University of South Carolina

A Literary View of Motherhood

An analysis of motherhood as portrayed by female authors spanning the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.

Kayla Engel

ENGL 437

Dr. Davis

Spring 2015

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The ways in which Hannah Webster Foster, Anne Bradstreet, Sylvia Plath, and Alice

Walker address motherhood vary greatly with little to no commonality, thus no consensus can be

found amongst them in regard to what motherhood is. This reveals that there is no definitive

mother role that women fill.

In Hannah W. Foster’s The Coquette, motherhood is a theme pervasive throughout. The

role of a mother in The Coquette is that of a constant supporter and moral compass for her child.

This can be found in Eliza’s relationship with her mother. In bestowing advice to Eliza, her

mother says, “As you are young and charming, a thousand dangers lurk unseen around you. I

wish you to find a friend and protector, worthy of being rewarded by your love and your society”

(Foster 40). Eliza’s mother serves to give her moral advice and guide her towards virtue. When

speaking on her new role in life, Mrs. Richman says, “All my happiness is centered within the

limits of my own walls; and I grudge every moment that calls me from the pleasing scenes of

domestic life” (Foster 97). The way in Mrs. Richman describes being a mother is that of a

fulfilling and worthwhile endeavor.

In Anne Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to her Book,” Bradstreet uses motherhood as an

allegory for writing poetry. In describing a mother and her child, the speaker says, “I cast thee by

as one unfit for light, / Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight, / Yet being mine own, at length

affection would / Thy blemishes amend, if so I could” (Bradstreet). Bradstreet’s representation of

motherhood is one in which the mother vainly attempts to mend the flaws in her child, flaws

given to the child because of the mother’s own shortcomings. There is no fulfilling aspect of

motherhood in that the mother is unable to fix her child’s flaws and ultimately must send the
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child away. Being a mother, as represented by Bradstreet, is a difficult task that results in the

mother’s ultimate failure.

Sylvia Plath also discusses motherhood in her poem “Morning Song.” Motherhood is

shown by Plath is to be a role in which the mother has little agency over the child and that nature

outweighs nurture. This is seen when the speaker says, “I’m no more your mother / Than the

cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow / Effacement at the wind’s hand” (Plath).

Plath’s mother is one that is sees herself within her child, yet recognizes her lack of power over

the child’s growth and development. Plath’s speaker does reveal motherhood to be enjoyable in

that she describes the child’s cries to be musical in nature.

In The Color Purple, Alice Walker represents the role of a mother in many ways, one of

which is the mother caring for the children. It is a mother’s duty to take care of the children’s

needs and is a role in which love has the potential to be absent. Celie takes care of her husband’s

children, filling the role of mother and “Everybody say how good I is to Mr. _____ children. I be

good to them. But I don’t feel nothing for them” (Walker 31). The role of the mother, shown in

Celie, is a role that requires the mother to tend to the children, but it does not require the mother

to have affection for the children. While love may be present, as seen in Celie with her own,

biological children, it is not necessary for motherhood.

This varied roles of a mother, seen across multiple authors, reveals that there is no

definitive meaning for what it means to be a mother, rather it varies from woman to woman.

Each mother tends to the child, thus providing marginal commonality between the

representations. Despite this there are differences between them. Some relationships are filled
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with love, such as Foster’s Mrs. Richman and Walker’s Celie in regard to her biological children;

while others, such as Plath’s speaker in “Morning Song” and Bradstreet’s “The Author to Her

Book,” are a role in which the mother feels inadequate. It is a role that can be tediously

obligatory, fulfilling, or a loving, mentoring relationship.

Works Cited

Foster, Hannah Webster, and Cathy N. Davidson. The Coquette. New York: Oxford UP, 1986.

Print.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Pocket, 1985. Print.