# Ada — Poetry character guide

> Ada in Poetry by Mina Loy.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0075-ada-gives-birth-to-ova

## Snapshot

Ova's mother, whose vagaries drift through her daughter's anemic childhood, Ada presides over a household of pinched governesses and lets life alone behind her shaded light and locked door.

## Who they are

Ada is the widowed mother who took a spouse of her own sphere and whose unfortunate having given birth to a criminal the neighbors read in Ova's every posture. Her vagaries—changed to her daughter's experience—shape Ova's hours into an irredeemable anemia, while her nurses and governesses, pinch-faced conservatives, respect life by refusing to tease its slumberous ferocity. She is the domestic weather Ova's consciousness uncurls against, the family reflection of national construction through which the book's early portrait of a self takes its contours.

## Relationships

### [Lea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/characters/lea)

_family_

Ada and Lea are sisters or close female relatives, sharing a familial bond.

## In the story

### [July in Vallombrosa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/july-in-vallombrosa)

The old lady, a British invalid in Italy, whose prolonged illness and death-collecting hobby are the focus of the chapter.

### [Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/anglo-mongrels-and-the-rose)

Ada, also called Alice, is Ova's mother. She is short-sighted, prejudiced, and projects her anger onto Ova, creating a toxic home environment. She embodies English insularity and maternal failure.

### [Exodus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/exodus)

Mentioned as 'Alice' or 'the English Rose' whom Exodus courts.

### [English Rose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/english-rose)

The 'English Rose' village maid, also called Alice, whose chaste, ideological virginity and literary notions of love clash with Exodus's physical desires.

### [Mongrel Rose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/mongrel-rose)

Ova's mother, who gives birth to her with pain and resentment, and later subjects her to psychic and emotional abuse, rejecting her Jewish heritage.

### [Ada Gives Birth to Ova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/ada-gives-birth-to-ova)

The mother, whose face is contorted in pain during childbirth, described as 'insensitive maternity' as she lies lapped by the infant.

### [Enter Esau Penfold](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/enter-esau-penfold)

Implied as the mother of Exodus's child, she is the one who props the child on a chair and tells her to 'hush'.

### [Ova Begins to Take Notice](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/ova-begins-to-take-notice)

The mother, who draws near unnaturally and holds a new baby, asserting her dignity.

### [Marriage Boxes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/marriage-boxes)

Referred to as Alice, the 'rabid rose of the hedges'; she is shortsighted and prejudiced, disappointed that Exodus does not adopt her English sensibilities.

### [Psychic Larva](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/psychic-larva)

The mother whose blood-relationship is a 'terrific indictment of the flesh' and whose aura of anger overshadows Ova.

### [Ova Has Governesses](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/ova-has-governesses)

Ada is mentioned as Ova's mother, whose vagaries affect Ova's life.

### [Ova Accepts the Popular Estimate of Humanity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/ova-accepts-the-popular-estimate-of-humanity)

Inflicts Christian doctrine upon Ova as a spiritual bludgeon, shaping her acceptance of religious and bodily norms.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/characters/ada
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_17_se/characters