The Mother of a Traitor
by
Maxim Gorky
(Analysis)
Maxim Gorky was the pen name of Alexi
Maximovich Peshkov. He was the great central name of the modern Russian
literature. He led a life of poverty which helped him to mix with poor and
downtrodden people. The same people found the place in his stories as their
characters. He was much influenced by Bolshevism and the revolution. He wrote
not only short stories but novels and plays also.
The
story is based on a maxim which says “God cannot be everywhere so He created
the mother.”
‘The
Mother of a Traitor’ is a story of ‘the mother’. It is a story of a conflict in
her mind. She is puzzled which to prefer – her love for her nation or her love
for her son but ultimately, she resolves it and proves herself both a citizen
and a mother. The traitor is the son of this mother Monna Marianna. When he
finds his mother in his camp with him, he decides to ruin the city. When the
mother fails to stop her son, she kills her son and proves herself a good
citizen, who has saved her country by killing him. She plunged the same dagger
into her own heart.
The
son of the mother is vainly proud of himself, he loves glory. In the story it
is mentioned “in silk and velvet he stood before her, his weapons were studded
with precious stones”. According to the son ‘he is born in the world and for
the world and he wants to make the world quake with the wonder of him. He
considers stones as dumb unless man makes them speak.
He wants mountains speak
for him. He needs men to keep himself immortal in their memory. According to
him the destroyer is as glorious as the builder of a city. For women, he says
that they are many and one tires of them as of everything, that is too sweet.
He does not want any children as he fears that someone like him will kill them,
that will give him pain, and he shall be too old to avenge them.
This
story is about the mother and the motherhood. The writer portrays a touching
picture of a mother. In the story there are numerous passages which tell us
about the motherhood – “for all weapons are abhorrent to mothers save those
that protect life”, “she stood before whom she had known him nine month before
his birth, whom she had never felt apart from her own heart”, “a mother
creates, she protects and to speak to her destruction means to speak against
her”, “a mother is always oppose to death and the hand that brings death into
the house of men is hateful and abhorrent to mothers”, “a mother can be as
clever and ruthless as she is fearless when the life she creates and cherishes
is in question”.
In
the story the writer has taken a great interest in describing the situation of
the city and for this he makes many concrete images drawn from nature – “over
the black ridges of the mountains rose the moon like a lost shield dented by
sword blows”, “and in this darkness like a fish stirring in the depths of a
river a woman moved soundlessly”. ‘The Mother of a Traitor’ is a story of that
mother who represents all mothers. In other words, it is a story of The Mother.
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