Mothers: Mother-Daughter Tropes in Twentieth-Century American Drama Kristin Hanson Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected]

Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2006 Stage(d) mothers: mother-daughter tropes in Twentieth-Century American drama Kristin Hanson Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Hanson, Kristin, "Stage(d) mothers: mother-daughter tropes in Twentieth-Century American drama" (2006). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 559. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/559 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. STAGE(D) MOTHERS: MOTHER-DAUGHTER TROPES IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN DRAMA A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Theatre by Kristin Hanson B.A., University of Iowa, 2000 May 2006 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has been many years in the making. It is with a warm heart and sincere gratitude that I extend my thanks to those who have supported me during this endeavor, and who have made it possible for me to complete this project. I would like thank my dissertation committee at Louisiana State University, whose guidance and commitment to my education has been invaluable. The mentoring and encouragement of Dr. Jennifer Jones-Cavenaugh has been a great source of strength, and this project could not have been completed without her support and encouragement. I have been blessed with many teachers throughout my academic career who have conveyed to me not only their wisdom, but their passion for learning. I remember all of these teachers fondly, without whom I would never have thought to extend myself into the world of thought and exploration. At LSU, Kate Jensen helped me to find a dissertation topic about which I became passionate. At the University of Iowa, I was encouraged and inspired by the mentorship of Aaron Han-Jun Park, one of the greatest teachers I have ever had the privilege to know. At the University of Hull, I was lucky enough to learn from the instruction of J. Michael Walton, whose passion for theatre scholarship has inspired me over the years. The friends I have made as a student have been likewise invaluable in my endeavors. I thank Joanna Wildenberg and Tamim Sifri for their enduring friendship. Without their constant encouragement, I would never have had the nerve to leave my home in pursuit of higher education. In Louisiana, I have been blessed to have the friendship of many colleagues in my doctoral program. I thank Gino Chelakis and Marla Dean for becoming my family in my first days at LSU, and Elissa Sartwell and Wesley Buerkle for supporting me throughout my tenure ii here. I would also like to thank my dear friend Kirsten Ogden, whose unwavering belief in my abilities has sustained me through many dark hours of doubt. My gratitude toward my friends and colleagues could not be complete without extending my thanks to Rana and Emma Webber, who became my rock of support in my last years at LSU, just when I most needed their support. No gratitude on my part could be complete without recognizing my family. With all the love in the world I humbly thank my sisters, Jenny and Kelly, for their love and the many hours of play and wonder which lit the fire of my imagination. None of this would have been possible, however, without the love and support of my parents, Marilyn and Eldon Hanson. Without their care, devotion, and unceasing belief in my abilities, I would never have achieved my goal of a doctoral degree. Their love is the center of my universe, and I hope that in my future endeavors, my achievements may honor all that they have given to me. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………………...…ii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………….…v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION…………………………….…………………………………...1 TWO: THE MONSTROUS MOTHER…………………………………………………28 THREE: MIRRORING MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS….………………………….83 FOUR: SAINTS AND MARTYRS OF MOTHERHOOD……………..……………..123 FIVE: ABSENT MOTHERS…………………………………………………………..162 SIX: FEMINIST MOTHERING………...…………………………………………..…205 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………254 WORKS CITED..……………………………………………………………………………....264 VITA…………………………………………………………………………………………....270 iv ABSTRACT The relationship between mother and daughter is an important one for many women. In learning how to best become a successful member of society, daughters look to their mothers to demonstrate the behaviors and beliefs appropriate to a female. Such explicit and implicit instruction makes the mother-daughter relationship a central one in the socialization of women. Because it is such a powerful site, the mother-daughter relationship has received attention in the world of representation. Of particular import to this study is the representation of the mother-daughter relationship in Twentieth-Century American drama. Recent scholarship has shown that such representations can, however, have greater import than simply as representations of an interpersonal relationship. Instead, representations of mother-daughter relationships often represent and reinforce patriarchal norms of feminine behavior and social constraints. This study puts this recent scholarship into dialogue with many plays from the twentieth century, in order to explore this relationship between dramatic and theatrical representations of the mother-daughter relationship and patriarchal conventions. It is arranged thematically, so that plays with similar features of the mother-daughter relationship—“tropes”—are put into dialogue with one another. As a work of feminist scholarship, this work seeks to both identify patriarchal messages contained in plays throughout twentieth-century America, as well as the potential for resistance to those messages. It is not intended as a master-narrative of the discourse on the mother- daughter relationship, but rather as an opening of that discourse to the world of theatrical and dramatic representation. v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION “Stage mothers” rarely identify themselves. The term refers to women to who push their children into the limelight against their will, seeking to glorify themselves through their children’s achievements. Stage mothers are selfish, grasping, vain, and abusive. The term is a criticism, identifying bad mothers who are emotionally distant and use their children for selfish ends. These women often cross multiple gender boundaries. They reject traditional feminine behavior by seeking recognition and fame. As such, they counter patriarchal beliefs that women should be retiring and humble, seeking recognition only through their domestic sphere. Stage mothers often come off as frightening and pushy. They embody a kind of power and willingness to achieve control that women are rarely asked to display in public. While the children of stage mothers are often pitied as abused children who are forced into uncomfortable situations they do not want, it is rare for people to examine the stage mothers themselves, asking why these women feel the need to thrust their children into the spotlight. Stage mothers are rarely pitied themselves, though it is not hard to see why a woman expected to be retiring and humble might chafe against those restrictions. In this project, I am deliberately conjuring up such women. I invoke the stage mother in my title because she represents the most glaringly patriarchal trope of the mother-daughter relationship: the maternal monster. Stage mothers symbolize the worst that can happen when women are given a measure of power over children. The lesson stage mothers teach is that when women are given power, even if that power is over their own children, women will use that power for selfish ends. I wish to invert the image of the stage mother so that instead of 1 symbolizing the danger of women’s power, it will become a symbol of patriarchal fear of such power. This project is an examination of mother-daughter tropes in twentieth century American drama. I have contained the scope of this study to a specific time and cultural landscape because representations of mothers change as they are affected by cultural developments in their time period. My goal in this project is to change the way audiences receive mothers on stage. I hope that this endeavor will encourage audiences to question where their beliefs about the nature of mothers, daughters, and their roles have originated, and how those beliefs have served the social order. This task will, I believe, help audiences to understand better how the confluences of power, gender, mothers, and daughters have given birth to a series of myths about mothers. Because I am addressing the world of theatrical representation, the mothers I will be discussing are, admittedly, intended for representation on the stage, making them “stage mothers.” These representations are also “staged” in that they are created as reflections of a patriarchal ideology that seeks to reduce the mother-daughter relationship to a site of inevitable conflict between women. In such representations, mothers are “staged” as women who compete with their daughters for masculine

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