Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
From Pevear.
The lady thought she was alone and hopefully safe in the forest. Ten men burst in on her, one of which turns out to be the man that branded her all those years ago. Is that not some excuse for the very bravest person to say:
But, by the time we get to:
It's no longer certain that at least some of this behaviour is not manipulative. We've already seen what she is capable of during her captivity in England.
And, in any case, we eventually move on to:
This does not sound cowed or cowardly to me, although it does continue to more desperate pleas of being too young to die, and
But this is followed with:
So her cries are having an effect. Remember that a variation of this sort of thing is how she escapes from captivity in England (she keeps trying things until she finds one that looks like working), but over there we get to see it from her perspective, so the deception is obvious. And it was made obvious in those scenes that she was never going to go quietly. Here we don't get her perspective, and even if we did, it must be obvious that the chances of escape are almost non-existent - but still she keeps trying. Until...
I don't find that an especially undignified ending on her part, though it casts no honour on the men.
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I actually pretty much agree with all you've said (sorry
). My only real point of divergence is that I thought we could have had a lot more from her at the end, and that she gave in all too meekly (yes, I know she was against overwhelming odds, but then wasn't she something of a superhero of villains? I expected better).