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Linda Tressel by Anthony Trollope
Jul. 16th, 2013 12:32 amLinda Tressel of Cologne is a girl from Cologne who is an heiress in a small way, being possessed of the house of her parents, but as an orphan she has been raised by her aunt Madame Staubach and kept below her aunt's thumb. Madame Staubach wishes Linda to marry their old lodger Peter Steinmarc, while Linda loathes Steinmarc and wishes to marry young Ludovic Valcarm. This is one of the world's seven original plots, but Trollope breathes some life into it!
This is also a story of how a man who seems reasonably honest, friendly, and respectable to outsiders can be motivated into becoming frighteningly abusive. It's not told in a way at all sympathetic to the man who wants to punish Linda for refusing and insulting him, but it is a character portrait of interest in how it shows a public face and a private bully, and how the two can develop from each other. It's also quite scary how other powerful men can be brought to support him, even though he wants to marry a girl thirty years younger than him who's tried to refuse him.
The nature of Ludovic Valcarm's character is also left as a mystery to the reader - he has a poor reputation, sometimes at the hands of characters we do not find so very attractive themselves, and may be a wastrel involved in dangerous revolutionary politics. Linda loves him and he seems to love her, but without the narrative speaking from his point of view, the reader can amuse themselves by speculating on his motives and nature. Is Linda's choice almost as bad for different reasons as the rather creepy old man she rejects? The novel's conclusion on this is not particularly surprising, but it is a means of maintaining some suspense.
There's even some insights into how fanaticism can hurt people:
[W]ith [Linda's aunt] the only idea present to her mind was the absolute necessity of saving Linda from the wrath to come by breaking her spirit in regard to things of this world, and crushing her into atoms here, that those atoms might be remoulded in a form that would be capable of a future and a better life. Instead therefore of shrinking from cruelty, Madame Staubach was continually instigating herself to be cruel. She knew that the image of the town-clerk was one simply disgusting to Linda, and therefore she was determined to force that image upon her.
Madame Staubach's interpretation of religion makes her force herself to be cruel against her natural instincts, trying to pressure her niece into marriage.
Spoilers follow.( Read more... )
This is also a story of how a man who seems reasonably honest, friendly, and respectable to outsiders can be motivated into becoming frighteningly abusive. It's not told in a way at all sympathetic to the man who wants to punish Linda for refusing and insulting him, but it is a character portrait of interest in how it shows a public face and a private bully, and how the two can develop from each other. It's also quite scary how other powerful men can be brought to support him, even though he wants to marry a girl thirty years younger than him who's tried to refuse him.
The nature of Ludovic Valcarm's character is also left as a mystery to the reader - he has a poor reputation, sometimes at the hands of characters we do not find so very attractive themselves, and may be a wastrel involved in dangerous revolutionary politics. Linda loves him and he seems to love her, but without the narrative speaking from his point of view, the reader can amuse themselves by speculating on his motives and nature. Is Linda's choice almost as bad for different reasons as the rather creepy old man she rejects? The novel's conclusion on this is not particularly surprising, but it is a means of maintaining some suspense.
There's even some insights into how fanaticism can hurt people:
[W]ith [Linda's aunt] the only idea present to her mind was the absolute necessity of saving Linda from the wrath to come by breaking her spirit in regard to things of this world, and crushing her into atoms here, that those atoms might be remoulded in a form that would be capable of a future and a better life. Instead therefore of shrinking from cruelty, Madame Staubach was continually instigating herself to be cruel. She knew that the image of the town-clerk was one simply disgusting to Linda, and therefore she was determined to force that image upon her.
Madame Staubach's interpretation of religion makes her force herself to be cruel against her natural instincts, trying to pressure her niece into marriage.
Spoilers follow.( Read more... )
