Mother Mayhem

In both the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, there is a mother figure who tries to influence and control the actions of their children.

“A Good Man is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor is about a family who is going down south, meanwhile, there is a band of prisoners who have broken free and are highly dangerous. The Grandmother does not think going down to Florida is a good idea, however, the rest of the family, mostly her son, Bailey, ignores her and proceeds with their wishes. Most prominently in “A Good Man is Hard To Find”, the grandmother keeps on insisting that they change their plans to cater what she wants to do. Instead of going to Florida, she wanted to go to Tennessee. She “wouldn’t take [her] children in any direction with a criminal” down south she just “… couldn’t answer to [herself] if [she] did” (O’Connor 1). However, her son ignores this idea and says they should continue to go down to Florida. The grandmother tries over and over again to get her son to change his mind, yet he didn’t. She tries to control him and yet, she fails.

Similarly in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the mother of Elizabeth and Victor want them to be married in the future. Victor himself even knows that she will be “[his] more than a sister, since till death she was to be only [his]…” (18). However, when the mother dies from Scarlet Fever, her dying wish is for her two children to marry each other, but they do not do it. They undermine the mother’s wish and carry on with their lives. The children in Frankenstein love their mother (Elizabeth is saved by her mother and that is how she contracts Scarlet Fever), however, their opinions seem to matter little in their lives.

By both of these text undermining the female figures, it shows me that Gothic literature does not give women an important role in their stories.  The woman/mothers are often viewed as irrelevant and only make matters worse for their children (especially in “A Good Man is Hard To Find”. This also could reflect the beliefs of society at this time. Women might have been underestimated and unequal in the time periods that these stories were written in. Women couldn’t vote until the 19th Amendment (1920) in the United States and Representation of the People Act (1928) in England. At this time period, women’s opinions were clearly not important and therefore undermined in these two stories.

Stories Referenced:

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor

• http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/goodman.html

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• https://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm 

Featured Header Picture:

• https://www.fotolia.com/id/87042353