“Not the mother type”: Exploding the Myth of Maternal Devotion in Marghanita Laski's To Bed with Grand Music

Abstract

Second World War propaganda targeted women in conflicting ways, expecting them to contribute to the war effort while also upholding an idealized view of motherhood as essential to women's identities. This essay examines a fictional challenge to the wartime myth of maternal devotion, Marghanita Laski's To Bed with Grand Music (1946), in dialogue with historical discourse and documents, to argue for the power of fiction to highlight and challenge expectations surrounding women's private lives in times of national crisis. Laski dissects her protagonist's conflicted motivations and exposes her manipulations of wartime propaganda for her own gain. This dissection reveals a central paradox at the core of women's wartime experience: whether it be through motherhood, marriage, or adultery, women remain trapped by men's assumptions and expectations. Laski's complex characterization develops a critique of wartime rhetoric by invoking sympathy for an anti-heroine who passes judgment on her society's limited choices and prophetically points toward a potentially freer future for women.