[latepaul]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

As for Milady, I quite agree with Catlady - she wouldn't have flinched. She was of course painted as the supreme villain, but it's interesting to consider what made her that way.

I was thinking about this as I was nearing the end of the book and I think Milady is what happens when you try to write a female villain but you firmly believe that women are constitutionally different to men. So she has a toughness to her, she can be very resolved, but she is still very controlled by her emotions - whether it's quailing at the execution or flying into a rage over D'Artagnan's betrayal of her.

- Why was she in a nunnery in her youth? Clearly not by choice.

Have you ever read Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts? It's set in an Italian convent in 1570, so not that much earlier than this, and apart from being a very good novel it opened my eyes to a fact of life about convents in that era. Today if someone enters a monastery or convent we assume it's a personal vocation and that that person is especially religious, back in those days however it seems like a lot of rich families sent a second or third daughter, one they couldn't marry off, to a convent. Dunant paints a picture of a community of women where some are super religious and some are just getting by and doing their own thing - the main character is a herbalist who maintains a garden in the convent and treats minor illnesses and reads a lot. Another key character is a gifted singer and interested in music.

- She was branded by the executioner for leading his brother astray. How about a bit of personal responsibility for his actions by the brother instead of blaming the girl, which is all she was.

This view of female sexuality needing to be constrained goes along with the view of women I mentioned earlier - IMHO.

- She was hanged by her husband and left for dead, not because of anything she did, but because of the brand.

This really annoyed me when I read it. As far as I recall this is the first actual incidence where we're given any idea why she might be considered evil and it turns out she was punished out of all proportion of any perceived crime on her part.

- She was double-crossed and treated disgustingly by D'Artagnan, our supposed chivalric young hero.

This was one of those parts where I was treating it as farce. If you take it on its face it is very disturbing.