In Greek mythology and classical literature, the mother is often the anchor. Consider Jocasta and Oedipus—the archetype of a bond that defied natural law, resulting in tragedy. This set a precedent for literature to view the mother-son bond as something dangerous if not severed. However, a more nuanced view emerged in the medieval and renaissance periods.
Perhaps no author has dissected the mother-son relationship with as much surgical precision as D.H. Lawrence. In his seminal novel Sons and Lovers (1913), Lawrence introduced the concept of the "spiritual marriage" between mother and son. The protagonist, Paul Morel, is bound to his mother, Mrs. Morel, with a tether so strong that no other woman can sever it.
In , Rachel Cusk’s A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother demolishes sentimentalism. She writes of her son with brutal honesty: “I had imagined him as a kind of accessory… In fact, he was a tyrant.” Cusk refuses the heroic narrative. For her, the mother-son bond is a loss of self—a beautiful, terrifying dissolution.
Recently, both mediums have moved beyond the Madonna-or-Monster binary. (2018) presents a surrogate mother, Nobuyo, who holds a boy she has “kidnapped” from an abusive home. When asked if children should call their real parents to come get them, she whispers, “Do you think giving birth makes you a mother?” It’s a radical reframing: motherhood is an act, not a bloodright.
: Many sons view their mothers as inspirations or "superheroes" who hold their hand through every step of life.