In Warner’s The Wide Wide World, The role of Ellen’s parents clearly demonstrates the guidelines for appropriate parenting of the 19th century. Ellen’s super strong connection with her mother and lack of any sort of connection with her father is very telling of this time period. It was expected back then that women stay home with their children, especially daughters, and teach them how to be a ladies. Mrs. Montgomery is constantly quoting the bible and pressuring Ellen to put all her faith in God and trust in him with everything she has. Also the ritual of making bread shows us the small house keeping things that Ellen has been taught to do. She is meticulous while making tea and toast, and it is these skills which are most important to her. In addition to the things Mrs. Montgomery teaches Ellen, it is evident that their bond is very strong. When Ellen thinks about the fact she must leave her mother she “[flings] her arms round her mother, and hid[es] her face in her lap, giv[ing] way to a violent burst of grief” (Warner pg 23).
The relationship between Ellen and her father is nothing like this. Her father is often distant and never at home. This shows us that the role of the father in this time period was simply to provide for the family. He had no stake in raising the children. Things might have been different if the Montgomery’s had a son but I don’t know. Ellen respects her father but I think she is also afraid of him, or at least his power. This is evident when he comes in her room to tell her it is time for her to leave she jumps out of bed and does exactly as he tells her too. And in the morning time she would wait to talk about any plans her and Mrs. Montgomery had until after her father had left the house, so not to bother him with anything.
With all of these instances we can conclude that the father figure in the 19th century was absent most of the time and his chief concern was making sure there was enough money for his family, and maybe disciplining the children. The mother’s role was to raise the children and teach them the things they will need to be socially successful in their later lives.
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In my own blog I also talked about how one of the major roles of the father is to provide for the family. I think that you did a good job of using examples such as Ellen’s reaction to her leaving and her not wanting to discuss the day until her father was gone to prove that the father really is seen as an authoritative figure.
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ReplyDeleteKasey,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Ellen and her mom have a really strong bond and that she barely has a relationship with her father. I agree that fathers at that period in time seem to be more of the providers and may not have a close relationship to their children. I have never thought about if they had a son what it would be like, I think thats a really good point you brought up.
nice job sensing the relationship between Ellen and her father could be telling of relationships between other fathers and daughters of the time period. "Not bothering him" is a good way to put the way Ellen waited for Mr. Montgomery to leave the house since we get the feeling that almost anything having to do with Ellen was a bother.
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