Mother's Day

Mother’s Day

                                                          By J. B. Priestley

Analysis : 

·      The play ‘Mother's Day’ written by J. B. Priestley unwinds a beautiful story on the struggles and sacrifices of parents esp. mothers.

·      The play beautifully and impactfully helps the youngsters imbibe the values like care, concern, empathy, compassion, respect for mothers and not take them for granted.

·      It is an account of a mother, Mrs. Annie Pearson who is determined to get back her due respect, recognition and acknowledgement in her house and tries to change the thinking and the behaviour of her husband and two children.

·      The readers are motivated to learn their mistakes and develop the sensitivity and sensibility to understand the sufferings and struggles of mothers at hands of family members. Eventually they will draw the message that everyone deserves due respect and mothers shouldn’t be taken for granted.

·      The story does a comparative study of Mrs. Annie Pearson and Mrs. Fitzgerald as the two different personalities. The swapping of their personalities makes the story interesting and thrilling.

·      The story explores the theme of togetherness, need for respect, tolerance, patience and understanding for each and every member equally among the family.

·      The story conveys the message that all family members are equally important and mothers also have their needs and emotions. They should be respected and their sacrifices should be acknowledged by sharing workload and solving the problems together.

 

Summary / Synopsis

The play begins with two friends having a candid conversation between Mrs Fitzgerald and Mrs Pearson at the latter’s house. Mrs. Annie Pearson and Mrs. Fitzgerald are next door neighbours. But they are two poles apart in their attitude and demeanour. Annie is pleasant and nervous looking woman in her forties. Fitzgerald is older and heavier with a strong and confident personality. Annie has a soft voice whereas Mrs. Fitzgerald has a deep and strong voice.

Mrs. Fitzgerald is a fortune-teller. She has learnt this art from the East. She reads Annie's fortune and advises Annie to be strict and become the 'boss' in her family. Sadly, Mrs. Annie Pearson is not treated properly by her family and has been reduced to the status of an unpaid domestic servant who does all the work at home without even being requested for it and being thanked. Mrs. Fitzgerald gets angry at the way Annie is treated like a servant by her family.

One day, Mrs. Fitzgerald suggests that they both should temporarily exchange their personalities by using a magic spell that she had learnt in the East. She takes Annie's hand and speaks some magic words. A transformation takes place and the personality of Mrs. Fitzgerald enters into the body of Annie and the vice-versa.

Annie is scared but Mrs. Fitzgerald assures her that the change is reversible. Mrs. Fitzgerald, now in the body of Annie, stays at Annie's house and sends Annie (in her body) to her own house where she can relax.

Doris, the daughter of Mrs. Annie Pearson, a beautiful girl of 20 years enters the house. She gets shocked at seeing her mother smoking and playing cards alone. Doris asks about her yellow dress but her mother does not respond. She asks for tea and her mother rudely tells her to iron her dress herself and make tea if she wants to. Doris gets angry, but gets a good scolding from her mother. Then, Annie makes fun of Doris' boyfriend, Charlie Spence, for having projecting teeth and being stupid. This behaviour infuriates Doris and she leaves the room crying.

Cyril, Annie's son, enters the house and asks for tea in a demanding tone and angry manner but the mother doesn’t respond. Cyril asks her if everything is alright with her. She replies that she has never felt better in her life. Annie tells him that she has not bothered to get the tea ready as she wanted a change. Cyril tells that he is short of time so she should get the tea ready immediately. He again gets angry when the mother responds in negative to his enquiry about whether she has got his clothes ready. He asks his mother what if all family members talked to her like she was talking that day. Annie coldly replies that all three of them always talked to her like that, so what was wrong with her talking in the same tone. She adds that she has become a member of the Union so that she gets what she deserves.

Doris appears on the scene wearing a shoulder wrap. Annie remarks sarcastically about her dress. An argument starts between the two. Doris comments that if she was looking awful, it was due to her mother only, who made her cry. When, Annie enquires if any strong beer was left, both Doris and Cyril are filled with horror and shock at their mother's behaviour. Doris thinks that she got hit on her head by something. She says that the manner in which their mother spoke hurt her the most and made her cry. Both the siblings start giggling at the thought of what will happen if their mother keeps behaving in this weird manner in front of their father.

Annie remarks that it was high time and Annie tells them that it is actually her children's and her husband's behaviour that bothered her the most. They always came, asked for something and went without bothering to know whether she wanted to go out or how she was feeling. She always does her best to keep everybody happy but all three of them were not bothered about her happiness and needs.

Annie also remarks that while the three of them do a job of eight hours a day with two days off at the weekend, she goes on working seven days round the clock. She warns them that she will also take off on weekends.

Doris is really worried about what will happen if her mother takes a holiday on weekends. However, Annie assures Doris that she would do some work on Saturday and Sunday only when she is requested for it and thanked for whatever she does. She may go out for weekends as she is fed up of staying in the house for years. None of them has ever bothered to take her out.

Now, her husband, Mr. George Pearson of 50 years enters the house. He considers himself as a very important person and gets annoyed to find his wife sipping beer. He tells her that he does not want any tea as he has to go to the club for supper. His wife tells him that she has not prepared any tea anyway. At this, George gets annoyed.

Annie makes fun of him, saying that he is not respected in the club and the people at the bar in the club call him 'Pompy-ompy Pearson' due to his self-important behaviour. George cannot believe but confirms the truth from his son, Cyril. Annie tells her son that sometimes it does people good to have their feelings hurt.

Then, Mrs. Fitzgerald (actually Mrs. Annie Pearson) enters and finds Doris in tears. Her family continues to get a scolding in front of Mrs. Fitzgerald. Mrs. Annie Pearson (actually Mrs. Fitzgerald) informs her that she was putting everyone in their place. When Mr. Pearson shouts at his wife, she threatens to slap his big, fat silly face.

The real Mrs. Annie Pearson (now Mrs. Fitzgerald) wants everyone to leave as she wants to talk in private with Annie (the real Mrs. Fitzgerald). She tells Mrs. Fitzgerald that it is enough. Let them change back and get into their true selves. Mrs. Fitzgerald again speaks some magic words and they revert to their own selves. Mrs. Fitzgerald says that she enjoyed every moment in her changed personality. Mrs. Fitzgerald wants Annie not to be soft on her family but to remain firm.

Annie says that she will be able to manage her husband and children now. Mrs. Fitzgerald warns her not to give any apology or explanation, otherwise they will again start treating her indifferently. She must wear a tough look and talk to them rudely if she wants them to behave in the right manner.

For a change, when Annie smiles, her family members smile back and feel very relaxed. As they had cancelled going out, Annie feels that they all as a family should play a game of rummy. She wants to have a talk with George, her husband and asks her children to prepare supper for the family for which they readily agree. The play ends on a happy note where the children and husband are willing to do whatever she suggests.

Message

The play makes the children realise the worth of sacrifice and struggles of parents especially the mothers for the children. The story gives a message to all family members that they must understand the need to strengthen the family bonding by sharing workload and solving problems together, accepting all the members of the family, without any complaints or stereotypes and nourishing a sense of belongingness, tolerance and mutual love.

Character Sketch of Mrs. Fitzgerald :

Mrs. Fitzgerald is Mrs. Annie Pearson's neighbour. She is a fortune teller. She is quite strong-willed, confident and has deep and strong voice. She is older and heavier in comparison to Annie and has a strong and dominating personality. She smokes and drinks. She has a deep voice with an Irish tone. She knows magic and helps Mrs. Annie Pearson swap her personality with her own to reform the spoilt members of Mrs. Annie Pearson's family.

Character Sketch of Mrs. Annie Pearson :

Mrs. Annie Pearson is a pleasant but nervous type of woman whose excessive love and care has spoilt her two children and husband who fail to understand her struggle and sacrifices. Annie is in her forties and wears a tense expression on her face. She speaks in a light soft tone with a local touch. She works hard to take care of her family but she is taken for granted. She is not respected, requested nor thanked by her family for her tireless work.

Important Question Answers

Q1. How did Mrs. Fitzgerald utilise her husband's posting in the East?

Ans. Mrs. Fitzgerald's husband was posted in the East (British colonies in Asia) for twelve years. She utilised her time there by learning fortune-telling and how to use magic spells to exchange personalities. She used this knowledge in temporarily exchanging her strong personality with the weak personality of Mrs. Annie Pearson to resolve her problem and deal with her family. Mrs. Fitzgerald interchanged her personality with that of Annie and treated Annie's family to a taste of their own medicine in order to change their behaviour towards Mrs. Pearson.

Q2. What advice did Mrs. Fitzgerald give to Annie?

Ans. Mrs. Fitzgerald was very bold and dominating in nature; she knew how to control the family members. So, Mrs. Fitzgerald felt that it was time for Annie to set her family right and teach them a lesson. Mrs. Fitzgerald advised her to put her foot down and be the 'boss' in her family.

Q3. What reply did Annie give when Mrs. Fitzgerald asked her to put her foot down?

Ans. To this, Annie says that it was easier said than done. Even though her family was thoughtless and selfish, they didn't mean to be. Moreover, she was very fond of them and hated to create any kind of quarrels in the family. She was hesitant to follow the advice and lacked confidence.