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Maternal Impression
- 67 statements
- 11 feature instances
- 5 referencing feature instances
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In the real world, maternal impression is a discredited medical theory that held that emotional stimulus experienced by a pregnant woman could influence the development of her baby. This theory is known to go back at least as far as Ancient Greece, making it Older Than Feudalism, and was popular until the rise of modern genetic theory. Historically, it was typically an explanation for the existence of birth defects and congenital disorders (and as an excuse when a baby didn't look like the supposed father, such as in cases of a Chocolate Baby). Modern genetic theory has been a Trope Breaker for that, and it has mostly become a Forgotten Trope. When it crops up in modern works, it will typically be as a Downplayed Trope or Implied Trope, such as children taking on characterological traits via Rule of Symbolism. This is not merely Shared Family Quirks, Like Father, Like Son, Strong Family Resemblance, or even Generation Xerox. These children are not just like their parent(s) in general — they are specifically influenced by their parents as they were in the context of the child's conception, or their mother as she was during her pregnancy. If non-genetic traits are inherited, but not specifically something related to the circumstances of conception or pregnancy, then it's instead Lamarck Was Right or Genetic Memory. Modern medicine generally agrees that things such as illness and drug use during pregnancy can impact a baby in utero, and so One Drink Will Kill the Baby and Childhood Brain Damage should not be considered this. The difference is that those are physical stimulus, while Maternal Impression involves emotional or symbolic stimulus. Likewise, Functional Magic impacting a baby in utero is Mystical Pregnancy, not this. |
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Dropped link to BastardBastard: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to ChocolateBaby: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to InbredAndEvil: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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DBTropes | |
| Maternal Impression / int_238a4c21 | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_238a4c21 | comment |
The Talmud Various explanations are given as to why the first-century sage, Elisha ben Avuya, became a heretic. Among these is that when his mother was pregnant with him, she used to pass by pagan temples and enjoy the scent of their incense. Another story tells of how Rabbi Akiva explained a Chocolate Baby to a dark-skinned king by theorizing that the queen must have been looking at white marble statues when she conceived, making the baby white. |
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| The Talmud | hasFeature |
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| Maternal Impression / int_2bbcacd9 | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_2bbcacd9 | comment |
Looney Tunes: "Porky in Wackyland": A three-headed creature looks at the audience and says something in gibberish, which another creature translates as "His mother was scared by a pawnbroker's sign." A pawnbroker's sign traditionally consists of an image of three balls, the idea being that because his mother was frightened by an image of three balls he was therefore born with three heads. "Yankee Doodle Donkey": A donkey disguises himself as a dog to join a canine army troop. When his tall ears accidentally peek out from his helmet, the drill sergeant quips, "Was your mother ever frightened by a mule?" |
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| Maternal Impression / int_306bb4ae | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_306bb4ae | comment |
Mademoiselle de Scuderi: Cardillac claims that his obsession with jewelry stems from an incident where a nobleman clad in gemstones seduced his pregnant mother and went Out with a Bang. | |
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| Maternal Impression / int_63020c1c | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_63020c1c | comment |
Dollanganger Series: Downplayed or Implied, as expected in a modern work. In a quest for revenge against her mother, Cathy seduces her mother's husband and Baby Traps him. That's how her son Bart is conceived. It's not until ten years later—when Bart starts to exhibit some of Cathy's most vengeful traits—that she thinks maybe that was a bad idea. | |
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| Dollanganger Series | hasFeature |
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| Maternal Impression / int_648ba744 | type |
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| Maternal Impression / int_648ba744 | comment |
Middlesex: After returning home from a sexualized production of the play The Minotaur, and Desdemona and Lefty have sex, as do Lina and Zizmo. Desdemona — who is actually Happily Married, but also quite old-school and doesn't feel comfortable admitting the play turned her on — pretends to be asleep. Both pairs conceive a child that night. These circumstances of their conception are not particularly imprinted on either of the two babies. But this book is a Generational Saga, and years later, when those two babies grow up, marry each other, and have a child of their own, that kid sees reflections of himself in his parents' conception. | |
| Maternal Impression / int_648ba744 | featureApplicability |
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| Maternal Impression / int_6b4bd015 | type |
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| Maternal Impression / int_6b4bd015 | comment |
The Hampdenshire Wonder: The Child Prodigy Victor is the son of the former cricket player Ginger Stott, whose plan was for Victor to have no exposure to cricket until the age of fourteen so Ginger could train him properly, without any bad playing habits forming in his childhood. The unnamed narrator thinks that Victor's parents' desire for him to have no preconceptions caused him to be born without instincts at all — he had no heartbeat at birth, and had to be taught everything that other infants know instinctively. The narrator thinks it is this lack of instincts that allowed Victor's mind to become so advanced. | |
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| The Hampdenshire Wonder | hasFeature |
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| Maternal Impression / int_855b40f8 | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_855b40f8 | comment |
"Porky in Wackyland": A three-headed creature looks at the audience and says something in gibberish, which another creature translates as "His mother was scared by a pawnbroker's sign." A pawnbroker's sign traditionally consists of an image of three balls, the idea being that because his mother was frightened by an image of three balls he was therefore born with three heads. | |
| Maternal Impression / int_855b40f8 | featureApplicability |
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| Porky in Wackyland | hasFeature |
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| Maternal Impression / int_9d47a2a2 | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_9d47a2a2 | comment |
A Song of Ice and Fire: Westerosi culture holds that bastards are inherently deceitful and sexual because they are born from infidelity. The narrative of the series does not hold that this is true, though, and the bastard characters we meet have a range of personalities as much as anyone else. | |
| Maternal Impression / int_9d47a2a2 | featureApplicability |
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| A Song of Ice and Fire | hasFeature |
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| Maternal Impression / int_ce5f68ed | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_ce5f68ed | comment |
At the end of Horton Hatches the Egg, the chick that emerges from the egg has elephant features because Horton, not the deadbeat mother, guarded it. | |
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| Horton Hatches the Egg | hasFeature |
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| Maternal Impression / int_eef097ed | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_eef097ed | comment |
Versailles: This is a Discussed Trope as a possible explanation for a Chocolate Baby, although it's such a painfully weak excuse that no characters give the idea any credence. | |
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| Versailles | hasFeature |
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| Maternal Impression / int_fccc35cc | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Maternal Impression / int_fccc35cc | comment |
Crusader Kings II: One event has the player character's wife request strange foods due to pregnancy cravings. The food you let her eat determines a birth defect in the child: quail's feet cause the child to be born clubfooted, a hare's head guarantees a harelip, and a fish's eye will make the child ugly. | |
| Maternal Impression / int_fccc35cc | featureApplicability |
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| Crusader Kings II (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
| Maternal Impression | processingCategory2 |
Pregnancy Tropes | |
| Maternal Impression | processingCategory2 |
Son of Trope, Daughter of Index | |
| If There Be Thorns / int_d840f1ba | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| The Talmud / int_d840f1ba | type |
Maternal Impression | |
| Versailles / int_d840f1ba | type |
Maternal Impression |
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