Throughout Like Water for Chocolate and Thérèse Raquin, mothers reinforce the limitations that repress emotions of their daughters. In search of achieving their goals, Tita and Thérèse face barricades that modify their personalities and transform their desires. The protagonists' aspirations develop through repression, accentuating their struggle to satisfy their passions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The desires of the protagonists are stifled by their mothers. In Like Water for Chocolate, Mama Elena disregards Tita's desire to get married and start her own family. Mama Elena forces Tita, her youngest daughter, to adhere to family tradition, dictating that Tita "cannot marry or have children because she must take care of her mother until she dies" (Esquivel , 1993, p. 72). This destroys Tita's future prospects. Her mother blocks Tita's happiness in life, hurting her. In order to maintain the family tradition, Mama Elena refuses Pedro's request to marry Tita, but concocts another idea: "let me suggest my daughter Rosaura" (16). Tita's heart is broken when she is forced to attend the wedding ceremony and watch her sister marry her love. Mom Elena doesn't let Tita "have an opinion" (14) on anything. Tita is in a helper position serving her family while her voice is stolen and everything she aspires to is taken away. The way Tita is treated by Mama Elena leaves deep emotional scars: “she had been killing her little by little since she was a child” (47). This treatment reinforces Tita's desire for Pedro, who only married Rosaura to be near Tita. She hopes that Pedro “will take her with him…where there were no rules” (54). The brutal and constant treatment Tita endures leaves her devastated and deprived of the few desires of her kind heart. Thérèse Raquin's eponymous protagonist has a passionate character that she is forced to hide in her life with her aunt, Madame Raquin, and Camille. In the absence of her parents, Madame Raquin is the maternal figure in Thérèse's life. Thérèse was raised alongside Camille, “sharing her cousin’s medicines, kept in the greenhouse atmosphere of the small invalid’s room” (Zola, 1962, p. 38). The limitations of Thérèse's childhood environment stifle her ardor for life. Madame Raquin raises her to be Camille's companion, attempting to make Thérèse a "vigilant nurse" (40). As Thérèse's emotions are continually repressed, they become amplified: "for fifteen years she had lied, repressing her burning desires" (72). Thérèse is obliged to be grateful to Madame Raquin for having raised her; however, she reaches a point where she cannot bear to bury her passionate nature to meet the Raquins' needs. Camille is boring, apathetic, and has no knowledge of “the fierce desires of adolescence” (41). Zola presents Thérèse as the only passionate soul in the Raquin house. In her gloomy atmosphere, she is deprived of an outlet to release her personality. As with Tita, Thérèse's dull habitat prevents her from freeing her inner self. Thérèse cannot acclimatize to the darkness and darkness of her neighborhood and is eager to “escape…to the sun” (66). She wants to free herself from the life and environment that Madame Raquin controls and release her passion for life. In Life Water for Chocolate, Mama Elena controls Tita so forcefully that it is only through her struggle to free herself and through time that she moves away from her. mother can Tita find thefreedom and take control of your life. The final act that pushes Tita to rebel is Maman Elena's refusal to allow Tita to mourn the death of her nephew: “we cannot give in to grief, there is work to be done” (Esquivel, p. 89). Rather, Roberto was her “without official title” son (76 years old), whom she lost when Mama Elena sent her family to Texas. Tita's submissive scholarly attitude explodes with indignation as her mother tries to suppress her emotions. A combination of shock at the atrocity of her nephew's death and hatred toward Mama Elena causes Tita to burst out, declaring, "I'm tired of obeying your orders" (89). Following the psychological and physical violence, Tita takes her first steps towards freedom by retreating into the henhouse. After being banished to an insane asylum, Tita's physical and emotional needs are met at the doctor's office where she recovers from her abuse. Through her recovery, Tita learns to be more faithful. For the first time, she refuses to do anything with the explanation, "because I don't want to" (106). Tita discovers who her true character is since she is free to be something other than what her mother dictated to her. After discovering her inner characteristics through the support of doctor John Brown, Tita returns to Mama Elena to face her fears and help her mother with her paraplegic condition. Although Tita is insulted when she returns home, she manages to stay strong thanks to the fact that it was her personal choice to return to the ranch out of a sense of duty. When her mother dies, Tita believes she will finally be free of her mother's dominating presence, but she is haunted by her ghost. To gain eternal freedom from her mother, Tita confronts the ghost and the rebels, asserting that she is "a person who has every right to live her life as she pleases...leave me alone" (180) and freeing her forever Tita from her mother's control. Tita is then able to release all her pent-up emotions. Tita and Pedro “can finally make love freely” (p. 248). The change Tita undergoes due to her pent-up emotion strengthens her character for the better. In Thérèse Raquin, Zola highlights how the protagonist's character changes as her desires dominate her life and give her the ability to rebel against her repressors. The author awakens Thérèse's dormant lust to a culminating level thanks to Laurent, who frees her true nature thanks to his animal power and his sexual power. Thérèse satisfies her passion and passes “from the weak arms of Camille to the vigorous embrace of Laurent” (Zola, p. 64). She “took revenge” (66) on the Raquins by having an affair with Camille’s friend. Thérèse takes few precautions to hide adultery, “she can show up if she wants. You can hide. To hell with her! I love you." (68) This act of rebellion reaches its climax with the murder of Camille, but Thérèse believes she is compensated by Laurent. With Laurent, Thérèse has the capacity to be a completely different person, and she has no not ashamed to date this character. Laurent has an impact on Thérèse's character by transforming her into a new person Before meeting her lover, she maintained "perfect control" (42) and hid her inner feelings even though she. hated her life. Laurent frees her from the spell and allows her to return to life. Towards the end of the text, Thérèse no longer represses her emotions and reveals "shattering attacks of rage" (215). her initial salvation, but rather by her ultimate moral and physical destruction. Thérèse's personality would not have initially murdered such a naive man, but the constraints imposed on her by her mother push Thérèse to rebel and remove the obstacle from her. path to taste freedom. The ability to do this.