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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Review of Related Studies
Based on the general issue of patriarchal mothering and social construction of womanhood in Bowens The Death of the Heart, some critics have evaluated
the novel‟s emphasis on the effect of mothering and symbolic law toward the construction of Portia‟s identity. Literary critics who see the issue of mother-
daughter‟s bond as a negative effect on the development of Portia‟s identity are Victoria Warren, Neil Corcoran, Barbara Seward, and Alfred McDowell. Other
critics, such as David Daiches, Alfred McDowell, and Bettany Chaffin have focused their analysis on the symbolic law which constructs gender identity for
women, and its negative effect to women‟s self-freedom. Mothering and symbolic
law are analyzed by those critics using the psychoanalytic theory which emphasizes the lack of phallus as the reason for Portias shift to the symbolic
father. Therefore, the evaluation based on psychoanalytic theory shows the failure
of the mother and the symbolic father in constructing Portias subjectivity. The primary mother and secondary symbolic father identification do not provide
autonomy and nurturance for Portia. Thus to liberate Portia from those two identifications, another critic, Neil Corcoran, has analyzed the role of substituted
mother Matchett who helps Portia return to her repressed desire, to revisit the childish memory and to re-feel maternal attachment.
Therefore, Corcoran‟s study does not completely reveal Portia‟s self-freedom because of the dominant role of
the substituted mother. The following part is the analysis of some studies on The Death of the Heart, related to the problem of mother-
daughter‟s bond relation and social construction of womanhood. It helps this study encompass and develop
analysis about the negativity of self-identification to patriarchal motherhood and symbolic father toward a woman‟s self-freedom.
2.1.1 The Notion of Mother-Daugh ter’s Bond Relationship
This first part of analysis discusses the related studies of four critics; Victoria Warren, Neil Corcoran, Barbara Seward, and Alfred McDowell, who
analyze the negative impact of mothers nurturance for Portia. In Victoria Warrens critique, she explains the negativity of mother-daughters relationship.
Warren has examined the close relationship between mother and daughter in The Death of the Heart and found the negative impact of mothers nurturance for
Portia. Warren observes Portias character as the one who does not have enough experience to live in the society which dishonors kindness and feeling.
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Warren criticizes the mother‟s character, who always acts from the heart, as the cause for
Portia‟s kindness and innocence. She believes that the daughter will inherit and internalize caretakers mother attributes, responses, and attitudes as the aspects
of self-identity. From Warren‟s argument, the negative side of mother-daughter‟s bond
relationship is clearly revealed. Close relation with the mother makes the daughter fall into imaginary unity, inherits all of the sameness, pleasure, and refuses the
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Victoria Warren . “Experience Means Nothing till It Repeats Itself: Elizabeth Bowens The
Death of the Heart and Jane Austen‟s Emma”. Modern Language Studies 29.1 Spring, 1999: p.
140. JSTOR. Web. 8 Apr. 2015
