Post on 17-Dec-2015
MotherhoodMotherhood
InIn
“The Angry Woman”“The Angry Woman”A poem by Anna WickhamA poem by Anna Wickham
By Charity Liu
Anna Wickham was the pseudonym of Edith Alice
Mary Harper.
In 1906 she married Patrick Hepburn who was
interested in Romanesque architecture and
astronomy.
The marriage was a turbulent one.
Patrick thought women should be homemakers and
resented his wife’s commitment to her poetry.
Anna Wickham (1/2)
Anna Wickham (1884 -1947)
She longed for children.
She had a miscarriage and a daughter who died
within moments of birth.
Then, she gave birth to four sons. In 1921 her third
son died of scarlet fever.
In 1947, she hanged herself.
Anna Wickham (2/2)
Anna Wickham (1884 -1947)
Identity
Woman
Bodily / Physically defined
“I am a woman, with a woman’s parts”
“I am a woman in my speech and gait”
“I have no beard”
Blameless for naturally born woman
“I have no beard (I’ll take no blame for that)”
Identity (1/3)
Identity
Mother
Source of motherhood
marriage
“because of marriage, I have motherhood”
based on love; rather for men
“And of love I bear children”
“Do not ask my weakness as a sacrifice to
power”
Identity (2/3)
Identity
Pregnancy—bearing children
honor
miracle
physically weak and suffered
“In the days of bearing is my body weak”
“body’s pain”
togetherness and intimacy
“In many things are you [son] and I apart”
“But there are regions where we coincide”
“Where law for one is law for both”
Identity (3/3)
Sex [female or male]
“Woman”
totally sexualized, trapped in sex “woman”
“In many things are you [“woman”] and I
apart”
“Where law for one is law for both”
“There is sexless part of me that is my
mind”
Causes of Anger — Confinement
Confinement (1/8)
Marriage
bond
1. being mastered
“But why because I do you [husband]
service, should you call me slave?”
“Where law for one is law for both”
2. wearing a mask
“If I must own your manhood synonym
for every strength.”
“Then must I lie”
Causes of Anger — Confinement
Confinement (2/8)
manhood
1. Man with power of manhood controls all.
“In marriage there are many mansions”
“Shall you rule all the houses of your
choice”
“Because of manhood or because of
strength?”
(mansions may be bodies/persons of the
family or every aspect in marriage )
Causes of Anger — Confinement
Confinement (3/8)
2. Sex [male], not strength [ability], decides
who has the power.
“If sex is a criterion for power, and
never strength,”
“What do we gain by union?
union
1. Nothing is owned
“I lose all, while nothing worthy is so
gained by you”
Causes of Anger — Confinement
Confinement (4/8)
Body
Woman’s body as weakness and definition
Body’s love brings body’s pain
Bodily relationship – taking care of children
“Shall I for ever brush my infant’s hair?”
“Cumber his body in conceited needle-work?”
Causes of Anger — Confinement
Confinement (5/8)
Traditional Framework
Marriage / Motherhood
mentally humiliated
“But why because I do you service, should
you call me slave?”
“And how can I serve my son, but to be
much self”
center or wholeness of her life
“That [motherhood] is much, and yet not all”
Causes of Anger — Confinement
Confinement (6/8)
abstract / superficial mothering
1. Abstract name
“I am not mother to abstract Childhood,
but to my son”
“A fantastic creature like a thing of dreams”
2. Duties—housework
3. Leads to disattachement with her son
“Or shall I save some pains till he is
grown?”
“Why should dull custom make my son
my enemy”
Causes of Anger — Confinement
Confinement (7/8)
Privilege of manhood
leaving her
“So that the privilege of his manhood is to
leave my house”
“Or shall I save some pains till he is grown?”
Lack of education
“You [husband] would hold knowledge from
me because I am a mother”
“Power should be added to power(v.)”
“That [mother/hood] has so great an eye it has
no head”
Causes of Anger — Confinement
Confinement (8/8)
Claims for Her Motherhood
Mind > Body
Thought
sexless, free
mentally strong
Heart, love (spiritual love, good affection)
woman need it
“Kiss me sometimes in the light”
“Let me have flowers sometimes”
value for her son
“He will find more joy … in laughter”
Claims (1/5)
Trueness > Disguise
Be true self
“Let me speak my mind in life and love”
she does not want to “lie,” to do things
“falsely,” be a “mime” and be “of pretence”
“Are you content to be from henceforth only
father, and in no other way a man?”
Frank love
“And sometimes let me take your hand and
kiss you honestly”
Claims for Her Motherhood
Claims (2/5)
Spiritual Attachment > Physical Care
Spiritual love
“And love, which has no more matter in it
than is in the mind”
Good affection
Intelligent enrichment
“If he is my true son,”
“He will find more joy in number and in laughter”
Claims for Her Motherhood
Claims (3/5)
Strength / Ability > Sex [female]
Be Wise
She is as good as men or even better
“You calculate the distance of a star”
“I, thanks to this free age can count as
well”
“And by the very processes you use”
“When we think differently of two times
two,”
“I’ll own a universal mastery in you!”
Claims for Her Motherhood
Claims (4/5)
Necessary for being a mother
“Rather for this reason [I am a mother] let
me be wise, and very strong”
“Show him the consolation of mathematics”
Be Strong
mentally strong
To have power
“Power should be added to power”
Claims for Her Motherhood
Claims (5/5)
As a woman, wife and mother: She redefines her motherhood opposing that of
traditional stereotype given by the society. She asks for fairness and equality with men, and
shows the confidence of her capability. She asks for being self and to have her voices. She values what’s under the surface, such as mind,
love, self, knowledge and affection. In her motherhood, she not only can give her son
the traditional mothering but also what men can
give.
Conclusions
Conclusions (1/1)
Ingman, Heather, ed. Mothers and Daughters in the Twentieth Century: A Literary Anthology. New
York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Text from:
Source (1/1)