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Mother’s Character Development in Ragtime
Although Doctorow’s characters are often memorable, they are also mostly unbelievable.
Doctorow derives his character traits from a preconceived perception about how America is and
how he wants to depict it, hence his characters often have embodiments of various dialectic
positions. Mother’s character in Ragtime is an example of a character that shows that women can
achieve greater things in life rather than just being ordinary housewives trapped in oppressive
marriages. In Ragtime, although mother initially appears as a flat character, frigidly Victorian
without any genuine authentic personal traits, she undergoes a series of transformation after
discovering an abandoned child in her garden.
At the beginning of the musical, mother is depicted as a traditional upper-class woman
who fulfills all the society’s gender expectations fully. The novel, Ragtime was written in the
early 1990s, at a time where women were expected to be submissive, obedient and dependent on
their husbands. They were seen as a weak and fragile gender that needed protection from men.
Mother, is an example of an ideal woman during that the time. She is obedient, naïve and
respects her husband. She also considers herself as little more than a mother and wife, whose
duty is to take care of the needs of other family members (Doctorow 5). She considers her
husband to be very important and cannot fathom how she can possibly survive without him due
to his strength and professional knowledge. To her, she is only a feeble, weak woman. However,
this personality changes throughout the story.
As the story progresses father goes away, leaving mother behind to take manage the
household and take care of the family business. At this moment, Mother still accepts that women
are supposed to be left behind at home while their husbands leave for adventure. In the song,
“Goodbye my Love” Mother sings, “You have places to discover…/ I’ll be there at her window/
While you go on your way/ I accept that” (Lines 4-9). However, it is also clear that she has
began questioning about her role as woman in her present society, in the second stanza, when she
notes that she knows some people who stay where they are put but their heart would rather go on
journeying on the sea. It is clear that Mother is not happy with her current situation and wishes
that she would do something to change the situation. With Father away, mother thrives in
business and awakens her sexuality. She also develops a deep bond with a black lady and her
child. With Father’s absence, mother is forced to not only assume the duty of managing the
household, but she must also take care of her husband’s business during his expedition. Also,
during this time, Mother takes care of Sarah and her baby. During this time, Mother realizes that
she can also thrive in business just like her husband. The experience makes her to lose respect for
her husband and boosts her confidence.
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Finally, when father returns, mother realizes that she no longer loves in. she embraces her
creative and independent personality and gets married to an exciting artistic man. After her
husband’s return from the Arctic, Mother’s relationship with her husband drastically transforms.
After finding all the responsibilities of taking care of the family business simple and somehow
boring, Mother no longer respect her husband’s professional life. Her love for her husband also
changes. Although she feels that she still loves him, the kind of love is the old form of love that
she feels for her family and friends rather than the passionate love she once felt for him. Her
transformation can be clearly seen in the song “Back to Before” when mother says, “Back in the
days/ When we spoke in civilized voices/ women in white/…When I let you make all my choices
(Lines 13-15).” From the above lyrics, it is clear that Mother has transformed from a traditional
woman who allowed her husband to rule over her and make decisions for her. It is also clear that
she no longer wants to be that kind of a woman in line 15 when she says, “We can never go back
to before” an illustration that she has already moved on. At the end of the story, Mother’s
change illustrates that women can become greater things than being housewives tied in
oppressive marriages.
In conclusion, in Ragtime, Mother is aa remarkable character who illustrates the rapidly
changing and cultural norms within the country during the era. As the story begins, Mother is
portrayed as an ideal woman in a patriarchal society. She is obedient, naive, respectful, and
depends on her husband’s strength and knowledge. She is an ideal housewife who performs all
the expectations the society has regarding an ideal woman, including taking care of everyone
needs. However, her personality begins to change and she begins to rediscover herself after her
husband leaves for the Arctic. She realizes that she can also effectively run the family business
and manage the household while her husband is away. She also discovers that the responsibility
of running the family business is not as hard as she thought it would be. The experiences she has
taking care of the business and her family while her husband is away boosting her confidence
and changes her attitude towards her husband. She realizes that she had been tied down into a
cage and is determined to break the cage and never return back to her old self.
Works Cited
Doctorow, E. Ragtime., 1974

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