There are a lot of parallels in Oscar's and Lucinda's lives before they meet which perhaps make it easy for them to relate to each other.Oscar and Lucinda parallels
Posted by Kate on January 26, 1998 at 19:29:18:
There are a lot of parallels in Oscar's and Lucinda's lives before they meet which perhaps make it easy for them to relate to each other.
Oscar and Luncinda both grow up in unconventional families: although they are unconventional in very different ways,
Oscar's father is non-conformist in religion, Lucinda's mother refuses to conform to ideas about women's place or appropriate dress.
Both these parents are intellectuals - Oscar’s father is a naturalist, Lucinda’s mother a pamphlet writer.
Oscar loses a mother early in life, while Lucinda loses a father - not so early.
They are both only, and apparently fairly solitary, children.
Lucinda becomes an orphan when her mother dies, Oscar becomes virtually an orphan when he defects to the Anglicans.
They are both misfits - neither has “a place” in the society in which they find themselves.
Both of them have a lassez faire attitude to money - Oscar keeps only the proceeds of his gambling which he absolutely needs, while Lucinda seems not to care about losing her money if it allows her to assuage her loneliness.
Their mentors and best friends are both clergy: Wardley-Fish for Oscar, Hassett for Lucinda, who are both affected and disturbed by the friendship.
They both have uncontrollable red hair!
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