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sophia_sol) wrote2015-02-15 08:11 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2015-02-15 08:11 pm
Wives & Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell
This is an excellent book - Elizabeth Gaskell is very good at writing people. It lacks its last chapter as Gaskell died before quite managing to finish the book, but there is a note indicating how Gaskell intended to finish the novel - and it doesn't feel too incomplete.
A lot of my reading of the novel was taken up with stress over secrets and misunderstandings between various characters, as well as burning dislike of Molly's stepmother, so that made it a bit hard to get through, but it's a good enough book that it's worth it.
And also I just love love love the main character, Molly, and her stepsister Cynthia.
Though I mean as much as I love Molly a lot more of my emotions are caught up with Cynthia because of how she's treated by the narrative - I clutched Cynthia fiercely to my bosom, all "CYNTHIA IS AMAZING, HOW DARE YOU."
The thing is that the narrative sometimes can't quite seem to decide whether to blame what happens with Cynthia on the very real extenuating circumstances or on flaws in Cynthia's character.
And, like, Cynthia's not perfect? But nobody's perfect, and she's a genuinely good person, and her flaws make a great deal of sense given her history.
Cynthia grew up with a selfish, lying mother who pretends at affection but isn't very good at actually being loving. She feels guilty for not loving her mother, and she is desperate for actual affection from anyone. She's secretive and pretends at being shallow, when there's really a lot more going on beneath her surface.
When she was only 15 years old she was coerced by an unscrupulous man named Mr Preston into promising to marry him and has felt ever since that the whole situation with him is her fault; she's been trying to get free of him for years now but he won't release her from her promise.
At 20 or so she promises to marry a man she respects but doesn't love because she wants to be free of the asshole described in the previous paragraph. She eventually manages to get free of the asshole (with Molly's help), and she subsequently breaks it off with the respectable man as well because she doesn't love him and she wouldn't be right for him and she wants to feel free.
And then she proceeds to marry a different man entirely, one whom she actually cares for, after being sure he's aware of who she is and what her past has been.
And it's like, because of her actions with these various men she's considered a flirt and a jilt (both of which are OBVIOUSLY THE WORST apparently), and she feels like she's a terrible sinful person, and I'm just like SHE BEHAVED AS HONOURABLY AS SHE WAS ABLE TO GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES :((((
Mr Preston preyed on a lonely teenager to make her think herself in love with him, and manipulated her into being in monetary debt to him so that she would feel bound to him even if she ever stopped being in love with him. Cynthia certainly behaved in teenagerish ways at this time but, well, she was a teenager, and it was Mr Preston's responsibility to not take advantage of her frustrations about her poverty and loneliness.
It wasn't great of Cynthia to promise to marry the respectable man she doesn't love when she is still technically engaged to Mr Preston. And yet even in this, given how hard Cynthia has worked in many ways to get herself free from Mr Preston without success I completely understand her doing anything else possible to free herself. She's trying to make the best of a bad situation that doesn't have a straightforward answer.
The narrative does have sympathy for her, and our respectable heroine Molly never stops loving her, but there's still overall a tone of things being Cynthia's fault, that Cynthia has a flawed character and can never be as worthy as Molly. And that make me very sad on Cynthia's behalf.
(ftr, don't read the wiki article on the book for an unbiased reporting of Cynthia's story. It manipulates some of the facts of the situation to make Cynthia sound worse.)
I'm also pretty mad at the book for it being a little in sympathy with the asshole Mr Preston because he really genuinely loves Cynthia. LOLNOPE I have no kind feelings for him at all; if his enduring love were at all worthy of respect HE WOULDN'T HAVE TREATED CYNTHIA THE WAY HE DID.
Anyways. There's lots and lots about this book I haven't gotten into at all (the whole half of the plot to do with the Hamleys! more details about JUST HOW MUCH I dislike Molly's stepmother! my feelings of affection for Lady Harriet! anything about the actual main character of the book! and more!) but the bits about Cynthia are the bits I was burning to talk about, so that's what you're getting.
A lot of my reading of the novel was taken up with stress over secrets and misunderstandings between various characters, as well as burning dislike of Molly's stepmother, so that made it a bit hard to get through, but it's a good enough book that it's worth it.
And also I just love love love the main character, Molly, and her stepsister Cynthia.
Though I mean as much as I love Molly a lot more of my emotions are caught up with Cynthia because of how she's treated by the narrative - I clutched Cynthia fiercely to my bosom, all "CYNTHIA IS AMAZING, HOW DARE YOU."
The thing is that the narrative sometimes can't quite seem to decide whether to blame what happens with Cynthia on the very real extenuating circumstances or on flaws in Cynthia's character.
And, like, Cynthia's not perfect? But nobody's perfect, and she's a genuinely good person, and her flaws make a great deal of sense given her history.
Cynthia grew up with a selfish, lying mother who pretends at affection but isn't very good at actually being loving. She feels guilty for not loving her mother, and she is desperate for actual affection from anyone. She's secretive and pretends at being shallow, when there's really a lot more going on beneath her surface.
When she was only 15 years old she was coerced by an unscrupulous man named Mr Preston into promising to marry him and has felt ever since that the whole situation with him is her fault; she's been trying to get free of him for years now but he won't release her from her promise.
At 20 or so she promises to marry a man she respects but doesn't love because she wants to be free of the asshole described in the previous paragraph. She eventually manages to get free of the asshole (with Molly's help), and she subsequently breaks it off with the respectable man as well because she doesn't love him and she wouldn't be right for him and she wants to feel free.
And then she proceeds to marry a different man entirely, one whom she actually cares for, after being sure he's aware of who she is and what her past has been.
And it's like, because of her actions with these various men she's considered a flirt and a jilt (both of which are OBVIOUSLY THE WORST apparently), and she feels like she's a terrible sinful person, and I'm just like SHE BEHAVED AS HONOURABLY AS SHE WAS ABLE TO GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES :((((
Mr Preston preyed on a lonely teenager to make her think herself in love with him, and manipulated her into being in monetary debt to him so that she would feel bound to him even if she ever stopped being in love with him. Cynthia certainly behaved in teenagerish ways at this time but, well, she was a teenager, and it was Mr Preston's responsibility to not take advantage of her frustrations about her poverty and loneliness.
It wasn't great of Cynthia to promise to marry the respectable man she doesn't love when she is still technically engaged to Mr Preston. And yet even in this, given how hard Cynthia has worked in many ways to get herself free from Mr Preston without success I completely understand her doing anything else possible to free herself. She's trying to make the best of a bad situation that doesn't have a straightforward answer.
The narrative does have sympathy for her, and our respectable heroine Molly never stops loving her, but there's still overall a tone of things being Cynthia's fault, that Cynthia has a flawed character and can never be as worthy as Molly. And that make me very sad on Cynthia's behalf.
(ftr, don't read the wiki article on the book for an unbiased reporting of Cynthia's story. It manipulates some of the facts of the situation to make Cynthia sound worse.)
I'm also pretty mad at the book for it being a little in sympathy with the asshole Mr Preston because he really genuinely loves Cynthia. LOLNOPE I have no kind feelings for him at all; if his enduring love were at all worthy of respect HE WOULDN'T HAVE TREATED CYNTHIA THE WAY HE DID.
Anyways. There's lots and lots about this book I haven't gotten into at all (the whole half of the plot to do with the Hamleys! more details about JUST HOW MUCH I dislike Molly's stepmother! my feelings of affection for Lady Harriet! anything about the actual main character of the book! and more!) but the bits about Cynthia are the bits I was burning to talk about, so that's what you're getting.