“I didn’t want to be your mother. I wanted you to know that I was as helpless as you.” It is not yet well established that motherhood is a state of existence that goes beyond the biological duties that refers to the female body. Care, care and the constant attention that the child demands from his mother often remains a persistent need to go far beyond the childhood. In fact, motherhood has the form of an appointment, a full -time responsibility that is “due to a child” until the personal identity of a woman is wiped out. Mothers who were obliged remained themselves in the course of history and had to give up the striving for their dreams in this regard and remained limited to the requirements of the domestic.
Ingmar Bergman 1978 film “Autumn Sonata” Exceed cultural boundaries and even time for this matter and show us the character of Charlotte, who questions the deeply rooted conviction that the mother’s instinct is a characteristic of all women. It opposes the traditional, self -victim approach to motherhood and instead decides to prioritize her own autonomy against the requirements of maternal duty.
Charlotte’s non -binding approach to be a mother
Although Charlotte had a husband and two daughters, he lived his own life and occupied a complete existence, which is an unpopular picture, since the almost impossible task of seeing a woman is not in relation to the woman or mother of a person. She had a very successful career in which she decided not to devote her time to her daughters, and indifferently to her husband. If she draws attention to herself and has not stopped, she drove from feelings of guilt because she cannot stay at home.
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At the same time, she mentions that she realized every time she came home that it was something else she wanted. Again and again it is known that she escapes from life at home, and in the end she follows this path. We wonder why she decided to have children at all if she was so determined to keep her away from her life.
As a woman, Charlotte fulfills only half of the expectations. Any non -conforming person, like a mother who does not take care of the upbringing of her children, is viewed as outliers within a long -established structures in which the idea of the heteronormative family remains dominant. While she adhered to what her biological identity asked, she obviously gave up the associated responsibility and found herself that she did not enjoy this aspect of her life. What she really loves plays piano and in public she has made a name for herself. You win some, you lose some – you can’t have everything. She was not only too busy with the considerations of her career; She was also physically absent to know anything in her family.
As her daughter, Eva’s comment shows that Charlotte indirectly refers to the strictly sex -specific roles in a patriarchal society that must be observed. The upbringing of a child is based on both parents, and in this regard Eva does not say much about her father, possibly due to his “victim” by Charlotte’s decisions, similar to her.
The transfer of damage and two sides of the resentment and hatred
“I don’t know what was worse – you play with the woman and a mother or you are on tour.” Evas Hass against her mother comes from the two sides of the same coin – she was a absent figure and the short presence that produced its availability. As an adult, she goes through the same emotions that she did as a child when her mother’s absence filled her with grief and every message from her return made her restlessly excitement. Nevertheless, her physical presence turned out to be even worse. Eva noticed that it wasn’t better than last time, since she stayed mentally separated from the family. Eva notices that her daughter’s mother succeeds her injuries, “as if the umbilical cord had never been cut”. All Charlotte remember the deliveries of their daughters that they were painful. She does not express the memory of how mothers usually do. After an incident in which Charlotte was lived at home because of no “respectable life”, she returns to be a “real” family.
Although she opposes all norms, she states that a family is incomplete without a mother. Her resulting dissatisfaction with life at home was taken out as a reference to Eva, and it caused her a considerable amount of damage. To the extent that her daughter goes through an abortion, the right to impose your decisions is directly connected to the mother.
Whatever the damage that Eva received thrown back to her mother, what she became very aware of the “injustice” she had committed against her, and she as a selfish figure for not observing expectations as a mother. It only made sense that Charlotte came home and they stay separated. This ensured her own happiness, and her daughters were also free from the burden of her mother’s “pent -up energy”, as Eva put it. You and Helena grew up with a stranger as her mother and read letters from the adventures that lie beyond her world. Ultimately, Eva falls to life at home, a place where Charlotte cannot imagine – simply to what you chose.
Eva’s inability to see himself as a separate individual and the commitment to your absent son
Through Eva’s eyes, Charlotte is “the unimaginably special mother”. As mothers, they have almost opposing approaches. Between Eva and her late son Erik: “There is no limit, no insurmountable wall.” This is contrary to the relationship she had and still has with her mother, and Eva has no significant place in her mother’s life and always kept in the distance. Since her autonomy is limited as a child, it seems that Eva could never see himself as a separate unit that is not bound by her mother.
Source: Spotlight on Film
She tries to keep him close despite his physical absence and remains bound by her son Erik in a similar way and promises to never “give up” him. A child without the love and care of her mother will be upset and in this regard Eva’s criticism of her mother is valid. Only that it comes too late, anger accumulated for years and swallowed resentment that was reduced to Charlotte in one night. Her “mother” was faulty, far from being the best, but there was no accusation of Eva’s end. For fear of driving away her mother, she stood still and wore everything.
However, what is completely unjustified for Eva’s part is that her mother is held accountable for everything that went wrong in her life and life in relation to each other, e.g. Since older sisters often take on the role of the second mother for her siblings, Eva becomes the caretaker of Helena, her younger sister.
Make conscious decisions as a mother
As a child, Eva remembers to be handed over to the nannies when she was sick or difficult. This underlines why Eva Charlotte did not inform you about Helena’s presence in her house. The care of your own children is the responsibility of every parent, and as an individual you are entitled to your personal interests, and if a person’s priorities are already defined, it is difficult to concentrate on several things equally. Before Eva entered, Charlotte sent her terribly sick daughter to a house to look after him, which is seen as an unfriendly act on her part, because mothers are expected to be nursing staff for their children.
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From an objective point of view, however, this is a conscious decision that she made because she probably would not have managed to take the time for it. This is based on a feeling of guilt that emerges from Charlotte’s frustration that it is unable to keep it and comfort it.
In the train journey back to her place, she says: “Why can’t she die?” With regard to Helenas, always dating disease, the statement that she has passed on her counterpart. She is not the always -loving, unconditional mother figure. Although Eva and Helena love their daughters, which they only because they feel that they should, they are liability for them, an obstacle for their world outside.
While the heteropatriarchal society may not want to welcome someone like Charlotte, Bergman shows the complexity of the human character, since neither Charlotte nor Eva can be put into the binary file of the good or the bad. Nevertheless, the film does not look at the striving for a woman after a career or the struggle for work and family – he deeper and examines the willful emotional neglect Charlotte and the continued guilt that she is as a result.
Although women are conditioned with the idea of motherhood, not every woman will find fulfillment in the role, and even the love of a mother can come with limits. Maternity is a continuous process of becoming and there is no generally correct way to navigate during this time. Charlotte doesn’t want to be a mother, even though he is one.
In fact, we are faced with conventional representations of almost roles – the mother pursues her ambitions while the daughter carries her emotional weight at home. “Autumn Sonata” confronts the often unspoken tensions in family relationships and forces us to consider the many different approaches maternitySome maintain, some removed, but everyone worth being explored with greater honesty and nuance.