Motivations

Posted by Karen R on October 29, 1997 at 17:23:02:

In response to Post Away, written by Cassia on October 29, 1997 at 15:10:35

]Kate: It was easy for a man to assume that a little fling would have not long term consequences... at least not beyond delightful memories.
]
]Cassia: Men live under different assumptions from women especially when it comes to sex. I've a quote 'F******, had nothing to do with babies.' This sums up the divide for me. We may not want the former to be connected to the latter but it most certainly is and always will be.

Not that I condone Randolph's taking their relationship further than the ink and paper stage but, poor baby, waiting all those years for Ellen and then it turns out that that part of their relationship is so abhorrent to her. However, on a note that will certainly lend credence to Cassia's POV, that type of attitude existed in the Brownings. I mean, poor, consumptive Elizabeth. She had one child and four miscarriages on top of all that within the brief span of their marriage.

I found this statement quite supportive of your view: "...it is instructive to find this indication that sex was, foremost in B's view, an expression of his love for Elizabeth and only secondarily, and indeed dangerously, a means of parenthood." But both RB and EBB doted on their son, once he was born.

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