BOOKS
Rachel Trethewey investigates the light and shade in three literary mother-daughter relationships
‘WE THINK BACK THROUGH OUR MOTHERS if we are women.’ I came across this Virginia Woolf quote next to a bewitching photograph of her mother, Julia Stephen, at a Tate St Ives exhibition in 2018, and was struck by its truth. Looking at Stephen’s soulful eyes, I wanted to find out who she was, and whether the sentiment applied to other female writers.
As an avid reader of literary biographies, I soon discovered Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath also shared uncanny connections with their mothers, Clara Miller and Aurelia Plath – the latter had what she described as ‘psychic osmosis’ with her daughter. Being aspiring authors themselves, these three matriarchs recognised their respective children’s genius and, as their first teachers, readers and critics, nurtured it.
Later, they each inspired some of their daughters’ most compelling characters. In To the Lighthouse, Woolf brought her mother to life as Mrs Ramsay, while Christie recreated Miller as Unfinished Portrait ’s Miriam.
Less flatteringly, Mrs Greenwood in The Bell Jar is based on Aurelia Plath. The writers’ attitudes to feminism were also deeply affected by the way that they perceived their mothers: both Woolf and Plath rebelled against the sexist status quo that they believed had turned strong, independent women into martyrs.
For all the elements these three relationships had in common, the arc of each was very different. Julia Stephen died
