Representations of the Mother What is the significance of this observation in Ch. 3? Mariah and Dinah and other people they knew had become upset by what seemed to them the destruction of the surrounding countryside. Many houses had been built on what they said used to be farmland... [Mariah] moaned against this vanishing idyll so loudly that Louise, who was just at the age where if you are a girl you turn against your mother, said, “Well, what used to be here before this house we are living in was built?” It was a question I had wanted to ask, but I couldn’t bear the hurt such a question would bring to Mariah’s face. (71-2)

Representations of the Mother What is the significance of this observation in Ch. 3? Mariah and Dinah and other people they knew had become upset by what seemed to them the destruction of the surrounding countryside. Many houses had been built on what they said used to be farmland... [Mariah] moaned against this vanishing idyll so loudly that Louise, who was just at the age where if you are a girl you turn against your mother, said, “Well, what used to be here before this house we are living in was built?” It was a question I had wanted to ask, but I couldn’t bear the hurt such a question would bring to Mariah’s face. (71-2) “I vowed that if I ever had children I would make sure that the first words out of their mouths were bad ones” (13) I felt strongly how much I no longer liked even the way she spoke; and so I said... ‘What a religious experience that must have been.’ I walked about quickly, for my thirteen-year-old heart couldn’t bear to see her face when I had caused her pain.” (22)

“Whatever my future held, nursing would not be a part of it... Why did someone not think I would make... a good someone who runs things?... My mother had said to me, just before I left, ‘Oh, I can just see you in your nurse’s uniform. I shall be very proud of you.’ And I could only guess which nurse’s uniform she meant – the uniform made of cloth or the one made of circumstances” (92-3) “You remind me of Miss Annie, you really remind me of your mother.” I was dying, and she saved my life... “I am not like my mother. She and I are not alike. She should not have married my father. She should not have had children. She should not have thrown away her intelligence. She should not have paid so little attention to mine. She should have ignored someone like you. I am not like her at all.” (123) “I wrote my mother a letter... I pointed out the ways she had betrayed herself... She had betrayed me also... She acted like a saint, but... I had really wanted just a mother. I reminded her that my whole upbringing had been devoted to preventing me from becoming a slut; I then gave a brief description of my personal life... As evidence that my upbringing has been a failure and that, in fact, life as a slut was quite enjoyable” (127-8) “I was an only child until I was 9 years old, and then... my mother had 3 male children. Each time a new son was born, my mother and father announced that the new child would... occupy an important and influential position in society... I felt a sword go through my heart, for there was no accompanying scenario in which she saw me, her only identical offspring, in a remotely similar situation. Tom myself I then began to call her Mrs. Judas, and I began to plan a separation from her” (130-1) “My past was my mother....I was not like my mother – I was my mother... To the few feeble attempts I made to draw a line between us, her reply always was, ‘You can run away but you cannot escape the fact that I am your mother, my blood runs in you, I carried you for nine months inside me. ‘ How else was I to take such a statement but as a sentence for life in a prison whose bars were stronger than any iron imaginable?” (90-1)

 Read the 11 statements about possible interpretations of Lucy’s mother in the book.  Choose 1-2 statements that you feel are the most relevant and justify why, referring in close detail to language and characterisation across all chapters of the book.  Give your answer in the form of a colourful, informative poster (give page references in brackets after quotes)