Posted by Anna on May 16, 1997 at 23:58:37:
In reply to Mary Crawford posted by Barbara on May 15, 1997 at 18:35:13
] ... but I just don't understand how proper Edmund could fall for someone like Mary. So far in the story, she has made inappropriate remarks about her uncle, criticized the church,
________
To take a tangent to Barbara's question;
When reading the first few chapters of MP I couldn't see why I'd disliked it the first time; I began to remember while reading Edmund and Fanny's discussion of the impropriety of Mary's remarks on her uncle. I thought that the uncle had probably kept a mistress while his wife was alive and certainly set her up in hishouse after her death, making it necessary for Mary to leave. It also seems likely that he hosted fairly licentious parties.
I think it Mary's opnion of her uncle justified; to me, for Mary to speak well of him would be hypocrisy. After all it is probably his example and upbringing that has given mary her jaundiced view of the world.
We are given no details of his behviour, so perhaps I am overcritical of the admiral, however it seems to me that Mary was being honest whilst Edmund and Fanny are advocating hypocrisy.
To me Mary's honesty is reminiscent of Lizzy's and Edmund's insistence on propriety over truth approaches Mr Collins position.
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