FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W349747135> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W349747135 startingPage "52" @default.
• W349747135 abstract "'No one else can possibly have the influence which a mother may possess, or the facilities which she enjoys.' Rev. John S.C. Abbott, The Mother at Home1'A mother's love exceeds all others.' Elizabeth Gaskell, 'Diary'2Elizabeth Gaskell, constant mother to four daughters, was preoccupied, perhaps even obsessed, with motherhood. Mothers and mothering - present or absent - play a prominent role in Gaskell's life and work, from her own mother's early death to her controversial novel Ruth, in which she presents an unwed mother in a sympathetic light. Scholarship in recent decades has questioned Gaskell's once purported social conservatism, shedding new light on her portrayals of the 'othered' mothers in her novels. Rather than adhering to traditional social mores regarding motherhood (considered Victorian women's highest calling), Gaskell illuminated their flaws, pointing out that Victorian mothers were often powerless, involuntarily idle, and eventually put out to pasture once her duties were fulfilled. From scorned Ruth to the unfortunate Mrs Hale, Gaskell's mothers often suffer and exist in isolation. This essay will examine the isolation of mothers and mother figures in Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848), Ruth (1853), North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), exploring the potential reasons why 'Mrs Gaskell', devoted mother of four, wrote multilayered, politically-charged novels in which the mothers are (m)others.In order to understand Gaskell's mothers, we must first consider the societal influences under which they were crafted. The mother was considered a crucial element of the Victorian home and, indeed, Victorian society at large, hovering in the centre - an appropriately immobile and enclosed location - of the model bourgeois Victorian family.3 Women were expected to be mothers, and mothers were expected to be naturally nurturing, sacrificing, and, in the domestic realm (but only the domestic realm), all-knowing. Critics have described this ideal as the 'paragon of virtuous and instinctive motherhood',4 the 'ideal, ever-present, ever-loving, all-responsible mother',5 and 'the Victorian image of the ideal selfless mother'.6 Victorian motherhood was a complex system of guidelines that, though praising womanhood and motherhood, mostly served to set up women for failure. Despite motherhood's appearance of importance (and the fact that the monarch was herself a conspicuous mother), the reality for many women was one of striving towards impossible goals dictated by a society that simultaneously lauded and devalued mothers, with unbridled potential for blame should there be any hiccup. The mother's illustrious role of domestic saviour ultimately justified patriarchal confinement, which was enforced throughout society from the drawing room to the courtroom.7 Victorians insistently put forth the notion that women were supremely responsible for their children's development in all areas - intellectual, physical, moral, spiritual - thus implying endless accountability and authority. This authority, however, was chimerical, consistently undermined by custom and legislation that made women equally, or less, autonomous within Victorian households than the children they bore. The expectation for women to be bastions of the home was ideologically discordant, if not downright impossible. Women were thus essentially invisible, experiencing alienation from financial independence, physical agency, intellectual development, sexuality, personal autonomy, and even from their children. Ultimately, Victorian mothers were assigned tasks of immense importance while being denied representation in society. Natalie McKnight's pithy summation of the plight of Victorian mothers is fitting: 'She is all-important, Victorian ideology asserted, but she better not try to be too important'.8Ostensibly providing guidance to women in their Sisyphean pursuit of becoming an ideal mother were widely-read conduct manuals. These books, designed to encourage good mothering, more probably engendered a deep sense of failure and helplessness in their readers. …" @default.
• W349747135 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W349747135 creator A5058444841 @default.
• W349747135 date "2012-01-01" @default.
• W349747135 modified "2023-09-27" @default.
• W349747135 title "'Speak on, Desolate Mother!': Elizabeth Gaskell's Isolated (M)others" @default.
• W349747135 hasPublicationYear "2012" @default.
• W349747135 type Work @default.
• W349747135 sameAs 349747135 @default.
• W349747135 citedByCount "0" @default.
• W349747135 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W349747135 hasAuthorship W349747135A5058444841 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C10138342 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C107993555 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C124952713 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C142362112 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C144024400 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C162324750 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C17744445 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C182306322 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C199539241 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C2775941552 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C2778036376 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C2778061430 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C86803240 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C89423630 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C94625758 @default.
• W349747135 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C10138342 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C107993555 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C124952713 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C142362112 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C144024400 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C162324750 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C17744445 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C182306322 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C199539241 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C2775941552 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C2778036376 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C2778061430 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C86803240 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C89423630 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C94625758 @default.
• W349747135 hasConceptScore W349747135C95457728 @default.
• W349747135 hasLocation W3497471351 @default.
• W349747135 hasOpenAccess W349747135 @default.
• W349747135 hasPrimaryLocation W3497471351 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2012885075 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2017752478 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2063663781 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2318817419 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2329388869 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2342803495 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W236850690 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2481089411 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2516233888 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2531215729 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2603860772 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2634607863 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W281302733 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W585445642 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W755260499 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W900768399 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2103827458 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2213894501 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W2593195885 @default.
• W349747135 hasRelatedWork W3096599711 @default.
• W349747135 hasVolume "26" @default.
• W349747135 isParatext "false" @default.
• W349747135 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W349747135 magId "349747135" @default.
• W349747135 workType "article" @default.