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Based on the dialogue between Karen and Sofia above, the researcher comes to a conclusion that Nora’s silence toward everything gives Karen the wrong message.
Karen thinks Nora is angry at her because of Karen’s mistake in the past whereas actually Nora is unhappy too because she sees Karen is unhappy and Nora feels that
Karen’s unhappiness is her mistake. When the truth is eventually revealed by Sofia the servant after Nora dies, Karen is surprised. Karen never thought that Nora also
felt guilty to see her daughter unhappy. The bond between Karen and Nora is difficult because both of them do not be
honest to each other. This is what Adrienne Rich means when she states that negative echoes of mothering sometimes give double message that confuses the daughter in
Humm, 1992: 275. By double message, the researcher means Karen’s wrong
interpretation because of Nora’s silence and cold response. Karen brings the burden of guilt feelings that makes her unable to open herself up and being a difficult person.
According to Herst, the bond between mother and daughter might be intensely rewarding or brutally painful for the daughter 1998: xv, and it is pretty obvious that
Karen is not the one who gets the reward instead what she gets is the pain from her bond with her mother.
2. Elizabeth and Karen
Elizabeth and Karen never meet each other. Elizabeth was the baby girl whom Karen had to give up when she was still a teenager. As it is mentioned earlier that
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Elizabeth becomes an independent woman because she did not get along really well with her adoptive parents and she knows that her biological mother gave her up for
adoption. Elizabeth moves back to the town where she was born intentionally to figure out whether her mother looks for her or not and when she finds out that her
mother never tries to look for her, she is disappointed. ELIZABETH. There is no “they”. The father is not a part of my imagination.
A beat. ELIZABETH CONT’D. I live in her home town – how hard could it
be for Her Fucking Majesty to find me? Garcia, 2009: 57 Elizabeth is furious after knowing that her biological mother never tries to look for
her. However, Elizabeth knows that when her mother was still a teenager when she gave birth to her and she also knows why her mother had to give her up for adoption.
What Elizabeth cannot accept is the fact that her mother never tries to look for her and she never hears anything from mother.
Elizabeth is the only character who grows up without mother figure. Although she has an adoptive mother, but as she has mentioned that she was not really close to
her adoptive mother because she knows that she does not belong to her adoptive mother.
No matter how Elizabeth is furious to her biological mother, she still often thinks about her mother. Elizabeth even creates her own concept about her biological
mother that does not allow her mother to have a family or another child but her. VIOLET. What’s your mother like?
Elizabeth thinks about it. ELIZABETH. She’s really gentle and – patient. And she’s fun.
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VIOLET. Wow. A beat. Elizabeth looks at Violet and reconsiders.
ELIZABETH. The truth is I have no idea. She gave me up for adoption when I was born. We’ve never met.
Violet says nothing. ELIZABETH CONT’D. For a long time I could only think of her as a girl of
fourteen. That’s how old she was when I was born. A beat.
ELIZABETH CONT’D. She was like you. VIOLET. But not a virgin.
ELIZABETH. That’s right. Elizabeth laughs. She touches Violet’s face.
ELIZABETH CONT’D. In the last few months I’ve formed this image in my head of a woman her real age. I imagine her living alone
– no husband or children.
VIOLET. You don’t want her to have a life without you. A beat.
ELIZABETH. Smart girl. VIOLET. Do you think she thinks of you?
A beat. ELIZABETH. She must. I was inside her once. Who can recuperate from
that? Garcia. 2009: 82-83
The dialogue between Elizabeth and Violet above shows how Elizabeth actually
thinks about her mother. Violet is a fourteen years old girl who lives in the next door. She and Elizabeth often hang around together after Elizabeth quits her job as a lawyer
after she figures out that she is pregnant. Elizabeth tells Violet that she used to think her mother as fourteen years old girl because she has been told that her mother had
her when was still a teenager but lately she creates her own imagination of her mother in the real age who lives alone, no husband and no children. Violet says that is
because Elizabeth actually does not want her mother to have a happy life without her. Elizabeth agrees and she also believes that even if her mother does not look for her,
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there is nothing in the world can deny the fact tha t she was on her mother’s womb
and her mother must think of her. As Melanie Klein states that mother
is the child’s primary love and how it affects the future of the infant itself in Doane and Hodges, 1992, Elizabeth is the
representation of a child who does not get enough “primary love” and it affects the future of hers. The researcher draws a conclusion that Elizabeth does not get enough
“primary love” because she was abandoned by her biological mother and she does not get along really well with her adoptive mother. It obviously affects Elizabeth’s life in
the future. In the end of the story, Elizabeth dies after giving a birth and she never meets Karen, her biological mother.
3. Lucy and Ada
Lucy and Ada, her mother, have the least difficult bond than the previous bonds. Unlike Karen, who has to hide everything inside, Lucy is able to express
everything to Ada, even when she disagrees with her mother. Lucy likes to discuss and argue about all things with her mother, and her mother always stands there for
Lucy. INT. LUCY’S BAKERY – MORNING
A bakery owned and managed by Lucy. It’s pretty busy. Lucy is putting the final touches on a cake while her mother, Ada, hovers.
ADA. Was this your idea or his?
LUCY. Please don’t start. I need for you to be with me on this. ADA. I am with you. I’m just wondering whose idea it was.
LUCY. It’s my idea. An employee walks between them. A beat.
ADA. That mother in law of yours is going to blow a gasket. Her prince raising the child of a stranger.
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Ada chuckles. Lucy doesn’t think it’s amusing. She starts to put the cake in a box.
LUCY. What about you? Are you going to love this baby or not? ADA
. Well, there’s no baby to speak of yet. What’s the next step? LUCY. We’re meeting a woman on Monday. She’s six months pregnant.
ADA. And she just now decided to give up the baby? LUCY. No. apparently she’s already turned down several couples.
ADA. Turned down? Who’s approving who? There’s an argument that you’d be doing her favor.
LUCY. Nobody is doing anybody a favor, mom. Everyone stands to win. A beat. Ada is not so convinced.
ADA. There’s so much positioning with everything nowadays. Motherhood should be a much simpler thing than this.
Lucy can’t believe what she has just heard. She fights back her rage and tears.
ADA CONT’D. Oh Lucy – I’m sorry. That was a horrible thing to say. I’m sorry, Lu. I’m an idiot. Forgive me, please. I’m sorry.
She means it. LUCY. You really wear me out, mom. I love you
– but between my daughter and I things will be different. I’ve promised myself that already.
Ada is hurt. ADA. Thank you for that, Lucy. Garcia, 2009: 12-13
The scene above happens in Lucy’s bakery, where she and her mother work together
as bakers. Ada asks Lucy about her decision to adopt a baby. They argue because Ada needs to be convinced that the idea of adopting a baby is not from
Lucy’s husband. As it is seen in the dialogue that Lucy is able to say things she wants to say to her
mother. Lucy is also able to ask for her mother support for her decision in this. Ada supports Lucy, but Ada wants to assure Lucy in order not to make a wrong decision.
The end of the dialogue above shows that Ada says something wrong and hurts her daughter and she apologizes. She knows what she has just said about simple
motherhood hurts her daughter, who cannot conceive a baby on her own, so she is sorry for hurting her daughter. Although they both end the dialogue with arguing each
