Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
I did not get the sense that Milady's terror-filled outbursts at the end were manipulative; her cajoling and empty threats and attempts to bargain for her life were, but her terror seemed real. And of course she had reason for feeling terror, but what seems out of character is so blatantly showing that terror to these men arrayed against her.
If manipulation was her aim, I think that she would more likely have tried to play the noble martyr or pretend to repent. She could have woven a story with herself as victim--that would have been worth a shot at least; it worked with Felton.
Or she could have glared defiantly at the men and died with dignity.
But I suppose in that male-dominated story, it wasn't enough for her to be beheaded, she had to be shown to be contemptibly weak as well.
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Her switch at the end reminds me a bit of
Angels with Dirty Faces, when Pat O'Brien, playing a priest, gets Jimmy Cagney to act cowardly and terrified on the way to the chair, in order to discourage the young hoodlums who have taken him as a role model.
There's nobody on the scene to benefit from Milady's last-minute chickenheartedness, so I think your conclusion is correct; we, the readers, are the hoodlums who are in danger of being seduced by Milady's beauty and charm and manipulation and Dumas is Father Pat O'Brien, pulling the strings. Didn't work, though; she's still the most interesting and forceful character in the book.