FREE ESSAY ON SARAH JEANNETTE DUNCAN'S A MOTHER IN INDIA - PATRIARCHAL VICTORIAN MEN CREATE MONSTROUS VICTORIAN WOMEN

SARAH JEANNETTE DUNCAN'S A MOTHER IN INDIA - PATRIARCHAL VICTORIAN MEN CREATE MONSTROUS VICTORIAN WOMEN

Sarah Jeannette Duncan's A Mother in India
Patriarchal Victorian Men Create Monstrous Victorian Women
706 Words
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 Helena is forced to draw on
emotional experience for her daughter's sake she finds immature childish emotions are all
she has. Cecily is as a doll to Helena that does not live up to its warranty upon close
scrutiny. She recoils from the situation looking with repugnance at her alien possession.
Cecily is frequently referred to as an it as opposed to my daughter by Helena. Cecily is
also frightened by the appearance of her estranged Mother and this is reasonable for a
four year old. Helena however, reacts with swallowed anger and removes herself from
Cecily and the situation. This is also very childish, but understandable considering
Helena's emotional maturity. Helena, like a scolded four year old, sends herself to a
room where she is safely locked away by herself for two atrocious hours (6). It is at
this point that it becomes apparent that the mother and daughter relationship is doomed
for the lack of an emotionally developed or mature mother.
Helena gave birth to Cecily at nineteen and was brought out there to marry (15) John at
an even earlier age. Her life to this point has been dictated by men. She does what she
is allowed to do and little else. Her husband did not allow Cecily's return until she was
twenty one years old because he simply would not hear of her coming before (15). Helena
is expected to be maternal with a young woman whom she has not been allowed to raise.
This is an un-fair position to be placed in by a requently absent husband. Helena does
not want to feel old and is resolved to be young until [she] is old (15). She would
rather not be reminded of her middle age by the maternally successful Mrs. Morgan or the
presence of her youthful attractive daughter. With her daughter present she will lose the
status of lady and gain attention as the mother of a twenty one year old woman. The
relationship is tagged on too late by a pathetic father and a totally in-experienced
mother who is now beyond caring. 
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.
Bibliography
Endnotes
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.
All further references to this work will be from this edition and will be parenthetically
noted by page numbers throughout the text of this essay.