The Mother Figure in Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

An important focus is emphasized in this novel Housekeeping, which is mother/daughter relationships which is often brought up by feminists to prove the strength of female characters, in this case it would be Ruth and Lucille. There is often a strong bond that is formed between a mother and daughter(s) and a loss of either one can have traumatic effects on one person. In some of the earliest literature found in the Near East “the nature of the bond between mother and daughter is pictured as incomparably intense” (Ochshorn 5). This is evidence that mother/daughter relationships have substance outside of the feminist movement. Together, mothers and daughters connect with each other in a way that has powerful effects on each of their identities.

It is clear that mother/daughter relationships in themselves are important to the development of young girls. A mother is someone who is thought to act as a role model for her children, but especially for her daughter(s). Being of the same gender, girls often look to their mothers to determine the proper way to act according to society. In general, children also expect to be nurtured by parents and mothers usually take this role most seriously. Because of this, the slightest mistake or unpopular decision made by the parent toward the child can leave a lasting impact. It seems then obvious that if a parent can be capable of such damage while still there for a child, the loss of a parent would have traumatic results. This is the state in which we discover Ruth and Lucille in Robinson’s Housekeeping. “Even in mother-child relationships that are not as abruptly severed as Ruth’s, we recognize a primary human pattern, feelings of regret and abandonment that inevitably accompany the individual over the course of emotional development” (Ravits 647). At a young, Ruth and her sister are forced to face the world without the aid of a mother by their sides. Naturally the two girls struggle to identify with a strong motherly character and having a harder time finding themselves. Throughout the text they each search for a strong mother figure, which can be seen as a metaphor for finding their own identities to attach with (Trites 108). Through the novel we see how each of the sisters were affected by abandonment and how they develop because of it.

Throughout the novel Ruth spends a great deal of time describing the death of her grandfather, Edmond Foster, and how it affected his family. Although my focus is to discuss the mother/daughter connection, the lack of male characters is what leads one to discover such an emphasis on the relationships between female characters: “…for the women of the novel, the absence of husbands and fathers is the prerequisite for their own development…Her [Helen’s] death allows a range of female relations to develop, all prompted by the girls’ need of a mother” (Aldrich 309). With the men out of the picture, the mother figure is given sole power and both the daughters in the story recognize this. After Foster’s death, his daughters place more focus on their mother and give her the attention that they had not prior to that. “After their father’s death, the girls hovered around her, watched everything she did, followed her through the house, got in her way” (Robinson 10). With the father no longer present, the girls start to pay more attention to their mother which appears to have been missing in the first place. Sylvia is happy to be able to have this new relationship with her daughters and works to keep it. “Edmond Foster’s death brings a new intimacy between Sylvia and her daughters, as if finally, without the father, the daughters have finally recovered their mother” (Aldrich 309).

Discovering your own identity is a struggle that many young girls go through as they grow, and without any guardians to provide examples, this struggle is only magnified. Missing their mother to act as a model figure, Ruth and Lucille, of Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, find their own identities by finding new mother figures to connect with. Despite the different journeys the girls undertake, by the end of the novel they both seem to have progressed to a point where they each appear comfortable. There is no ending to the quest for identity, as many people are still finding their own. However, in finding new mother figures the sisters are able to learn more about themselves and be happy with what they have learned. For being described as freshly abandoned children in the beginning of the story, we tend discover that by the end of the novel Ruth and Lucille have more complete characters and stronger individuals.

Works Cited

Aldrich, Marcia. “The Poetics of Transcience: Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping.”

Contemporary Literary Criticism 180 (2004): 307-15. Literary Criticism Online. Web. 5

Nov. 2010. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitCrit/nhc_main/FJ35450005>.

Ochshorn, Judith. "Mothers and Daughters in Ancient Near Eastern Literature." The Lost

Tradition: Mothers and Daughters in Literature. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson and E. M.

Broner. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980. 5-14. Print.

Ravits, Martha. "Extending the American Range: Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping." Duke

University Press 61.4 (1989): 644-66. JSTOR. Web. 5 Nov. 2010.

<http://www.jstor.org/stable/2926999>.

Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping. New York: Picador, 1981. Print.

Trites, Roberta Seelinger. Waking Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Voices in Children's Novels.

Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1997. Print.