Brecht and Zola use language to practice and convey the conventional image of maternal instinct

A detailed Summary of Brecht and Zola use language to practice and convey the conventional image of maternal instinct

Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Emile Zola's Therese Raquin are both works with characters that possess maternal instinct. There is not a definite explanation for maternal instinct because it can be viewed differently. Although this is true, there is often a stereotype woman with the 'right' qualities of maternal instinct. This often articulates unrealistic images in people's minds. Instinct means "an imposed set of values, imposed by the society" and the way they think a mother should naturally act by. Realistically, the instinct depends on the mother's disposition, the way she wants to behave depends on her emotions, which cannot be articulated. Therefore, it is not possible to impose a definite set of values for how a mother should act for it varies from one mother to another.

Mother Courage is a mother who fights for a living so that her three children can survive the war. War to her is a necessity because she needs the business from the soldiers in order to survive, but on the other hand, war is her ultimate enemy. She is doing everything to keep her and her children from being involved with the war. It was her husband's death that lead to her natural defenses for her children and the war which in turn resu

In a similar situation, when a loving mother realizes her son or daughter is missing, she is most likely to have a much more dramatic and concerned attitude when compared to Mother Courage. Despite the loss of her child, Mother Courage seems to have the opposite of this. She decides to go off with her car and her two other children to continue their livelihood; a sense of irony is present as well. The technique here is to use examples, again, to prove that Mother Courage may not be the caring mother she should be.

But just by looking at this protection towards her children, one cannot readily

Zola chose to use irony to show the great impact that Madame Raquin's rules over Camille's life has on his future, also showing the method that Madame Raquin thought was the best way to teach and protect Camille. Madame Raquin is so worried about the life and death of Camille, that "at any suggestion that he should go off to boarding school" or the thought of "books would be the death of him", she would tremble all over and believed that "away from her he would die" .

"[Mother Courage] We'll go off in t'other direction, and we'll throw cook's stuff out so he finds it, silly man."

"[Mother Courage] Half a florin it is."

Assume that she is a 'good mother'. Through various sacrifices made by her children, Brecht portrayed traits of human selfishness. For example, when the Recruiter took her bravest son, Eilif away:

Zola is also an impressionistic writer, which means Zola "attempts to express the immediate sensations of the world and events." He used the narrow, dark, damp, "dirty, evil and gloomy" bridge to give an impression of the restrictions that Madame Raquin imposes on Camille. This emphasizes on how Madame Raquin's way of protecting her son is ironic because of the impression of isolation from the society and the sense of suffocation of restrictions. The irony is, by not allowing freedom in Camille's life, Madame Raquin is indirectly leading him onto t

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Approximate Word count = 1343
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous