Free Essays - Alienation in Landscape for a Good Woman :: Landscape for a Good Woman Essays

Alienation in Landscape for a uncorrupted Woman  In her introduction to Landscape for a Good Woman, Carolyn Steedman claims that this is a drama of class (22) she blames her baffles working-class background -- where fierce resentment against the inequity of things, was carried through seventy years and three generations ... and dissolved into the figure of her mother (30) -- for her own joyless childhood. The shocking portrait of Steedmans mother, who tells her children repeatedly both in her actions and words how unwanted they are, redefines the culturally normative nurturing role of motherhood. While Steedmans fanatic argument -- that her mothers hi horizontal surface of material inequality was responsible for the creation of this monster-martyr-mother -- mustiness non be discounted, it is incomplete. Her claim is convincing however, her mothers ridiculous decisions were also contributive causes. For example, Edna selected a married man who already had a daughter as t he prince who would fulfill her desires for property, material goods and status which seems risky at best. However, her desperate, failed attempt to set out his wife through motherhood after ten years of cohabitation is contact for both its evident lack of foresight and blindness to reality. It is difficult to create mentally that her fantasy whereby life would somehow improve from this decision ever had the possibility to be anything but a recipe for failure, especially since she pinned her hopes on this ploy not once,but twice. Perhaps Steedman wishes to imply that her mothers working-class status is responsible for her poor decision making skills. She certainly wants to convince us that her mothers desire for things is not trivial and she blames her mothers sense of unfairness, her belief that she had been refused entry to her rightful place in the world (112), on her working-class status. While this is certainly a gravestone factor in the disturbing tale, it is not the on ly factor therefore, the story is more than a drama of class, for this complex portrait of Steedmans mother is that of a vain, mean-spirited, bitter woman whose priorities were in disorder. The fact that Steedmans mothers working-class relatives did not prattle this illegitimate family indicates that her lack of a marriage certificate was unacceptable at heart her own class as well.