HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO A SPECIAL GROUP OF MOTHERS

Celebrating the characters confined and consumed by motherhood.
By Shoshana Greenberg (lyricist-bookwriter)

There will be many mother character lists this Mother's Day, but few, if any, will look at characters for whom the confines of motherhood are the basis for the story being told. Motherhood more than defines these characters' existences; it justifies their existences. Below are my favorite mothers who are either trapped by motherhood or consumed by it--or both.

Rosemary (Rosemary's Baby)

Mia Farrow in the 1968 film

 When Rosemary is impregnated by the devil (or so she believes), those close to her (husbands, doctors) pooh-pooh her suspicions, telling her it's just pregnancy paranoia. Poor Rosemary--used for her fertility and then made to love whatever creature she births. Her motherhood is a tool for others, and then she's a slave to its emotions.

 

 

Mother (Ragtime)

Her name is "Mother," so that should be a clue that motherhood is her defining charactistic. As Doctorow writes her (and the musical portrays her), Mother manages to turn motherhood into a strength, but she can never move beyond the name.

Christiane Noll as Mother in the 2009 Broadway revival

Rose (Gypsy)

Not only has Rose made motherhood her profession but it's basically her life force. Her last number, "Rose's Turn," is devastating because her motherhood and her self are so intertwined, it's impossible for us to know the difference. And then, after her breakdown, it's Rose's role as Louise's mother that is Rose's salvation.

Patti LuPone as Rose with Laura Benanti and Leigh Ann Larkin in the 2007 Encores production

Sarah Connor (The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)

The mother warrior, Sarah is targeted for termination not because she is a mother but because she will one day be a mother. If that's not a metaphor for how many young women are treated today, I don't know what is. Sarah's average life is upended in the first film, when a terminator is sent to kill her, but she survives, has a child, and raises him to lead and save the human race. It's quite a burden, but she fulfills her duty as though she has no other choice.

Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Demeter/Ceres (Greek and Roman mythology)

"The Return of Persephone" by Frederic Leighton (1891)

 One of the original mother figures! Demeter (or Ceres to the Romans) was the goddess of the grain who lost her daughter Persephone to the god of the underworld. Demeter roams the earth looking for her and manages to get her back for half the year because Persephone has already eaten the food of the dead. According to this myth, the sorrow a mother feels when her child is gone causes the cold winter months. Demeter's story of motherhood lost and gained reverberates through most motherhood stories, making her the ultimate mother figure.

 

SHOSHANA GREENBERG writes musicals, plays, and prose.  http://about.me/shoshanagreenberg
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

Comments

[Takim]

Tracey, it's my great loss that I didn't have more time to spend with you at BlogHer. However, the brief moments I had baniskg in your wonderfulness (especially at the back of the room during the mommyblogger raucousness)was enough to make me want to drive down to Southern California and go out for a mani/pedi session with you. Are you game?Also - Tracey readers? She. Is. Gorgeous. And, as grounded and intelligent as she is beautiful.Aloha to you, Tracey.xoxox