Mother in Western Literature
Author: Dr. K.S. Kang
God could not be everywhere, so he created Mother
Mother is the symbol of creativity,positivity, affection and devotion. Not only human beings but even the mothers of birds and beasts can go to any extent and struggle to save the life of her young ones. Literature has given adequate space to mother in every kind of literature. In Russian literature there is even a work by the name The Mother by famous Russian author Maxim Gorky in which the protagonist becomes the mother of not only an individual but of the entire nation and tribe. She not only serves her son but also the cause of revolution by helping her son in various work like distribution of pamphlets.
Another work on mother is also a work by Maxim Gorky but it is a short story Mother of a Traitor in which a lady’s son becomes a rebel who wants to conquer his own town where he had spent his childhood. This lady is in dilemma whether to support her son or her town where she had spent her youth and given birth to this ungrateful wretch. She is looked down upon by the people of the town as they now that she is mother of a person who has become a threat to their city. But they do not harm her or kill her. One day she takes a decision and goes to the rulers of the town to take their permission to leave the town. They give the permission reluctantly. She leaves the town with a heavy heat and reaches the camp of her son, who is overjoyed to see his mother as he was restraining to attack the town as his mother was in it. Now he makes plan to attack the town. Mother tries to persuade him not to create violence and slaughter in his own hometown just to satisfy his ambition and lust of conquest. When she sees that he is blinded by ambition and lust for power she takes decision and fulfills dual responsibility of acting mother towards her son as well as mother towards her town. She stabs him with a knife and kills him and thus becomes a mother of her town by saving the innocent people from the bloodshed and violence and she acts as mother of her son by killing herself with the same dagger.
Next work on the mother is a play by Bertolt Brecht Mother Courage and Her Children in which a lady runs a canteen in the battlefield during a battle to look after her children. Though she had taken a bold decision to carry on business even during the uncertainties of war. But she takes this risk for the sake of her children. The real mother courage that emerges in the play is her daughter who is dumb but she saves the innocent lives of the people of the town by giving then a warning of approaching foe by beating the drum though she loses her life during it. So she sacrifices her life to save innumerable lives of the people living in the town by upsetting the plans of the enemy. Another work on the mother is a beautiful lyrical poem by famous poet William Cowper whose title is On the Receipt of Mother’s Picture out of Norfolk which is the story of an orphan who had lost his mother in his childhood and after a gao of twenty years he gets a portrait of his mother from one of his relative living in Norfolk. Mother has figured almost in every genre of literature whether it is play, poem , short story or a novel.
