Is Motherhood an Institution?

The Mother-Daughter Relationship in George Eliot’s Scenes of Clerical Life, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, and Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber

Colección de Estudios de Género SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, 5

Elena Recio Ruiz

2024

ISBN: 978-84-9927-812-4

88 pp., 14 x 21,5 cm

Resumen

Motherhood has been conceived and represented in different ways in our society, as well as in literature. The mother has been portrayed both as an antagonistic character an as a character who feels unconditional love for her children. This monograph analyses the mother-daughter relationship in George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. The research aims to determine if motherhood is constituted as, in Adrienne Rich's words, an institution of patriarchy. Since women are alienated in the patriarchal society in which they grow up and live, the can become a tool of this social system to perpetuate traditional values. Hence, this study examines whether motherhood is imposed as an institution in these three works, bearing in mind that they belong to different periods, and comparing if the perception of maternity has evolved over time.