Compare the presentations of the mother and father in Seamus Deane's 'Readingin the dark'

... Compare the presentations of the mother and the father in the novel. What role does each of them play? What does each of them seem to represent? How does Seamus Deane evoke their characters and set them in contrast to each other? The presentations of the mother and father in Seamus Deane's 'Reading in the dark' are very different and the author appears to have set them in contrast to each other. Their roles with regards to their children appear through their relationships with them, especially with the narrator himself, as his relationship with his parents is at the heart of the novel, much like the young boy in Frank McCourt's 'Angela's Ashes'. The mother has an intense relationship with her son, who takes on her anxiety, and is watchful of her, every move. Within the first scene, 'Stairs' we see her lie about the presence which she is sensing

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