Children, motherhood, and gender roles

Write a response that can bring up a question, try to give an explanation of something, be an observation of a pattern you’ve noticed, or a claim (interpretation). Anything that engages with the text. If you’re referencing a specific passage of the novel, quote it! If you’re referencing a certain part of the novel, provide a page number or page range! Then the rest of the class will know exactly what you’re talking about.

The theme of the reponse should be about children, motherhood, and gender roles. Today’s reading emphasizes just how bad of a mother Emma is (there’s no denying it). This also offers us a chance, however, to think about Emma’s experience as reflective of gender roles at the time, a topic that comes out pretty clearly in her conversation with Rodolphe. So here are a few questions you might consider: What kind of mother is Emma? How does she treat her child and how is this reflective of her character in general? What aspects of motherhood are hidden and what are revealed? What do we learn about gender roles from her conversation with Rodolphe? How do we think of her as a dreamer differently, in light of this conversation?

*As we advance in the course, we’re going to keep discovering what you could call ‘bad’ or ‘unnatural’ mothers. This is an opportunity for us to consider motherhood as a social institution, something that changes over time and varies according to place and social class. This teaches us, in addition, to be suspicious of anything that claims to know what a ‘natural’ woman or mother is.