This book really demonstrates the difference in norms from the 1900's to today. When Maggie discovered that Amerigo was having an affair with her father's new wife, rather than divorcing him and telling her father that his wife was being unfaithful to him, she felt that she had to save her marriage or else fear being publicly ridiculed for being divorced. Also, instead of just confronting her husband, which granted would be hard to do even now, she had to resort to quite and secretive meddling, (resulting in her father and Charlotte moving to America whilst the Prince and she stayed in England).
Beyond that, this book also demonstrated the true lack of respect for women that many men, (not to be stereotypical) had at the time. Amerigo, who did seem to care about Maggie a bit, mainly married her for her money, at least this was my impression. Maggie came from a very wealthy family, (her father, Adam, was a successful art collector and financier) whereas Amerigo, despite being a prince, was completely impoverished. He [Amerigo] fell into an adulterous relationship easily, (he and Charlotte had been together before he even met Maggie) despite being married and well knowing that his mistress was married.
Amerigo felt that he was fully entitled in having an affair because his wife enjoyed spending time with her father, which would leave him feeling moderately lonely and more than anything, bored. With these few excuses and his overall feeling of superiority, he successfully entered into an affair.
Overall, I think that this book was a very clear view of the modern English relationship. It showed the lack of care for marriage that many men seemed to have at the time, (those that carried on with mistresses that is) as well as the free-wheeling of the "upper class". What I mean by this is that since the families in question were of a higher income, it gave them the ability to not really care about consequences the way that someone without a financial backing would. In closing, this book gave me a thorough look at the social norms of early 20th century London, something my last book, The Hounds of Baskervilles, didn't quite cover for me.
Madison,
ReplyDeleteYou have me enticed! I read a few novels written during this time period in my Brit Lit classes in college and you're spot on with your observation of how marriage was very much based on adherance to social norms- with the women in the situation having little to no power. Though women had affairs, it would leave them in a horrible predicament should her husband find out and expose her. She'd be left with nothing. Novels that explored this as well as explicitly exploring sexuality and lust (as experienced by women) were not only criticized but banned altogether.
This book seems to have been an appropriate stepping stone in your journey.
Thank you!