My favourite fictional mothers

Happy Mother’s Day! And this mother’s day, I’m taking a look at some of my favourite fictional mothers. From complicated and distant mothers, to devoted and powerful mothers, I have picked a handful of characters that have stuck with me ever since reading their stories and I hope I do the justice in explaining why I love them all so much…

Agnes Bain from Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Agnes Bain, in many ways is the novel’s central character, and she comes from a Catholic, Glaswegian family but leaves her Catholic husband for “Big Shug,” a Protestant brute and then relies on drink to help her forget. I wouldn’t say Agnes is one of my favourite fictional mothers because of her compassion, love or devotion for her children because believe me, Agnes does not have those traits in abundance. Yet, there’s something about Agnes that keeps her in the back of my mind. Perhaps it's because she was one of the best developed characters I’ve ever read and had so many levels to her behaviours and thoughts, captured beautifully by Douglas Stuart.

I think what makes me like Agnes is that she always believed in this sense of ‘things will get better’. She strongly believed in being able to start fresh at any moment, and it is this delusion that both Agnes and Shuggie cling to to make sense of their incredibly sad reality. As well as being let down by every man around her, Agnes was the one of the most heart-breaking characters I’ve ever read, purely because throughout the whole book, you find yourself rooting for her. As a mother, she can be there for Shuggie as there were several memorable scenes where Agnes turns on the radio and dances with Shuggie. But she could also be incredibly selfish and distant, making her a very complicated and destructive character but like I said, one that is also utterly unforgettable.

Elena Richardson and Mia Warren from Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

In Little Fires Everywhere, the Richardsons are a picture-perfect family, born and raised under the protective umbrella of white privilege. The Warrens — Mia and her daughter — have been forced to change their lives consistently, struggling to find homeowners willing to rent monthly to a single black woman and her daughter.

Mia Warren is an ambiguous artist who fights and provides to the greatest extent of her ability — wearing her heart upon her sleeve. She often puts her daughter in her place, as she understands that motherhood requires an authoritative stance without an authoritarian presence; she balances understanding and mercy with firmness.

Elena Richardson is reserved yet relentless; she has a vision for her family and is unwavering in her dedication as a provider and a source of guidance for her family (whether or not her viewpoint is always appreciated). Yet her story is underpinned by this difficult relationship between her and her youngest daughter, Izzy, proving that you can have everything you want in life but family troubles will always affect you in one way or another.

The reason I picked these two mothers as some of my favourite fictional mothers is because they have both had to overcome struggles. Albeit, Mia’s struggles were much worse than Elena’s as she had to navigate a world full of systemic racism and xenophobia to create a good life for her and her daughter - never settling for less for her daughter and encouraging her to be whatever she wants to be in life. However, Elena has had her issues to overcome too - having been pregnant for most of her twenties and having to put her career on hold whilst she stays at home to bring up her children, Elena is proud of the family she has created but throughout the whole novel, you just feel like Elena is one strand away from it all collapsing from underneath her. The commitment that both characters showed in getting what they wanted made this story so well-developed.

Miss Honey from Matilda by Roald Dahl

Miss Honey starts Matilda as Matilda's patient and caring teacher, but ends the book as her adoptive mother. She's a source of consistent love and support, easing some of Matilda's intense emotional burden, and she urges the young girl to never stop dreaming or learning.

I think Miss Honey has to be everyone’s favourite fictional teacher as well as everyone’s favourite mother. Miss Honey is a kind and affectionate person who, despite her past, is kind to her students and everyone around her. She notices Matilda's talent and tries to convey this to The Trunchbull and Matilda's parents, despite their refusal to acknowledge this. Also, being able to sympathise with Matilda's burden of living with a family that does not appreciate her, Miss Honey acts as an emotional support and a guardian for Matilda.

Like Agnes, Miss Honey is a character who has been completely unforgettable for me as I saw myself in Matilda and would have loved a teacher like Miss Honey to show me that my love for reading was something to be proud of.

Ma from Room by Emma Donoghue

Ma is a twenty-seven year old woman who was kidnapped by ‘Old Nick’ when she was nineteen. As the novel is written from five-year old Jack’s perspective, we never learn her real name, but together Ma and Jack spend eight years inside Room before she formulates a plan for them to escape.

Inside Room, both Jack and Ma are each other’s whole world. She spends every moment with him, educating him, feeding him, playing with him. Ma is one the bravest characters I’ve ever read, standing up to ‘Old Nick’, which is no small feat, given that he repeatedly rapes her. She has to let him do it in order to survive and in order to escape.

Yet once she’s back in the real world, she struggles to come to terms with both her trauma and the changes of the modern world. She attempts suicide a number of times before revisiting Room and learning from Jack how to accept and move on from their past experience. She really does have to be one of the strongest and bravest characters I’ve ever come across but also we forget how young the character is, and how this experience will undoubtedly affect Ma for the rest of her life, no matter how much she learns to accept it.

Helen Graham from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

A serious and pious young woman in her mid-twenties, Helen is posing as a widow with a young son when she first meets Gilbert Markham. In reality, she moves to Wildfell Hall to escape her abusive husband, Arthur Huntingdon.

Helen’s unusual situation and stiff manner quickly attract the attention and judgement of the sleepy village, just as her beauty and talents ensnare Gilbert’s heart. Helen is a devout Christian who suffers greatly at the hand of her husband, a drunken hedonist (a person who lives only for pleasure) who mocks her faith. She is also a devoted mother to little Arthur and an unapologetic defender of a woman’s right to determine the course of her own life—within the bounds of Christian doctrine.

A gifted painter, Helen supports herself and little Arthur with landscapes she sells to a London dealer. For much of the novel she is tied by law and duty to Arthur Huntingdon, but upon his death, she gladly accepts Gilbert Markham’s proposal and becomes his wife.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is one of my favourite classics and I can’t believe I only read it recently. I found it to be one of the easiest classics I’ve ever read and Helen Graham’s story is one that has stuck with me ever since reading it. I think she is the ultimate devoted mother, and extremely brave in having left her alcoholic and abusive husband in the best interests for her child during a time when leaving your husband was socially unacceptable. I loved her strength and her ‘no bullsh*it’ mantra which makes her one of my favourite classic characters.

So there we have it, some of my favourite fictional mothers that have stuck with me ever since reading their story. I hope I’ve picked some characters here who not only demonstrate how hard it is to be a mother, and how the ‘devoted, caring and compassionate’ mother isn’t always the easiest role to play, forcing us to remember that motherhood isn’t something that women can just become, it takes dedication, commitment, discipline and sacrifice which again, aren’t always the easiest choice. So this mother’s day, let’s not only celebrate how hard it is to be the mother you want to be but how motherhood can take so many shapes and forms, and that whatever motherhood looks like for you, is perfectly normal.