I’ve just finished the first epoch, and since I want to keep up dialogue with all the other people who are doing the Woman in White readalong, and also because this is such a freakin’ long book, I thought I’d just write sort of…short discussion/review things every few days. Instead of one big review? You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t sound entirely coherent– I’m not feeling too well at the moment, for some reason. Anyway. I’m going to copy Leila and break this up into sections.
When I last left off I was just starting chapter XI in Walter’s narrative, so I’ll continue on from there.
Walter XI.
- It is a little alarming how Walter keeps attributing every strange thing that happens to the Woman in White situation, but if he didn’t think that I would think he was being obtuse, so…Yay for Walter being paranoid?
- Re: the letter: I think it’s so funny how people in the Victorian times could determine a person’s class just from how they wrote– is it even possible to do that today? I wouldn’t think so.
- Re: Glyde’s age: Walter says “Forty-five; and she was not yet twenty-one! Men of his age married wives of her age every day: and experience had shown those marriages to be often the happiest ones. I knew that– and yet even the mention of his age, when I contrasted it with hers, added to my blind hatred of him.” Okay, so, a) I agree with him that though it’s gross it was also a common occurrence (though I’m not sure about the “happiest” thing), b) Laura is twenty?! She acts so much younger. I thought she was something like 16-18, and then how old is Marian? Why does Marian act so much more like an adult than Laura does? Has Laura just been infantilized all her life because she’s pretty and delicate/fair/prone to crying or something? Ugly people must grow up quickly, while beautiful spring flowers must languish in childhood? Ha.
- That whole infantilization thing is just backed up by the fact that Marian refuses to show or tell Laura about the letter. I understand that Marian is worried about how she’ll take it, but c’mon! Stop coddling her, for Pete’s sake.
Loading ...
