Summary of Mother’s Day
J. B. Priestley wrote the play Mother’s Day. It’s a funny and satirical look at the status of women, especially a housewife, in a family. A housewife also spends all her time helping her family, but her family takes her help for granted and doesn’t pay attention to what she needs. The family never lets her know how much she helps them or thanks her for what she does. Everyone ignores her, and this is a big and important problem today. There are a lot of sad and unhappy houses out there. Also, the problem the play brings up is real, and it can’t be solved by just changing how husbands, sons, and daughters act. To give wives the praise they deserve, the rest of the family needs to pay them the attention they want.
Mother’s Day Summary in English
In this chapter, Mrs. Pearson’s real-life experiences are shown. Every day, her kids treat her badly and don’t care about her. She was treated like a slave in her own home. So, she had to deal with a lot of ignorance and embarrassment every day from not only her daughter Doris and son Cyril, but also from her husband George Pearson, who completely ignored her.
Mrs. Pearson’s life changes when she meets Mrs. Fitzgerald, a fortune teller, and talks to her about how bad her family is. She tells Mrs. Fitzgerald everything there is to know about the way her family acts. Also, Mrs. Fitzgerald, who has a strong and evil personality, tells her she should swap personalities. So that she could teach a good lesson to her family. Mrs. Pearson wasn’t sure at first, but after being persuaded, she agrees to switch bodies.
Then, Mrs. Fitzgerald uses a spell to switch places with Mrs. Pearson. Within seconds, their personalities change, and Mrs. Pearson, who was calm and collected before, is now smoking and drinking. And Mrs. Fitzgerald is currently doing nothing.
The scene changes, and now Mrs. Pearson is at home, and Doris comes home. She gives her a dress to iron because she has a date with her boyfriend, Charlie Spence, that night. Also, she doesn’t like it when her mother smokes. And when she asks Mrs. Pearson, she tells her in a harsh way to do her own work. She also jokes about her boyfriend. After that, Doris feels bad and ashamed, and when her mother insults and scolds her, she starts crying.
Then, her son Cyril comes in and quickly asks his mother if his tea is ready. Which Mrs. Pearson says no to and tells him to cook it himself. When he saw how her mother reacted and how her sister cried, he got louder. Also, he calls Mrs. Fitzgerald an old hag, which gets him in trouble with Mrs. Pearson.
When kids say that they are tired after work. She makes it clear to both of them that from that day on, they will all work the same amount. She won’t work on the weekends, so she can hang out with her friends.
Then Mr. Pearson walks in and says he is surprised to see her wife drinking and smoking. He says no Mrs. Pearson helps him understand that if he can drink, so can she. He also tells him that he is spending his time with people who are making fun of him behind his back instead of with her wife.
When Mrs. Pearson sees her family being insulted, she tells Mrs. Fitzgerald to stop. But she doesn’t let her talk until she has taught everyone a good lesson about how to respect and honour their mother. Soon after that, they change again. Then the son, daughter, and husband realise what they did wrong and start helping their mother and wife.
Conclusion of Mother’s Day Summary
In the summary of Mother’s Day, the author wants to tell us that we should all respect, care about, and help our mothers for all the hard work they do for us.
