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Marilla's Mothering Essay

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Butler’s theory of performativity supplies gender theorists with a rich theoretical language for thinking about gender (Bordo 19). Also her famous, and widely made use of the concept of ‘doing gender’ narrates the procedure of how gendered subjects come into existence via a procedure of recurring discursive imitation and repetition—or ‘recitation’—of gender norms (Bodies That Matter 25). This process is described by Butler in Gender trouble as: “the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being” (43). It is the main key to Butler’s theory that no identity exists prior to these acts they come into being …show more content…

Thus, by the better understanding of Marilla’s character, new and various analyses on the depiction of mothering and possibly gender issues will be open. Anne’s change from a queer red-headed and a romantic girl to a more reliable woman urged arguments over if she really did change inward and outward or not. On the other hand, Marilla’s transformation also is tangible to …show more content…

So by using mothering as a central theme L. M. Montgomery explained Marilla’s decision of adopting Anne and made her story. Marilla is not Anne’s real mother, but she did give birth to her life’s journey by bringing her to the Green Gables. Marilla’s performance of her new identity and role as a mother has many captivating features. First, Marilla’s mothering is somehow a reliable and realistic form of motherhood that goes beyond the flaws and mistakes of it, this means that her mothering violates the standards

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