What Maisie Knew Essay Questions

What is motherhood, according to What Maisie Knew?

What Maisie Knew shows that motherhood is more about love and care than biological or legal connection. Maisie has three main mother figures—Ida Farange, Miss Overmore/Mrs. Beale, and Mrs. Wix. Ida is Maisie's biological mother, Miss Overmore/Mrs. Beale becomes Maisie's step-mother, and Mrs. Wix is Maisie's governess. When Maisie first meets Mrs. Wix, she thinks "[Mrs. Wix] had been, with passion and anguish, a mother, and...this was something Miss Overmore was not, something (strangely, confusingly) that mamma was even less" (24). The fact that she says that Ida was less of a mother than Mrs. Wix or Miss Overmore discredits the idea that motherhood is based on a biological bond. Furthermore, in Maisie saying that Miss Overmore is not a mother but Mrs. Wix is, James foreshadows the end of the book in which she chooses Mrs. Wix as her caretaker going forward. Maisie's choice of Mrs. Wix as her mother shows that her love and care of Maisie were more important to the young girl than the biological connection she shared with her mother or the legal connection she has to Miss Overmore/Mrs. Beale.

What critique of society does James express through the plot and characters of What Maisie Knew?

James's preface to What Maisie Knew give clues about his construction of the plot and characters of the novel to create a specific moral: that selfish parents can cause long-lasting trauma to their children if left unchecked by the law and society. James came up with the idea for What Maisie Knew when he heard a story of two recently divorced people who were sharing custody of their young child, sending her back and forth like Maisie in the story. One of the parents was remarried, which was causing tension with regard to care of the child, and James decided to exaggerate the effects of this in the novel, having both parents be remarried. James's interest in spinning this piece of gossip into a full-length novel, as well as the particular facts he added and exaggerated, show that he was trying to create a picture of the most callous, selfish parents possible. Ida and Beale Farange are meant to parody upper-class men and women who cared more about fun and high society than nurturing their children, while Maisie represents the children that are affected by such parents. Her character is shown to be mature beyond her years with regard to adult relationships and affairs and yet stunted in her formal education; these are the effects of the neglect and instability in her early childhood. The other characters are intended to parody other parts of 19th century English society, such as the lower class who witness and become tied up in upper-class scandal.

How do Maisie's experiences in early childhood affect her in later childhood? How might they affect her even later in life, after the end of the book?

Early in the book, Maisie says, "She found in her mind a collection of images and echoes to which meanings were attachable—images and echoes kept for her in the childish dusk, the dim closet, the high drawers, like games she wasn't big enough to play...A wonderful assortment of objects of this kind she was to discover there later" (17). What this means is that Maisie, who is six or seven years old in this part of the story, will store away memories of her experiences until she can comprehend and process them at a later age. Maisie is undoubtedly affected by her early childhood experiences as the reader witnesses her grow throughout the book. Because of her biological parents' neglect and emotional abuse, she clings to characters who show her affection without adequately processing their faults. In the practical sense, her parents not caring about her intellectual growth results in her receiving very little formal education by the time she is an adolescent. One could imagine that this will have very negative effects on Maisie's adult life. She might be prone to entering unhealthy romantic relationships, and she will not have the education that people of her class were expected to have.

What role does social class play in What Maisie Knew?

James uses supporting characters throughout What Maisie Knew to highlight, via contrast, the importance of social class in England in the 19th century. The Farange's servants and governesses are used to represent lower class society, while Ida and Beale's lovers represent upper-class society. Moddle, Mrs. Wix, Susan Ash, and Miss Overmore come from poor backgrounds. These characters must rely on the Faranges to support them financially, and thus they have little agency in their own lives. For example, Mrs. Wix is not able to protest not being paid and Susan Ash has no choice about going to France. However, these characters are presented in a fairly positive light. In contrast, the Faranges' lovers are all, with the exception of Miss Overmore, upper-class. Generally this is shown through their flippant behavior or through honorific titles like Sir Claude, Lord Eric, and the Countess. These characters are generally shown in a negative light, revealing James's critique of the selfish, callous nature of the upper class.

Compare and contrast the novel and film versions of What Maisie Knew.

The film and novel versions of What Maisie Knew are quite different. The 2012 film What Maisie Knew is a modernization of the story that alters the setting—both the time and location—as well as the characters and the plot. Perhaps the most important change is that Mrs. Wix does not exist in the film version. Instead of choosing to live with Mrs. Wix, at the end of the movie Maisie ends up living with the characters Lincoln and Margo—the film versions of Sir Claude and Miss Overmore/Mrs. Beale. While there are important differences between the film and the novel, many of the themes remain the same. The central message of the story remains the negative effects of selfish parenting on young, innocent children. Furthermore, the message that family goes further than biological relationship remains, even without the character of Mrs. Wix, who has neither biological nor legal relationship to Maisie, to drive home the point. Reading the book and watching the film in tandem reveals how many of the same social issues from late 19th century England persist in the 21st century United States.