Laurence, Margaret

Rise of the Stone Angel

Laurence's experience in Africa inspired four published works, but it was the 1964 novel, The Stone Angel, the first in the Manawaka cycle, that signaled the rise of her literary career. The humane vision that distinguishes her work won her an international audience. Her numerous honors include two Governor General's Literary Awards for fiction and the Molson Prize. In 1971, Laurence was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Laurence begins her memoir, Dance on the Earth, with an anecdote that she finds troubling: “I have heard it said that war is for men what motherhood is for women.” Laurence is offended by the comparison of motherhood—which gives and nurtures life—with the taking of life in war. Moreover, she is enraged by what she views as the widespread devaluation of motherhood and the ennobling of war. A profound desire to rescue the subject of motherhood from the cultural margins, and to foreground its importance in literature and in life, drives much of Laurence's fiction.

The Stone Angel is the story of 90-year-old Hagar Shipley, an indomitable woman who resists physical decline and death with a temerity and spirit that marks her life. Over the course of a narrative that weaves back and forth in time through Hagar's memories, her life story is revealed. Hagar is defined by her principle relationships with her husband, Bram, and their two sons, Marvin and John. Hagar's ambitions for her son John, whom she favors over Marvin, drive her decision to leave her [Page 636]marriage. Seeking the comfortable life of her youth and increased opportunities for John, she secures a job as a housekeeper. Hagar remains unable, however, to connect with family members. Proud and strong, she cannot allow herself to express love. Her thoughts and emotions convey a highly critical, repressed personality. Only the reader perceives the depth of her suffering, while her husband and sons are victims of her hard, dour ways—the tragedy of her long life.

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