Hotel du Lac – Confined Women and Motherhood

Image by David Martyn Hunt

How can we see the spatial impact of social pressure in Hotel du Lac through motherhood?

Hotel du Lac, by Anita Brookner, gives insight into the stereotypical thinking and behaviours that women adopt in order to conform to society's demands. Although at different ends of a continuum, young, beautiful, anorexic Monica and Mrs. Pusey, a widow of “indeterminate age” (17), are both victims of a system controlled by patriarchy.


Worthless Widows


Mrs Pusey was raised in an era which conditioned young women to become wives and mothers and left them with what Florence Nightingale refers to in her 'family manuscript,"Cassandra," “nothing to do” (Norton 1606). Mrs Pusey’s life echoes the words of Florence Nightingale who asked, “Why have women passion, intellect, moral activity - these three - and a place in society where no one of these three can be exercised?” (Norton 1606). Once married, Mrs Pusey became “completely preoccupied with the femininity which . . . provided her with life’s chief delights” (39) and which restricted her self-development and the space allotted to her.

The most socially valued qualities of women, the ability to provide sex, bear children, and provide attractive companionship, are associated with youth. Traditionally, society discouraged young women from developing other qualities, so Mrs. Pusey and women of her generation, according to Rivers, Barnett, and Baruch in Beyond Sugar and Spice: How Women Grow Learn & Thrive, 1983, are unduly viewed as parasites for spending the last stage of their lives leisurely, with travel funded by their late husbands’ estate (233). Widows like Mrs Pusey, denied of a useful function in society, become isolated and enveloped in loneliness. In order to avoid isolation and solitude Mrs. Pusey clings to her middle-aged daughter for companionship. In order to retain her status and usefulness, she endeavours to preserve her daughter’s youth so much so that her “ face . . . sh[ines] the ruddy health of an unsuspecting child” (54); The symbol of the daughter’s loss of personal space and the mother’s spatial authority.

Hotel du Lac’s Smother Mother


Mrs Pusey’s relationship to her daughter calls to mind what Elena Gianni Berlotti, in her book, What Are Little Girls Made Of? The Roots of Feminine Stereotypes, 1976, mentions about developmental psychologists’ assessment of the personality of young children through their drawings. Berlotti states that “The poorest most monotonous content in all these collected drawings is . . . made by suburban little girls . . . who are kept at home to 'provide company' for their mothers (Berlotti, 144). Jennifer obviously suffers from such suburban patterns, for entrenched in her mother’s encampment she “[has little] to say for herself” (38) and “always seem[s] . . . as inexpressive as a blank window” (54). Their interdependence has resulted in “a physical closeness”(39) that blurs the separation between the maternal image of Mrs Pusey and her daughter’s self-images. This symbiosis has occasioned Jennifer to become “ a paler version of [her mother]” (18).

The Invisible Daughter


Juanita Williams in, Psychology of Women-Behaviour in a Biosocial Context, 1987, says that “individuation occurs when the daughter . . . experiences some of life’s milestones including marriage, motherhood, career, making a life of her own” (Williams 188). Within the walls of Hotel du Lac, Jennifer “ . . . occupie[s] quite a large space and ha[s] a curiously insistent physical presence” (38). Yet, she only acquires physical space; her indistinct personality does not extend beyond the perimeter of her mother’s dominating character. Jennifer has been absorbed into her mother’s personal space and denied the opportunity to discover her own boundaries. Groomed by her lonely, self-indulgent mother to become her successor - to appropriate the vacant place available after her death, Jennifer has become a victim of her mother’s solitude.



Sources:

  • Berlotti, Elena Gianni. What Are Little Girls Made Of? The Roots of Feminine Stereotypes. Shocken Books, New York: 1976.
  • Brookner, Anita. Hotel du Lac. Penguin, Harmondsworth, London: 1993.
  • Rivers, Caryl, Rosalind Barnett, and Grace Baruch. Beyond Sugar and Spice: How Women Grow Learn & Thrive. Ballantine Books, New York: 1983.
  • The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume 2, London: 1990.

  • Williams, Juanita, Psychology of Women-Behaviour in a Biosocial Context. 3rd ed. W.W., Norton New York: 1987.

Copyright Lesley Lanir. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.



Kindle Video Book



 First published by  Lesley Lanir on Suite101 Mar 3, 2011

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peirce’s Triadic Model – Interpreting Signs

Image
A sign or  a symbol? Image by Lesley Lanir  When Ferdinand de Saussure was formulating his two part ‘dyadic’ model of the sign, consisting of a ‘signifier, or  the form that a sign takes, and the ‘signified,’ or concept  it represents, American, Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) was theorizing his own model of semiotics and signs. In contrast to Saussure’s model, Peirce formulated a three-part triadic model consisting of an interpretant,  representamen, and an object. Symbols according to Peirce. Diagram Lesley Lanir By examining the relationship between objects, interpretants, and representamens and, in particular, the way the referent determines the sign, Peirce also distinguished three main ‘modes’  into which signs can be assigned: symbol, icon and index. Example of  an iconic sign. Image by Lesley Lanir Iconic signs according to Peirce. Diagram Lesley Lanir Example of an indexical sign. Image by Lesley Lanir Indexical signs according to Peirce
Read more

Slang, Swearing and Death in The Catcher in the Rye

Image
Salinger's protagonist,  Holden Caulfield reveals his innermost thoughts through a stream of consciousness awash with slang, swearing, and references to death. Societal pressures intensely disturb the anti-hero of   The Catcher in the Rye , causing him to reject and pervert expected social conventions. Although Holden constantly engages himself in conversation, he equally explicitly demonstrates his dislike of dialogue and instead prefers to express himself through the medium of writing, a form of communication that creates a distance between himself and the reader but brings him closer to his older brother D.B., who is a writer. Holden Caulfield’s use of slang Through his writing, Holden discovers a vehicle for self-expression; however, the surface structure of his narration projects simple language, “lousy vocabulary” (8), and consistent vulgarities. Yet, with repeated occurrences of key words or groups of key words, a technique of this kind serves to symbolise a
Read more

Interpreting signs – Charles Sanders Peirce

Image
We are surrounded by numerous types of signs and sign systems that we may not be fully aware of. How we interpret these signs and react to our understanding of them gives them meaning. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) formulated the innovative triadic model of the sign, emphasizing in his theory that the way we interpret a ‘sign’ is what allows it to be signified – what gives it its meaning. Therefore, when creating a sign system the main attributes of any sign need to be clear enough to relay their intended meaning, or else they will be valueless. What are signs? Peirce’s theory does not focus on just material or concrete signs, but any kind of sign. For example, if a bus driver announces that the next stop is Central Station and a passenger rings the bell, lighting up the ‘stop’ sign  – then the sign system here has been understood. The message contained  in the driver’s announcement is the sign that he will drive straight past that terminal if no one responds. His announ
Read more