Far From Heaven

Throughout the movie, the children are never the main focus of the family, rather, they seem to be there just to make the "family" look better. As if they are there solely as objects, because the perfect family needs children, it's even better that their children happen to be a boy and a girl. Many times the film shows Mrs. Whitaker pushing the children on Sybil, rather than taking care of them herself, as a real mother should.
Even though Mrs. Whitaker rarely pays full attention to her children there are many small instances in the film in which you see Jancie striving to be exactly like her mother. She is exemplifying the Oedipal complex in women, or little girls. The ideal that her first love-object is her mother, who feeds and tends to her. Which leads me to ask, "What is the significance of this portrayal of Mrs. Whitaker, as the 'perfect woman?"
The portrayal of Cathy is stereotypical 1950s. Every woman, especially the wife of such a successful man, should have this perfect life that Cathy seems to have, the perfect husband, beautiful house, wonderful children, many friends, beautiful wardrobe she has everything. However, she is still not happy. This exterior or front she feels she has to put on is everything her daughter, as well as every other woman wants to be. Even though they may not understand the real Cathy, or the real life of Cathy, they all still want to be just like her, because, after all, she is perfect.