Description
Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and The Tolerable takes a close look of literary depictions of mothers.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels are often pre-occupied with mothers and motherhood. The role of mother was regarded as the peak of Victorian womanhood. Women were thought to be domestic angels, designed for the sacred role. As the real life mother to four daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell was once dismissed as a cosy writer of domesticity, wrongly regarded as being ‘unintellectual… and easily shocked’. So, what did she actually have to say about motherhood in her writing?
Starting with the fallen woman in Ruth, she shines a light on a range of mums including iconic Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Mrs Wilfer from Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, Marmee in Little Women, the tragic mother in Lizzie Leigh, Mrs Thornton in North and South and ghastly Mrs Gibson in Wives and Daughters. With speaker Sherry Ashworth.
‘Sherry is excellent.’ Visitor to previous online event
Recorded March 2025
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Celebrating the life and literature of Elizabeth Gaskell, Manchester’s most famous Victorian writer. A restored Victorian middle-class house in the heart of a UNESCO City of Literature.
House, Garden and Tea Room open every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday 11am-4.30pm (last entry 3pm). Second-hand books also on sale from the House.
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