The New Mother by Lucy Clifford Book Review

While many Victorian-era stories serve as cautionary tales with underline morals, Lucy Clifford’s story, “The New Mother,” overall messages of morals are more apparent. 

The story showcases many themes of sexual suggestion and temptation. Clifford sets the story directly after a fair has passed through the village that the young girls, Turkey and Blue-eyes “wish [they] had come [to] yesterday” as they "might have seen something” of interest to them (Clifford, 11). The setting of the village fair immediately signals ideas of human sexuality as fairs were thought to promote the abandonment of morals and ideals of sexuality (Walkowitz, 244). Further, as the girls seek something they desire, excitement, they come across a “wild-looking girl” (Clifford, 12). This girl seems to be the opposite of these well-behaved, tidy girls who ideal a decent woman. Instead, the young woman:

was dressed in very ragged clothes. Round her shoulders there was an old brown shawl, which was torn at the corner that hung down the middle of her back. She wore no bonnet, and an old yellow handkerchief which she had tied round her head had fallen backwards and was all huddled up round her neck. Her hair was coal black and hung down uncombed and unfastened, just anyhow. It was not very long, but it was gleaming, and it seemed to match her bright black eyes and dark freckled skin. (Clifford, p. 12-13). 

In this description, it is clear that the unknown village girl is defying the clean ideals of what a decent young Victorian woman should be and demonstrating her corrupt morals as she keeps herself unkempt like a fallen woman, as a prostitute, would. The juxtaposition is evident as the village girl challenges the ‘good’ mother and the ideal motherly woman. While the village girl tries to encourage sin, the ‘good’ mother tells the girls they cannot be naughty and follow the temptation stating that, "’because if one loves well,’ she said gently, ‘one's love is stronger than all bad feelings in one and conquers them. And this is the test whether love be real or false, unkindness and wickedness have no power over it’" (Clifford, 22). However, another hint towards the wild village girl representing a sexual temptation, stronger than being good to one’s mother, is in the song she sings, 

Oh, sweet and fair 's the lady - bird,

And so's the bumble - bee,

But I myself have long preferred 

The gentle chimpanzee (Clifford, 26),

which involves the long-dated analogy between a man and a woman partaking in the sexual acts of the birds and the bees. As the village girl antagonizes the young girls to be more like her, she portrays sexual temptation, and she continually attempts to get the two girls to stray away from the pure womanly roles and act out to be naughty.

While the village girl portrays sexual temptation, sex can be seen in the box she uses to tempt the girls to be naughty. Specifically, the dance that is used entice the girls,

I have here a little man dressed as a peasant, and wearing a wide slouch hat with a large feather, and a little woman to match, dressed in a red petticoat, and a white handkerchief pinned across her bosom. I put them on the lid of the box, and when I play they dance most beautifully. The little man takes off his hat and waves it in the air, and the little woman holds up her petticoat a little bit on one side with one hand, and with the other sends forward a kiss (Clifford 16-17).

The dance, interchangeable with sex, associates being unpure with pleasure and reward, which interests the children. The interest is further tempted as the village girl tells the two younger girls that “the little man is learning how to rattle the money in his pocket, and the little woman has heard a secret she tells it while she dances” (Clifford, 24). Looking at the context, it is evident that it shows more than temptation but how once you start falling into the trap of ‘naughtiness,’ the temptation will become deeper to be even more ‘naughty’ or impure. Moreover, the outfits of the little man and women symbolize the loss of innocence. While the little man has a large feather out of his hat as a phallic symbol, the woman is wearing red, the colour of sex and romance. She also wears a small white handkerchief, the colour of purity and innocence, strategically placed across her bosom, the last bit of virtue as the breasts are still maternal to feed a baby. Further, this showcases how forcing young women to act older takes away their youth and innocence, putting them into maternal roles through loss of innocence. This idea can further be seen in the peardrum, a “womb-shaped” item (Lurie,71). The peardrum, in which "at first they thought it was a baby" (Clifford, pg.13), as it was in the girl’s shawl wrapped like a baby, was then moved under her genitals, portraying secrecy. In this movement, the maternal and orderly symbol changes into a sexual sign violating the sacred motherhood and reproduction.

Further deceptions of ruined innocence and motherhood can be seen in the associations to the devil—first noticeable in the only male character, the piper with his dogs. Typically, the piper is thought to be connected to the fertility God, Pan, who “became the Christian devil, with the cloven hoofs and the horns” (Lawrence, 103). In this statement, this man can further be connected to Pan by his dogs that “slowly waltzing round and round on their hind legs,” similar to how Pan would walk on his two goat legs (Clifford, 37). Another figure that represents the devil or giving in to temptation is the ‘bad’ mother with “glass eyes and wooden tail” (Clifford, 23). The ‘bad’ mother’s monster-like description can be attached to the devil’s as she is also half-human and half-abnormal. While the acts that the ‘bad’ mother commits are far from maternal and motherly. Unlike the sweet advice of the ‘good’ mother who tried to help the kids sway away from sin, the new ‘bad mother brings sin. When the ‘bad’ mother states, “I must break open the door with my tail,” then proceeds to “lift up her tail, and then, with a fearful blow, the little painted door was cracked and splintered” (Clifford, 48-49), the two little girls innocence and safe space are violated, in a way similar to that of sexual assault. 

The story of “The New Mother” can be seen as a cautionary tale to warn young children of the danger of giving in to temptations and sin against the societal norms set in place. Specifically, this story aims to warn young girls what happens when they become unpure and how it is irreversible. As the girls cower from their mistakes after the loss of their ‘good’ mother, “they long and long , with a longing that is greater than words can say , to see their own dear mother again , just once again , to tell her that they'll be good for evermore — just once again” (Clifford, 46), however, it is too late for the girls to see their mother again, as once you lose your innocence, virginity, it is impossible to reclaim and a respectable woman would be tainted. While the ‘good’ mother did not want to leave her children, which is evident as the mother goes with her two children while “weeping bitterly” (Clifford, 34), she felt as though she had. This act represents the innocence lost in the curious and sinful children as their familiar childhood becomes interrupted. The imagery of violation through the piper and the ‘bad’ mother reminds us of the very apparent sexual violence that occurs to naive young women, especially during this time period. At the same time, parents that read this cautionary tale to their children can use the threat of the ‘bad’ mother with terrorizing features to instill terror as to what happens when kids disobey authority figures, such as their mothers who know what is best for the children.