Relationship Between Mother And Daughter example essay topic

1,083 words
Mother Love-Nurturing or Torturing? In Pavlova's novel titled "A Double Life" a story is told about the relationship between mother and daughter. Throughout the novel we see examples of strict discipline and harsh living conditions for the daughter. One example that we see how serious the mother's about how to raise a daughter is by making some decision for the daughter. We constantly that the mothers in this novel will choose when they go to sleep, with whom they play with. It even goes to the distance of marriage.

Cecily's mother at one point admits to how proud she is of herself for creating such a perfect well behaved daughter. It looks as if the mothers are treating their own daughters like pawns in a chess game against one another to see who has the most perfect daughter. Another belief that the mothers believe in is that a mothers obligation is to be able to read into the souls of the daughters, in order to prevent any damage to be done and to keep them safe at all times. In doing this, one denies the daughters right to choose or grow and it even creates a gap between their relationship of mother and daughter. It basically not healthy for either one.

As we see the results of what bad can happens when a mother takes full control of a daughters life, we see the foreshadowing of a bad marriage. In the case of Cecile and Demitry, at one point Demitry takes a bet from his friends that he will remain the same bachelor before the life of marriage approaches. This can only mean one thing, he's going to treat Cecile and the marriage like a joke. Also Cecile herself doesn't feel right about the marriage, but backing down would embarrassed her mother and Cecile's been raised not to even talk back, god forbid going against what her mother picked out as a future husband. Misery is what the future holds for Cecile and her dreams are long gone. Every decision has been chosen not by her, but by her mother.

"Medea" is a short story that shows how sore a marriage can go when attention is not payed to a mother. In this story we see the story of cab driver unfold about the recent death of his 14 yr. old daughter. He begins to tell the man in the back seat how much he loved his daughter. How his entire life changed, including his relationship with his wife. It wasn't Until his (Taxi driver) wife got fired from a research laboratory that changes began to happen. With the wife out of work for a while and the driver focusing all his love on the daughter, this left the wife lonely and depressed.

With these feeling mixed, love is needed or aggressive actions are going to take place. A women's insecurity about her own beauty are at most fragile when the husband is ignoring her. And it's this, that the driver was doing wrong. He was so focused on the daughter that this relationship excluded the mother out and made her feel like a stranger. Seeing the driver's weakness (Daughter) the mother ends up killing the daughter to take revenge on the pain the driver inflicted on the wife. These actions are a result of vengeance towards the husband for neglecting the wife's much needed love.

This story strongly shows how the daughter was used a weapon to cripple the husbands emotional life. This motherhood is no way nurturing, but boldly torturing. In Tolstaya story "Night", shows us the endless love a mother has towards her child. In this short story, a mother cares for her boy child as if he was a newborn. With some distinctive aging features, such as hairy hands and bald spots, and his mother being eighty. We know that the boy is actually a middle aged adult, roughly in the thirties.

We can also determine that the boy is mentally retarded. This is pointed out by his mother telling him what to and not to do at his age. Also his occupation is of the least advanced. He builds boxes for a living out of sticks and glue. This story strongly suggests that the relationship is nurturing. She makes sure that he SHAVES, brushes his teeth and even makes sure he puts the cap back on the tooth paste.

Also telling him how to eat a sausage is another indication. It's not until he steals some money that we see how lonely this man is without his mother. After stealing some money, Alexei rushes out into the streets followed by peoples saying he stole the money. With people pointing and accusing little Alexei, Alexei runs off into the night naked with his mother.

Being mentally challenged he acts very aggressive towards women in the streets, he ends up beating one up-this is to blame the mother for, for her constant labeling women as demons-but is quickly jumped by men thats smoke. After realizing that he's retarded the men leave him and Alexei feels how lonely the night is without his mother, and then begins to cry out for his mother's help. Another story about the relationship of motherhood to childhood by Tolstaya is "Peters". In this story we have a child that is raised by his grandmother.

With both parents gone for good, the grandmother takes him under her wing. With his grandmother raising him to eat proper and not to touch nothing while a parties. Peters didn't do nothing that his grand mother didn't instructed him to do. But it's this nurturing from his grandmother that caused peter a lot of pain.

His ability to communicate with females was foreign to him. His grandmother had raised him in such a manor that it made it hard for Peters to change and try to adopt to a youthful way of living. In the long run his grandmother's nurturing created a torturing future for Peters. So one can say that her idea's on how to raise a child played as a double edge sword and made it impossible for peters to be happy.