11-27-2018, 07:10 PM | #91 |
cacoethes scribendi
Posts: 5,812
Karma: 137770742
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650
|
But it can be worth remembering how young Mary probably was at the time. Older than Grace it seemed (did we ever get an age for Mary?), but Grace was still very young then so I'm guessing Mary might have been 16, maybe. There's a reason YA romance is its own genre: teenagers get soppy and extreme. So I imagine it probably was "lust, wishful thinking and stupidity", and we had it in Mary's own words that she knew better, but knowing and acting are different things, especially for teenagers.
|
11-27-2018, 07:27 PM | #92 | |
cacoethes scribendi
Posts: 5,812
Karma: 137770742
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650
|
Quote:
(By its very nature, fiction tells the more interesting, often tragic, tale, and not the one where people live happily according to the standards of their times. And even non-fiction tends to emphasise how bad things could be, not necessarily how bad they always were. Actual stats might be interesting, just to see how prevalent such tragedy really was.) There is also the possibility that what we might call "Mary's tale" had become a parable of the times, a lesson to all incoming servant girls about what might happen to them if they do not behave. It might be difficult to distinguish between the real occurrences and the stories passed around as "I knew", "my friend knew" and so on. I can't find stats going back to the 1840s, but U.S. stats for the 1880s show Mary was by far the most common name. Perhaps in choosing this name Atwood is highlighting the nature of the tale. |
|
11-28-2018, 08:01 AM | #93 | ||
o saeclum infacetum
Posts: 20,561
Karma: 224837692
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
|
Quote:
Quote:
It's impossible to know. In fiction, I think there's a zigzag between portraying that illegitimacy happened rarely because of morality and the more recent trope where girls/women are having sex without a thought to the possible consequences, both of which seem unlikely. I'm projecting here, but my own take is that morality while it mattered was less important than the practical consideration of the catastrophic nature of an unintended pregnancy, which worked to keep girls "good" into the 1960s. Somewhat earlier, another limiting factor had to be opportunity. With little leisure and no privacy, the deed must have been harder to achieve. Aside from general meanness, a reason for servant girls to share a room probably was to limit the opportunities for a young master to find recreation there. But if said young master forced himself on a girl, what could she do? She had no options at all other than finding another situation, which might not be easy to achieve and might be no different. |
||
11-28-2018, 11:04 AM | #94 | |
Guru
Posts: 613
Karma: 12345678
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Canada
Device: none
|
Quote:
This provides another alternative to being either being completely chaste or completely without a thought to possible consequences. |
|
11-29-2018, 06:39 AM | #95 | |
o saeclum infacetum
Posts: 20,561
Karma: 224837692
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
|
Quote:
Then there was the New England practice of bundling, where a courting couple spent the night together fully clothed, permitting experimentation but not penetration. The climate had a lot to do with the practice. |
|
11-29-2018, 10:26 AM | #96 | |
Guru
Posts: 613
Karma: 12345678
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Canada
Device: none
|
Quote:
|
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
MobileRead Book Club December 2016 Discussion: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (spoilers) | WT Sharpe | Book Clubs | 20 | 12-30-2016 11:57 AM |
Margaret Atwood's new work will not be published until 2114 | CharredScribe | News | 49 | 09-25-2014 01:07 AM |
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood | kennyc | Reading Recommendations | 16 | 08-13-2014 01:48 PM |
Margaret Atwood on Wattpad | VaporPunk | General Discussions | 7 | 07-09-2012 12:20 AM |
Margaret Atwood - The Year of the Flood | kennyc | News | 29 | 10-09-2009 12:07 PM |