The Revolt of “Mother”

“The Revolt of ‘Mother’” pits Sarah Penn against not just her own husband but also the surrounding community. By boldly undermining Adoniram’s plan to build a barn instead of a new house, Sarah ends up challenging the broader community, ultimately scandalizing her neighbors and their ideas about what’s considered proper and reasonable in their society—especially for women. When gossip circulates about her decision to move the family’s belongings into the barn, it becomes quite clear that the town strictly adheres to certain domestic conventions. In fact, the narrative explicitly notes that any “deviation from the ordinary course of life in this quiet town was enough to stop all progress in it.” Everyone keeps close tabs on Sarah, illustrating the extent to which any departure from convention attracts quite a bit of attention in this community. And it’s not just that the townspeople are disconcerted by an unfamiliar turn of events—they’re also scandalized by Sarah herself, whom many think has gone “insane.” This strong reaction to her independence is a clear illustration of how straying from convention is seen as shocking and even disgraceful for a woman living in the conformist, male-dominated environment of late-19th-century New England.

When the town minister, Mr. Hersey, visits Sarah, he mainly does so to convince her to stop undermining Adoniram in his absence. In other words, he tries to persuade Sarah to once again adhere to the status quo, perhaps because her independence poses a threat to the unquestioned conformism of the rest of the town. The fact that Mr. Hersey comes to visit her in the first place suggests that the people in Sarah’s community think they can somehow save her from herself. But when Sarah puts Mr. Hersey in his place, the story implies that sometimes it’s necessary for individuals to go their own way without heeding the people around them—after all, if Sarah relented as a result of her conversation with Mr. Hersey, nothing would change about her life, and she would remain miserable and resentful. Thankfully, though, she recognizes the importance of living life on her own terms, regardless of what her fellow community members think.