gardenias because she believes the flies are trapping Rosie’s spirit. The Dominican who once slept with her called the police and accused Marie of killing the baby for evil

It will not be the least hardship to me; without you, even heaven is hell” (Vālmīki, 698). Presented in Beowulf, one can conclude that a mother’s role is to teach her children to become a strong leader when her child reaches independent hood. A poet from Beowulf described a mother’s grief after losing her child on the battlefield during his performance to the hero, “She, the woman in shock, waylaid by grief [...] ordered her own son’s body be burnt with Hnaef’s, the flesh on his bones to sputter and blaze” (Beowulf, 914). By the mother ordering her son’s cremation, she accepted his death and knew she had done all she could to encourage her son and allow him to become as strong as he became in his lifetime. Another display of a mother desiring the best for her offspring in Western literature would be when Grendel’s mother sought the revenge of Beowulf after he slayed her son (Beowulf, 908).

The mother is a complex creature proven throughout the story. These actions all help express why mothers and their presence are so important. As shown, they are very crucial in the development of younger beings. The mother is a helper by nature, impacting by teaching its child to survive at life. Independence is the arch lesson that is taught by the mother. Harlow enduringly grasps the cardinal meaning of why it is inhumane to destroy any kind of maternal bond. Mothers are not people to depend on, but are people to make depending not

The mother begins to rebel against tradition by taking an active role in educating and freeing herself. Through her radio, telephone and trips out with her sons she develops her own opinions about the world, the war, and the domination and seclusion of woman. She loses her innocence as a result to her new knowledge and experience.

The “final girl” is typically a female that has been pursued, beaten, and bruised. She is devoid of sexual desires and shows a strong sense of independence. She is aware of her surroundings and possesses knowledge of how to survive. This woman “alone looks death in the face, but she alone also finds the strength either to stay the killer long enough to be rescued or kill him herself” (Clover 35). These traits are masculine in nature and considered uncharacteristic for a normal woman.

She makes being a mother sound glorified as if that is the only thing that matters in a woman’s life. She even goes on to ask herself if she could “ever feel confident and secure in her worth as a woman”(35). It forces the stereotype that women are meant to, and want to, be mothers and have children. On the other hand, in “A sorrowful Woman”, the woman outright rejects motherhood, ignoring or acting cruel towards her child. In one scene, the child is just trying to play with her, and accidentally scratches her.

In her article, “Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?” author Sarah Boxer points out that when it comes to something as simple as cartoon movies, the uncanny trend that they all share is the fact that there is no main maternal figure present in a majority of films: “Bambi’s mother, shot. Nemo’s mother, eaten by a barracuda. Lilo’s mother, killed in a car crash. Koda’s mother in Brother Bear, speared.

Breaking down meaning by disrupting the distinction between the subject and the object. (Childers & Hentzi 1978:308). Kristeva theorises that because the abject is situated outside of symbolic order, our confrontation with it becomes an innately traumatic experience akin with the disgust we experience when confronted with an object which has been violently cast out of the cultural world, having formerly been a subject (Kirsteva 1982:65). In Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine, Barbara Creed refers to horror as a “crossing of borders”. The abject therefore can be seen as referring to horror itself. That is to say, horror defies the lines of decency, morality and accepted social practice in ways that threaten to jeopardize the stability of order. Creed discusses the representation of the woman as the monster rather than as the victim to a male monster. She associates the monstrous feminine in patriarchal society to sexual difference and castration. The term monstrous feminine emphasizes the signifigance of gender in the formation of her monstrosity. She disputes the notion of the male monster and Freud’s theory of the castrated woman who is established as a victim by nature. The monstrous feminine addresses more regarding male fears than female subjectivity. The woman is more accurately feared as the castrator than the

Without a doubt, all women are born with certain motherly instincts that evolve over time. According to Marie Rose Napierkowski and Deborah A. Stanley in Novels for Students, every woman has a maternal impulse that surpasses any other type of impulse. This impulse brings great pain, and worry to mothers (NP). A maternal impulse is a blessing,

Jane’s motherly figures in the novel are heavily focused on her child and young adult life, when a real mother would be of most importance, and when Charlotte felt her mother‘s absence the most.

“For the concept of the monstrous feminine, as constructed within/by a patriarchal and phallocentric ideology, is related intimately to the problem of sexual differences and castration.” (Creed, 1993, p.2) Creed takes an interesting approach to Kristeva theory of abjection and Freud’s theory of castration and applies it to horror film. Taking Kristeva’s theory of the abject and the archaic mother, she constructs monstrous representations of the abject woman. The monstrous womb which is the representation of mans fear of woman’s maternal functions. “Fear of the archaic mother turns out to be essentially fear of her generative power. It is this power, a dreaded one, that patrilineal filiation has the burden of subduing.” (Kristeva, 1982, p.77) Freud argued that woman terrifies because she is castrated. “Castration fear plays on a collapse of gender boundaries” (Creed, 1993, p.54) She suggests, that Freud misread Han’s fear in the Little Hans and that Han’s viewed his mothers as the castrator not his father, that his mother’s lack of phallus is seen not as a castrated organ but that of a castrating organ. The mother-child border is entangled in the complex and multi-faceted image of the castrating mother. According to Freud, man fears that of the mother as castrated and as that of the cannibalistic all devouring mother. “Construction of a patriarchal ideology unable to deal with the threat of sexual differences as it is embodied in the images of the feminine as archaic mother and is seen as the castrated mother.” (Creed, 1993, p.22) Kristeva suggests that the notion of the castrated women is to ease mans fear of woman, who has the power to psychologically and physically castrate him. The archaic mother as the monstrous womb and the castrating mother can be used as a way of understanding the work of Mona Hatoum and AIne Phillips, both

When a woman becomes a mother she takes on the expected responsibility of bonding with her child. In The Flats the "mama" is the women who "raises" the child, usually for life (Stack, 1974, p.48). The "mama" may raise the child and the natural