It is important to remember that this novel is written in
a very different time when people held (by our standards) very traditional religious
views that shaped their outlook on life and on many different aspects. In Chapter
Seventeen, when we are presented to Nancy after a break of sixteen years, and see that
she is now married to Godfrey Cass, we are shown her thoughts about
adoption.
Of course, Godfrey's idea to adopt, and in
particular to adopt Eppie, stems from their inability to have any children of their own
and also Godfrey's guilt at not claiming his rightful child as his own. Now that his
father has died, Dunstan remains disappeared and Nancy is his wife, he feels able to
give his daughter, Eppie, the rightful position in society that ironically she actually
deserves. However, it is Nancy that disagrees:
To adopt a child, because children of your own
had been denied to you, was to try and choose your lot in spite of Providence: the
adopted child, she was convinced, would never turn out well, and would be a curse to
those who had wilfully and rebelliously sought what it was clear that, for a some high
reason, they were better without. When you saw a thing was not meant to be, said Nancy,
it was a bounden duty to leave off so much as wishing for
it.
Thus, from Nancy's
perspective, trying to adopt because you can't have your own children is trying to
interfere in God's providence and the "high reason" that had made you unable to bear
children. Interfering with Providence, from Nancy's perspective, can only bring trouble
as you reject what God has for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment