The Mother · Chapter
V explained
The mother waits anxiously for her husband's return after he leaves with the silver.
What happens
The mother waits anxiously for her husband's return after he leaves with the silver. She lies to the villagers, claiming he has gone to work in a far city, and endures the gossip and pity of the hamlet. As days turn into months, she single-handedly reaps the rice harvest, threshes the grain, and prepares the family for winter, all while hoping he will return for the new year festival. She mends the children's clothes, cuts down her husband's coat for the boy, and silences doubters with steadfast lies, but her longing and fear grow as no letter or word comes.
Themes in this chapter
Motherhood and Sacrifice
The mother sacrifices her own rest and comfort, working from dawn to dusk in the fields, nursing the babe while reaping, and cutting down her husband's coat for the boy despite her longing to keep it for his return.
Poverty and Survival
The family's survival depends on the mother's relentless labor—reaping, threshing, winnowing, and mending worn clothes—while she fears the landlord's agent and fends off gleaners with curses.
Isolation and Loneliness
The mother waits alone for her husband, lies to the community to hide her shame, and bears the burden of work and worry without support, finding only the old mother's prattling for company.
Characters to notice
- The Mother
Lies about her husband's absence, works alone in the fields, reaps and threshes the rice, mends winter clothes, and clings to hope of his return at new year.
- The Man
Absent throughout the chapter; the mother waits for him, counts the days until his money runs out, and eventually cuts down his coat for the boy.
- The Old Mother
Prattles constantly, believes the mother's tale about the son's work in a far city, and waits for her shroud to be made warm for winter.
- The Elder Son
Pressured into labor by the mother, cuffed when he lags or wants to play, and given his father's cut-down coat for winter.
- Child
The babe, now large enough to sit alone, plays in the earth while the mother works, and is nursed when she rests.
- Cousin
Helps the mother with the harvest for two days, works silently, and offers to assist with the landlord's agent.
Key passages
“These six years she had lain against him. Angry she might be with him in the day, but at night she was near to him again and she forgot his idle ways and his childishness.”
Despite her daytime anger at his laziness, she still longed for him at night and remembered his good looks.
Reveals the mother's conflicted feelings of resentment and desire for her absent husband.
“She set her stool so that she could see through the short single street of the hamlet if any came that way... and with every twist she gave to the spindle she looked secretly down the road.”
She positioned herself to watch the road while spinning, hoping to catch sight of his blue robe.
Illustrates her anxious waiting and the hope that he will return soon.
“She had never been a woman to gad about the little hamlet or chatter overmuch with the other women there. But now one after another of these twenty or so came by to see and ask...”
Though usually private, she now faced a stream of neighbors questioning her about her husband's absence.
Shows the social pressure and gossip she must endure.
“Handful by handful she reaped the stiff yellow grain, bending to every handful, and she heaped it into sheaves.”
She harvested the rice slowly and painstakingly, bending over each stalk to cut and gather it.
Emphasizes the physical toll of her solitary labor.
“She turned the garments over pondering and aching and at last she muttered, 'What if he should come—I will not do it yet.' But there the boy was not clad for winter...”
She hesitated to cut down her husband's coat for the boy, hoping he might return, but eventually had to do it to keep the child warm.
Highlights her inner conflict between hope for his return and the immediate needs of her children.
