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Originally Posted by gmw
This is probably only funny to nerds. My reaction was: No cat? Sorry, quoting this is a bit silly, it's just the "upon examination" that got me, as if it might have held something different before examination - leading naturally (in my mind) to Schrödinger's cat.
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I didn’t find most of the quoted sections nearly as amusing as your reaction to the missing cat! That was definitely a lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Now that I've finished I feel better qualified to respond. Yes, Helen appreciated and valued Rachel as a loyal servant. Helen knows that good help is hard to find (made especially clear with poor help surrounding Arthur while she nurses him). That sounds a bit overly cynical, since there is obviously some depth of affection toward Rachel, especially when she joins Helen and Arthur in their escape ... but as far as I could see there was also a big element of: what else was Rachel going to do?
Rachel nursed Helen at Wildfell Hall*! As far as we've seen, she has almost never left Helen's side. So where is Rachel's home? And she must be far from young, so what other place was she likely to find? It seemed to me almost cruel to suggest Rachel should separate from them, and so this seemed like another example of how self-absorbed Helen could be. [/SIZE]
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I thought Helen felt genuine affection towards Rachael. However, there was an established hierarchy within the servant class as well. Helen was escaping with nothing but the few dollars in her pocket, and simply had no means to offer Rachael a position appropriate to her status. So asking if she’d seek another post was respectful, rather than presuming she’d take a job as ‘just as general servant’.