How this extract illustrates the inability of Janice to be a mother.

I. An inevitable disaster. II. The struggle. III. The image of “Father”.

I. An inevitable disaster.

A baby is an important responsibility and in a way, a mother has the duty to sacrifice herself for him. It is not the case with Janice and her behaviour has contributed to the inevitable accident of the extract.
First, Janice gives the impression to live for her “Mother”. Indeed, all her acts are linked with her mother’s opinions. It proves the weakness of Janice. In line 1-2, instead of looking after her baby who her “face goes red”, she thinks of her mother who come to “ruin her day”. Then she decides to bath the baby in order to show her clean “when mother comes”.
With regard to housework, Janice is quickly beyond. The “clothes” are “on top of the television set”. She “takes” them and “drops them into the toilet on the top of diaper”. She “drops to her knees” in order to pick up things… The succession of tasks shows us that it is not a common practice which is for a housewife irresponsible.
The fact to bath her baby in a full tub proves that she is not ready to be a real mother even if she has already a child. But we have the feeling that she doesn’t consider herself as a mother. Indeed, she considers her baby as “an awful baby” (line 4), “a slippery thing” (line 22), “the living thing” (line 27) or as a “little weightless body” (line 28-29). Finally she holds her “sideways against her breasts” (line 14) like a vulgar bag.
Moreover we can find in this extract some points which indicate the accident… Line 7-8 “The wavery gray line of the water is almost up to the lip of the tub”, the author decides to put this sentence in order to show that something will happen. Line 8-9 “a deep mass waits colourless” may refers to the eyes of Janice which are, by definition, without life. This feeling is due to the alcohol and her worried about Rabbit and her marriage. It shows that