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Mildred Pierce, the Novel |
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LOVE AND HATE RULES IN GLENDALE BY KEVIN HARVEY I have always been of the belief that in order to truly love hate must exist within the core of the relationship. Nowhere in modern fiction is this dictum examined more accurately than in the novel by James Cain, Mildred Pierce. Looking at the concept in a familial context, James Cain has created two well-developed characters, Mildred Pierce and her daughter, Veda, that not only emphasizes the nature of mother-daughter relationships, but looks at how love and hate permeates the very essence of the relationship. The Irish poet Thomas Moore once described the fascination of these violently fluctuating emotions, “When I loved you, I can’t but allow/ I had many an exquisite minute/ But the scorn that I feel for you now/ Hath even more luxury in it” (Tresidder 57). While reading Mildred Pierce, I was reminded of my own mother’s relationship with her daughters. One of my sisters, Leslie, in particular, hated my mother in youth. It was strong emotion to extinguish, especially in those formative teen years, but because life is dominated with experiences, things in which we learn from, later one comes to understand the nature of their hate and love and begins to properly delineate the truth of each. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see this in Mildred Pierce and Veda’s relationship. The reason for this is twofold; one, it is the element of obsessive love that fosters a breakdown in the natural boundaries that exist in a parental relationship. Secondly, it is the need by Mildred to seek the unrealistic approval from her daughter, Veda, which further exasperates the boundaries, almost wiping them completely away. We see these elements of obsessive love, acceptance and approval, shape and control the mother-daughter relationship from the start. Mildred explains in one poignant moment of recognition: To Mildred it was fragrant, soothing oil in a gaping wound. They went to her bedroom, and she undress, and got into bed, and took Veda into her arms. For a few minutes she breathed tremulous, teary sighs. But when Veda nestled her head down, and blew into her pajamas, the way she used to blow into Ray’s, the heat lightning flickered once, then drove into her sorrow with a blinding flash. There came torrential shaking sobs, as at last she gave way to this thing she had been fighting off; a guilty, leaping joy that it had been the other child who was taken from her, and not Veda (Cain 134). That this observation occurs after the death of one her daughters, Ray, is a source of shame and humiliation for Mildred as a mother. “Only an act of high consecration could atone for this…” (Cain 135). The primary responsibility of motherhood is to love with equality, to wrap the warmth of love around those she brought into world with the same intensity and passion. “There was something unnatural, a little unhealthy, about the way she inhaled Veda’s smell…” (Cain 135). But as with any obsession, the object of one’s obsession is the only thing that matters, and everything else is peripheral. Later, after a contentious argument between Veda and Mildred, Veda, in the ultimate act of defiance for that day, lights and smokes a cigarette in front of Mildred. Of course, Mildred must take a stand here or lose the obligatory control a parent has over her child. Mildred slaps Veda, but this isn’t the end, for Veda responds in kind, “The next thing she knew, she was dizzy from her head to her heels, and it seemed seconds before she realized, from the report that was ringing in her ears, that Veda had slapped her back” (Cain 182). This episode is typical of what psychologist call the transitional aspect of a relationship. “Developmentally, it is that final stage… separation from the mother and a move by the daughter into autonomy. And in fact, this issue is one of the prime areas we find unresolved; the inability to separate into autonomy” (Firman 1). Interestingly, looking at Veda from this perspective, we can conclude her antipathy for Mildred is byproduct of her need to separate from her mother’s influence and direction. Yet, if we look closely at the relationship between these two, the relationship seems to be a reversal of this theory; it is the mother, not the daughter that can’t imagine separation. In fact, the mother takes on the persona of the daughter and daughter acts as an uncaring caretaker. In certain sections in the novel, Veda is the mother and Mildred is the helpless, unproven daughter. Cain ends several chapters with the mother, Mildred, exclaiming to the daughter, Veda, “...Every good thing that happens is on account of you, if Mother only had sense enough to know it” (Cain 88). These proclamations only further advance the capitulation of the tenuous strings of control Mildred employs over Veda. “Because females are more often trained to pay attention to inner feelings and emotional relationships, it is usually the daughter… who feels responsible for the mother” (Phillips 107). But Veda is not the typical daughter, for Veda, the relationship she shares with Mildred is secondary to her own personal agenda to ascend to the class of the elite. “In part, tensions arise because patriarchal propaganda creates ambivalence in daughter about the value of their relationship with their mothers. Daughters long for closeness with their mothers but they are confused by the images of mothers as the enemy, mothers as having low status, mothers as neurotic” (Phillips 47). This is a constant theme in Veda’s interaction with Mildred, the ambivalence bordering on indifference. What ultimately binds these two together are two totally different agendas. For Mildred, it is her obsessive love for Veda; her need to gain acceptance and approval from this undeserving daughter that leads her catastrophic collapse. For Veda, it is her spiteful and vindictive nature to exact pain from those she holds in contempt. One needs the other in order to bear witness to the conclusion of their story. Love and hate rules in Glendale. Work Cited Cain, James. Mildred Pierce. 1941 New York: Vintage Books. 1989 Firman, Dorthy. “Healing the Mother/Daughter Relationship.” Mother/Daughter Relations 8 Dec 02
http://www.motherdaughterrelations.com/article.html Phillips, Shelley. Beyond the Myths. 1991 New York: Penguin Books. 1996 Tresidder, Megan. The Secret Language of Love. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 1997 Vial, Veronique. Women Before 10 a. m. Photograph. New York: Powerhouse Books. 1998 |