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CuilinDoes anybody else feel like in order to make this more palatable to a Victorian reader Ruth had to be punished in some way? Hence the hair being cut, almost like she‘s in prison????4mo
IndoorDameWhen it says Faith switched to the informal you with Ruth and she didn‘t notice at first… is the implication supposed to be that Faith lost respect for her when she found out about the pregnancy, or that she‘s trying to make the fiction of their distant “family connection” convincing since they gave her a family name and now their reputations are on the line too?4mo
RuthiellaI think also that Sally is protecting her naive employers. She‘s saying, “if I can see through this ruse, so will others. Let‘s make it work”.4mo
currentlyreadinginCOI felt that, too, and how the punishment failing to shame Ruth changed Sally's desire to punish her in the first place@Ruthiella4mo
Clare-Dragonfly@IndoorDame I read it as Sally using the formal “you” with her employers—the Bensons, not Ruth—when they arrived, but as she got comfortable again, switched to the informal “thou” she is used to. I don‘t think she switched pronouns with Ruth.4mo
mcctrish“Men on the other hand weren‘t expected to follow the rigid mourning rules”@AllDebooks the world really hates women! Imagine if we didn‘t just want equality and autonomy and decided to get even4mo
Clare-Dragonfly@AllDebooks Fascinating, thanks for sharing! I‘d heard of deep mourning and half-mourning but somehow I‘d missed the existence of second mourning!4mo
willaful@Clare-Dragonfly Interesting... I was skeptical too.4mo
@clare-dragonfly @julieclair @aimeesue @quietjenn @kao @bklover @alldebooks @jewright @cuilin @willaful 4mo