Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I thought Helen's return to nurse Arthur was flatly unbelievable. She had escaped from him with such difficulty, and he destroyed her first plan entirely, that I can't imagine she'd risk herself, and her son, by getting within his orbit again. Suppose he refused to let her leave? He could. Suppose he refused to let her take Arthur? He also could do that, legally. And that ridiculous statement she made him sign - he could easily have destroyed that.
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All of can think of is that perhaps the readers of the time would have been so horrified to learn that Helen had left her husband, despite good reasons, that Bronte needed to rehabilitate her with that over-the-top saintliness at the end. She'd committed the grave "sin" of desertion, so she had to do penance for it by coming back to him.