Sarah Jeannette Duncans A Mother in
Sarah Jeannette Duncan's A Mother in IndiaPatriarchal Victorian Men Create Monstrous Victorian Women A Mother in India, as a story depends on the facade of appearance and the reality of emotional abandonment within a male dominated & Victorian society. Duncan's point is that Victorian men create monstrous Victorian women. Relationships of any emotional worth are rendered impossible between Helena and her daughter Cecily because of a life long separation imposed by the father. It is impossible for Helena to be Cecily's emotional or spiritual mother because Helena is not emotionally equipped to be anything else other than a servant to her husband. Her life has been pre-arranged by a series of male allowances and dictates. Helena and Cecily's relationship must be emotionally void to work within the shallow, materialistic pre-arrangement of their lives. Helena has nothing to offer her daughter but the emptiness that she's acquired over her lifetime. Helena has spent her life in an emotional vacuum. When
Duncan, Sara Jeannette, "A Mother In India," The Pool In The Desert, (Penguin Books Canada Ltd., 2801 John street Markham Ontario, Canada, 1984) page 5. Cecily is the victim of the self centred human garbage that is her parents. This story is an attack on Victorian domesticity and the pitfalls of being a mother in those times. Helena being a product of her society was incapable of being a mother at the age of forty and it is doubtful she could have been anything else other than a servant to her husband. Cecily did not stand a chance of having a meaningful relationship with her mother and is to be pitied as a character in such a dark, lamentable story. No doubt there is truth to the story, but it's lack of humour and it's absence of love puts a hopeful purpose to the category of fiction.
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Approximate Word count = 690
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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