Friday, March 9, 2012
Edna: Nature vs Nurture
Edna seems to not have much compassion when it comes to actually rearing and raising her children. She has times when she really enjoys being with her children, but that is only when they are right in front of her. She makes it clear when she says that their laughter was like a song to her, then goes on to say, "but by the time she had regained the city the song no longer echoed in her soul" (95). This shows me that she is not a good mother. If you only love your children and love to listen to their 'songs' of laughter only when you are in front of them and then forget them after they are out of your sight, then you are not only an unfit parent but neglectful as well. I know that Edna is trying to come to grips with her new identity, but that is still no reason to neglect her children the way she does. I also know that is was very common for a nurse/nanny to be in charge of children in this age, but Edna seems to be content to have little aquaintance with her children. When they are not in the care of their nurse/nanny, they are at their grandmother's house. These children have a neglectful mother, but also i believe a neglectful father. If anyone should deserve sympathy in this book, it is not Edna, but her children who really deserve it.
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I would argue that the fact that she visits the children at all makes her an attentive mother. She knows that she is incapable of giving them the care that they need, but she still goes and spends time with them occasionally. I would also argue the line "but by the time she had regained the city the song no longer echoed in her soul"(95) could also mean that the troubles that she had been able to forget while she was with her children started to worry her again when she returned home.
ReplyDelete@Stephanie: I really like your reading of that line. Perhaps what she realizes her is that her kids are not enough to bring her out of the sense of emptiness that she feels. Or they will never be--in and of themselves--enough.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, would any person really want to be the only important thing in his/her parents' life? No, right? I don't know...the kid thing is difficult.