era are co-mingled with Cain’s “obsessive concern with power within heterosexual relationships.” Though never a “social” novelist in the tradition of Theodore Dreiser, Cain’s descriptions of the working class experience are “bitter, incisive and unquestionably authentic.” Critic Paul Skenazy writes: Cain signaled his intention to treat the larger social landscape of the period when he chose to write Mildred Pierce in the third-person “as against the narrowly defined first-person focused on erotic obsessiveness…” This point-of-view allowed the author to more convincingly “convey a sense of a woman’s perspective.”<ref>Skenazy, 1989 p. 66-67</ref Mildred’s overweening “mothering instinct” directed toward her eldest daughter Veda, almost of a sexual nature, contrasts with her ambivalence towards her husband Monty and men in general. Veda, emulating Mildred, seeks to displace her mother as the dominant female in the relationship, eventually seducing her stepfather. Mildred lives vicariously through her daughter's success as a coloratura opera soprano, despite Veda being “absolutely selfish, deceitful, guileful [and] snobbish.” And p. 65: “...the other face of Cain’s portraits of deception is [a] mothering instinct...most terrifyingly posed in Mildred Pierce’s love for her daughter Veda in Mildred Pierce…” And: p. 66: “...a brilliant and brutal depiction of the underside of domestic affection.” And p. 72-73: See here for nature of the Mildred/Veda relationship.Madden, 1970 p. 74: Veda portrayed as “a through-going bitch…Cain is a masterful creator of bitches”, among them Veda Pierce. See p. 74 for “absolutely selfish…” quote.Hoopes, 1982 p. 373: See here for critical response to Cain’s creation of unsavory characters, “monster-monger.”</ref> Biographer David Madden observes: Adaptations 1945 film adaption Cain was first approached about a film adaptation of Mildred Pierce by Warner Brothers producer Jerry Wald in 1943. Though Cain declined Wald’s request to write a film treatment, Wald—known as a producer of films appealing to women moviegoers—continued to seek a suitable screenwriter. In the spring of 1944, Warners purchased the film rights for $15,000, When Cain received Wald’s proposed treatments, the producer had inserted a murder into the story, and according to Cain, had failed to emphasize the dramatic implications “of having a big coloratura soprano in the family.” When filmmaker Michael Curtiz was enlisted to direct Mildred Pierce, Cain urged him to avoid introducing hard-boiled themes and rather emphasize the novel’s “wider implication… Mildred Pierce is one woman’s struggle against a great social injustice—which is the mother’s necessity to support her children even though husband and community