Word: matriarchal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...GRANDMOTHER of five girls, Lil Krauss, is the undisputed leader of her large family. She is the matriarch,"...the queen bee...the Queen of Persia, the Empress herself." Krauss is the undisputed leader of her large family. She is the matriarch, "...the queen bee...the Queen of Persia, the Empress herself." Krauss is a monarch by virtue of her strength, energy and stubbornness. Although her effect on the household is subtle, her presence is constantly felt, her power never doubted. From her family, she commands an unlikely mix of fear, respect and sincere love. And as family matriarcl., Lil Krauss...
...tyrannical bishop Guve's huge brown eyes watch everything silently, building a mask to ward off the collapse of his world. Through Alexander we watch the movements of the rest of his family, particularly his grandmother (Guna Waugrea), who embodies the wisdom and vision of a true matriarch. An aging actress, she controls her family and tries to face her own mortality and loss of physical strength...
Eleni was beautiful and eventually outspoken, but she was not a feminist, not even a matriarch. She was a country woman, brought up to a life of ceaseless, selfless duty to men and her elders. Wedding ceremonies in Lia traditionally included a moment when the groom stamped on the bride's toes to establish his dominance; on wedding nights, brides in Lia customarily slept with their mothers-in-law rather than their husbands, as a symbolic lesson in obedience to the new clan. Eleni scarcely thought of leaving her rigid culture until it began to shatter violently around...
...funniest scenes in Gurney's The Dining Room depicts a pathetically senile matriarch who interrupts Thanksgiving dinner at her own table to announce that it is time for her to get up and go home. Says Gurney's uncle, Buffalo Physician Ramsdell Gurney: "My mother did exactly what Peter had her do in that play. To see her portrayed that way saddened me, but the audience thought it was terribly amusing." The most striking parallel in Gurney's plays to his life is the marriage between the young lovers' parents in The Middle Ages: four years...
...fiction poetry and memories, Wrinkle is not the only one she speaks of in freely parental terms. Her fictional characters from a vast family network, many of them reappearing at different stages in their careers, introducing ever widening and ever crisscrossing circles of acquaintances. L 'Engle talks like the matriarch of a vast clan or more precisely their grandmother: she speculates on their moral and psychological growth and debates when and whom they will marry...