The thing that struck me the most after reading this poem is the fact that Montague does not once question his mother about her actions or show any sign of resentment towards her. The tone of the poem is very melancholy, but instead of wallowing in the pain that his mother presumably caused, he gives us the sense of understanding that he has towards his mother's plight. He does not criticize her decisions, but has more of a deep compassion for what she herself was forced to endure and the difficulty of the choices she was forced to make.
The poem is a story, in 2nd person, of his mother's life as an immigrant and how her relationship with him reflected the impact that relocation had on her internally. He describes what ultimately happens to his family when he says "when poverty comes through the door love flies up the chimney". At first glance I think that it would be very easy to assume that poverty caused Molly's attention to shift from loving her son to her desperate situation. However I think the point being made is a lot more complex than that. Montague reveals at the end of the poem that his mom really did love him and think of him, to the point where she wanted to carry him with her. "I never knew until you were gone, that always around your neck you wore an oval locket with an old picture in it, of a child in Brooklyn.
Perhaps Molly's love for her son is not shown in the fact that she gave up her child, but in the fact that she loved him so much that she gave him up because she knew she didn't have much to give him. She had to force herself to ignore her innate feelings of love for her child, "I start to get fond of you John, and then you are gone". This suggests that for some reason she felt as though she didn't have the option of becoming attached to her son; as a child probably because she was too poor to care for him, and when he grew up because she was "resigned to being alone". Montague describes her as a "mysterious blessing". I believe that his approach to the situation is the ultimate expression of love. He does not blame her for what she did, he is not discouraged by the fact that she didn't want him when he was born, and he makes the decision to seek her even with the threat of possible rejection. He looks past the things about her that are negative and finds something positive to say, "lovely Molly, the belle of your small town". His love for his mother never wavered, and it turns out that her love for him did not waver either.
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I agree with what you've said about the complexity of the poem, both with regard to the mother's feelings and the son's feelings for her. We never really get a firm grasp on the feelings of these characters; they are always somewhat ambiguous, which I think speaks to the nature of our emotions themselves. The mother gives up her son, but at the same time she does show signs of wanting him and loving him, like the line you referred to, in which she says when she starts to get fond of him, he is gone. And while the son is hurt by what he's gone through, he isn't resentful at all. I get a sense of almost forgiveness at the end, in those final lines when he talks about the locket he never knew she wore. He has more of an understanding now of why she had to do what she did, and I think the poem in a way is giving him a sense of closure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the compassionate tone of the poem. Montague seems rather sad, instead of angry about his mother's abandonment. I didn't see where she could be attached to/love her son before I read your entry, But you make a very good point in that she may have given him up because she not have been able to give him anything. Maybe thats why he isn't so resentful?
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