Wednesday, October 23, 2013
ugh maxim
I do not like maxim. I know, sure I should I feel bad for him I guess, like he's never really had love or happiness blah blah blah okay. BUT he is a MURDERER and as much as Rebecca seems like she was a bitch, he is lying to everyone around him and making his new wife (whom he originally treated horribly and paid no attention to) lie as well. He also waited until this crucial moment (being when they discover Rebecca's body) to be honest with his wife. Okay yeah, wait until you're possibly about to be in trouble for murder to be honest with the woman you only married for the purpose of having a wife that you could control and manipulate into constantly putting out love and affection without receiving any in return. I don't know, it's frustrating to me that the way the narrator wrote these past few chapters makes me want to side with Maxim. Because she is biased, she's able to make me feel like I want him to get away with murder.
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I agree, Callie, the narrator completely makes it so seem like you feel bad for Maxim. But I'm going to play a little devil's advocate here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but before that scene on that cliff where Rebecca tells Maxim that if they get married, she'll "upkeep" Manderley (Portray it in a positive light), Maxim did love Rebecca. And when she did reveal herself as this snake-like character, Maxim was hurt. It took him a few years to translate this hurt into anger, but he was hurt. Rebecca, with her charming ways, and how she had or at least tried to have sex with Giles and Frank. How she INSULTED BEN!!! Defenseless Ben, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was evil down to the core and, frankly, deserved to die.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with that Rebecca was awful and I agree that he could have very well been hurt upon finding this out. HOWEVER, he did marry this woman clearly without knowing her very well (obviously unintentionally) but in reaction to this, he decided to marry another woman, doing the same exact thing to her in that he was not honest about himself.
ReplyDeleteExactly Callie! For me, in the reading, everyone I thought I knew as a character (which is me, the reader, just assuming I knew their whole story) just changed. Especially Maxim.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator says, "I held out my arms to him and he came to me like a child. I put my arms round him and held him. We did not say anything for a long time. I held him and comforted him as though he were Jasper. As though Jasper had hurt himself in some way and had come to me to take his pain away"(358).
- We used to compare the narrator to a child and how she was treated as though she was Jasper (like when she was patted on the head by Maxim), but now the roles have reversed in a way and Maxim is these things. sorta.
You talked about how Maxim is treating the narrator now that the truth is out, and from the reading I couldn't tell if he was just trying to make her pity/side with him or if he actually is able to love her now that he is set free from that lie.
Basically, like you put it so nicely, I can't help but side with Maxim in these past chapters because Rebecca hurt him. But I don't think I would feel the same way if Maxim had hurt Rebecca because that's normally how stories go. The male hurts and dominates the female.
I agree with Collin, on the factor of Rebecca's death being fully deserved; with Callie because Maxim is awful. However, I feel like what Maxim is trying to do is regain control of his life; yet, Rebecca played her cards so perfectly, that he cannot emancipate himself without fault going to Rebecca. I sort of find this to happen with children and parents; the child wishes to disobey and rebel, but when the parent gives an order that the child deep down agrees with, they are an impasse. The child cannot prove that they comply only because he or she wishes, rather than the parent, so most would probably rebel anyways; however, up until this point, where Maxim is forced to go against Rebecca, which is in this case the just thing to do, Maxim has fought to prove what Rebecca was displaying this happy marriage. Maxim is the child in each of his marriages; whereas the narrator is a kind, nurturing mother that lacks any and all impetus instead of the classic, evil step-mother that Rebecca is/was
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