Okay, I am at a loss as to what I want to put in my blog. So I guess I will just start writing and see if I can get a line on something. I think that most of the male characters in the book are all jerks. Mary sacrifices herself for them but, they don’t seem to be reciprocating. William is not quite as bad as Sir Peter (who is beyond villain). William, I believe has grown up around his father and he is a real doozy. Not knowing that much about Edmund Pelham, it would be hard to find something in his character that would say he was alright except for his aspirations for William. What happened to the younger son, Edmund, I think? Pelham Sr. is wealthy, conceited, and a big snob. Why does William have to marry an upper-class girl; William feels that he is in love with Mary but it is only a very temporary infatuation. His proposal of relief for Mary later in the book (p. 127) is tasteless and serves to sully Mary’s name some more. In this request, he is no better than Sir Peter! I can see a little good in Mr. Raymond but, it can also be sort of selfish. His unrequited love for Mary’s mother was a blow to his manhood. As a parent, I see where he is doing his best to raise Mary but it is only so that he can let her know that she is not high enough in class to have anybody as a husband that would be somewhere close to comfortable financially.
Sir Peter is snobbish just like Mr. Pelham is. He feels that his money will get him whatever he wants but, he runs into Mary and decides he wants her. Guess what? She doesn’t want him and she does give him a run for his money. Unfortunately, in 18th century England, Mary did not have any weapons except her temper and strength of will. So Sir Peter gets what he wants and then decides that she ain’t worth it? He does show a little tickle of remorse for the rape but, the optimum word here is ‘show’. The offer to marry her after he has already raped her; that’s all it was, a pretense to use her as a sex slave.
Mary throughout the book is self-sacrificing and before the rape, she is naive. Maybe she doesn’t believe that the terrible things in life can touch her but after she begins to see the world as it is, she accepts her destiny: “With a mind, a resolution, yet unimpaired, I do not, indeed I do not, yield to despair.” (p. 128) The fact that he gives her a ten-pound note can easily be misconstrued by anyone seeing the exchange as payment for service. Her letter of the next morning tells the reader that Mary is ready to cut all ties: “to confide in the heart of man is to lay up stores for sorrow…” (p. 130). Mary Hays does a great job of pointing out the unequal rights between men and women. The lesson I learn from Mary’s trials and tribulations is that having an education is a special privilege but, it is how you use that education which will help you to be successful or end up without anything, Mary still had her pride and her education, even though she had lost her virtue and everything else in life. It is sad that she was unable to do anything with her education.
Literature Rocks 