Title: The New Mother

Author: Lucy Lane Clifford

Date of First Publication: 1882

Place of Publication: Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise (Macmillan)

Type: Short story

Characters: No Character

Themes: WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; ANDROID; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER

Critical Summary: Two children are living in a cottage at the edge of the forest with their mother and a baby. Often, the children named Blue Eyes and the Turkey, travel to a nearby village to retrieve letters from their father. On their walk back home, they see an unhappy, raggedy looking girl waiting at the bridge. The girl plays a musical peardrum with a little box attached to it. She tells them that inside the box is a little man and little woman who dance, but only for naughty children. The children go home crying and confess to their mother that they want to be naughty. Their mother tells them that if they are naughty, she will leave them and send for a new mother—one with glass eyes and a wooden tail. They agree to never be naughty.

The next day, however, the children see the village girl in the same spot as before and she convinces them that there is no such thing as a “new mother.” The children agree to go home and be naughty so the village girl will show them what’s inside the box. Indeed, the children go home and break their mugs and throw their food on the floor. To this, their mother repeats that a “new mother” will come. But the children are not convinced. They go see the village girl once again and she tells them exactly what to do to be even more naughty. The children return home and break nearly everything. Their mother cries and gives them one more chance to be good, but the children still do not believe in the new mother. The next morning, they run off to see the village girl for a third time. The village girl says she will come by the cottage and show them the little man and woman only if the children break the looking glass and stand the baby on its head. Once again, the children are very naughty, but this time, their mother comes downstairs dressed up and ready to leave with the baby. The children break the looking glass and that is the final straw; their mother cries and bids them farewell. She tells them the new mother is coming. The village girl passes by their cottage, playing an awful song.

The children are disappointed to see the box is empty. The village girl tells them she will return to her land now and that their mother has sailed across the bridge to meet their father. The children still don’t believe their new mother is coming. They bolt the doors shut, clean the house, and patiently wait for their mother to return. Suddenly, they hear a harsh knock on the door. The new mother arrives and the children peek and notice a blinding flash due to her glass eyes. The new mother breaks the door open with her wooden tail. The children flee the cottage and stay in the forest where they remain, forever wandering and watching the new mother in their cottage.

Lucy Lane Clifford is a female author who writes a woman, most significantly a mother, as a monster. The new mother brings up a fear of motherhood, because she is a monster who defies the traditional role of a nurturing mother. The two girls resemble Victor Frankenstein in their desire to achieve an impossible goal and willingness to break the rules of society to achieve it; equally, their success does not yield their expected rewards. The form of the new mother is one composed of artificial parts and human parts yet functions as a human-like being. Though the form of the new mother is monstrous, there are others that can be considered monsters, one being the girl with the box who promoted the disobedience of the girls and another being the girls who show their capacity for evil through being naughty. We sympathize with them.

Administrative Notes: Aristy Inguanzo, CSUF; Travis Asis, CSUF; Mark LaMonica (edit).