Hmmm, We Have A Debate Rising
Posted by Cassia on October 29, 1997 at 15:00:54:
In response to Metaphorical prowler, written by Jane Elizabeth on October 29, 1997 at 14:01:54
] Egad, I hope he wasn't a stalker! I think it's a metaphor. Poor Blanche sensed her fragile little world was threatened, and the wolf-at-the-door metaphor is apt. Remember Sabine's wolf story much later, and of course, Byatt's interest in fairy tales and psychology.
] I notice we haven't discussed Blanche much. Granted there's not much there, but I did notice something. In her suicide note she refers to herself as "superfluous." Then at the start of the next chapter, Val uses the same word to describe herself. It's clear these two women are parallels, and I think it's interesting the way Val escapes from her miserable fate but Blanche doesn't.
] And hey...how 'bout those glove metaphors? Not to mention the round stones in her pockets. God, no wonder Christabel was a mess. Blanche used C's souvenirs of the Yorkshire trip to KILL herself.
I am on the side of the metaphor. Blanche would have gone to Ellen much sooner if Ash had shown up at their door in Richmond. Blanche senses that the relationship with Ash is a threat to the life that she has built with Christabel and she is not one to hold her tongue.
Val, I think, is a double metaphor, she parllels both Ellen and Blanche, the women left behind. The all have the same inability to help themselves and a need to merge themselves with the men they love. ******SPOILER ALERT***** Perhaps that's why Val is able to fall so easily for Fergus, by working in his office she was always half way there.
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