I am responding to Mary's comments about the first half of Summer. She chose to mention that Charity was always treated as a lower person, someone without education and who was brought down from the mountain. It seems in the entire first half that she is constantly reiterating how much she does not belong in North Dormer or around all of the powerful and glamorous people. Yet when she returns to the mountain for her mother's funeral, she realizes that she does not belong there either and she even compares herself with Julia and says that she too will make a living for herself and her baby. In the entire scene when she enters the room that her mother's body is in and the people ask the minister who she is, I get the impression that she comes across as one of the rich snobby girls that she compares herself to in the city. I thought that this was an interesting juxtaposition because it showed that she was where she belonged even though she was not able to recognize that herself.
The second paragraph mary chose to comment on was one describing Mr. Royalle in Charity's eyes as someone who was not exciting, but solid and always there. I think that the entire ending is more interesing after reading the paragraph from the first half because when they get married it is a sort of boring thing that happens very quickly and Charity really has no emotional rection to it. At the very end, Charity and Mr. Royalle seem to connect deeper than they have, although she says his look made her feel both ashamed and secure. I am not sure that the feeling of being ashamed is a good one to have going into a marriage, but it is good that she is finally secure. I think the reader can also tell that Mr. Royale loves her because he does sort of apologize for his rude behavior on the 4th of July and he says that he wants her to be more brilliant than the other girls, I think that his small gestures make up for his shortcommings.
After reading the entire book, I do not think that Charity is a very strong character because she is so easily shaped by her surroundings and more specifically the men in her life. I think that she learns that the romance narrative she grew up believing does not necessarily exist and that even though people are separated by class in the minds of others, just because you are of a certain social class does not mean you are morally superior. I liked this character and it was interesting to see how she changed and responded as the story progressed.
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2 comments:
I liked Charity too and I really do feel that Mr. Royall loved her as well. I just don't think that she felt the same way he did. I mean, sure she liked him, but I don't believe she was truly in love with him. And it is a terrible thing for her to be ashamed of him. I think it's a terrible thing to be married just for security.
I think it's interesting how you feel that she wasn't a strong character because she was shaped by her surroundings and more specifically the men in her life. I agree that Charity was not a strong character but am not sure if it's because she was easily shaped by her surroundings. I think that we are all essentially shaped by our surroundings and are products of nurture. I think it's more how she reacted to those shapings, not just that she was changed or molded.
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