The next role of Sarah Lund to be examined is that of the mother. Lund is a single mother of an adolescent son, but she does not provide the traditional model of responsible ‘neoliberal’ motherhood. Angela Davis purports that “although the ‘housewife’ was rooted in the social conditions of the bourgeoisie and middle classes, nineteenth-century ideology established the housewife and mother as universal models of womanhood” (1981, p. 229). Since then, different waves of feminism, and contemporary postfeminism have constructed woman- and motherhood as a more differentiated identity in which it provides twenty-first century women with the inalienable right to a career (Whelehan, 2013, p. 85). However, Amy Burns argues that women in popular culture
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However, one might also argue that she attempts to keep her son out of trouble while maintaining her job. This is increasingly inclined towards the end of the third season, when she tries to (re)build a relationship with her son, and additionally his pregnant girlfriend. In classical Hollywood cinema, “the family and home life are celebrated as a safe haven from the world outside” and are generally considered as part of the ‘happy ending’ (Blaser, 1999). The third season provides a text that asserts to a similar ending, focusing more on her relationship with her son in contrast to the earlier two seasons. Lund’s garden seems to function as a metaphor to this relationship. The reminiscence of the garden and its connection to her relationship with her son is implied since the first episode of the third series, when we first see her on screen. She is talking on the phone with her son, conversing that she wants to change the garden and that it “isn’t finished yet” while trying to set up a dinner to meet his girlfriend and, as turns out later, to apologize for her past behaviours as a mother. Later on in the series, her son’s girlfriend tries to help Lund out, attempting on bringing more life in her garden and Lund’s relationship with Mark, but her efforts can be found insignificant in the end, since Lund ends up fleeing the country without any real chance of happiness with her family, or a lively
However, one might also argue that she attempts to keep her son out of trouble while maintaining her job. This is increasingly inclined towards the end of the third season, when she tries to (re)build a relationship with her son, and additionally his pregnant girlfriend. In classical Hollywood cinema, “the family and home life are celebrated as a safe haven from the world outside” and are generally considered as part of the ‘happy ending’ (Blaser, 1999). The third season provides a text that asserts to a similar ending, focusing more on her relationship with her son in contrast to the earlier two seasons. Lund’s garden seems to function as a metaphor to this relationship. The reminiscence of the garden and its connection to her relationship with her son is implied since the first episode of the third series, when we first see her on screen. She is talking on the phone with her son, conversing that she wants to change the garden and that it “isn’t finished yet” while trying to set up a dinner to meet his girlfriend and, as turns out later, to apologize for her past behaviours as a mother. Later on in the series, her son’s girlfriend tries to help Lund out, attempting on bringing more life in her garden and Lund’s relationship with Mark, but her efforts can be found insignificant in the end, since Lund ends up fleeing the country without any real chance of happiness with her family, or a lively