the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

dlviner, Royland, is able to divlne that Plque does not
really resent her mother - "she has mlxed feelings, is allv
!D,100). However Pique, like Meridian, has moments of
Intense hatred towards her mother
They thlnk they are sweet reasonableness, and it's
you that's in the wrong, lust by belng, and not
being like them, or looking like them, or wanting
their kind of life It's the anger you can feel,
even ~f they don't lay a hand on you (D 233)
P~que's anguished outburst at her mother. "Why dzd you have
me?" (D . 235) 1s another stone pelted at her
9 0
Plque feels
that Morag conceived her just for her own satlsfactlon
wlthout glvlng a thought to the chlld to be born. Morag too
wonders at tlmes if she had Pique lust to have someone born
of her blood, In the process dld she decelve both Plque and
Jules7
The ambivalence characterlslng the mother-daughter
relationsh~p 1s most obvious In Morag's statement
"Pique,
harbinger of my death, continuer of llfe" (D . 290)
Paradoxically, although creatlng the daughter requlres a
surrender of self, it also recreates the self for the woman.
For Morag, recognltlon of her daughter's adulrhood is also a
recognltlon of her own mortality
Also, through her
daughter. Morag creates, both ln her art and her life, her
f~ture
In creating the future, she recreates her personal
Fast and recovers her lost maternal lnherltance
3.3.2.1. Slgne Hammer, who has described the "underground"
nature of the mother-daughter relationship, also emphasizes