bronny wrote:

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Yes.....and at least he was fairly easy on the eye! (if that means anything) ......unlike Ossie!

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 That's true!  I think a lot of other eligable young women in the villiage would have been happy to marry him!

bronny wrote:

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Sabrina wrote:

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 I also saw the foreshaddowing that their marriage was not going to work out.  They were not right for each other, no matter how much Mark may have idealised her. 

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I guess I feel sorry for her because she was in one sense a victim of the age she was living in - how many women in the 18th century ended up in bad marriages because they simply had to find a way of surviving? Her marrying Mark was a means of having a roof over her head, meagre as it was, and getting away from her acting life. She was never going to be satisfied though.   

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 True, but being married to Mark should not have been all that bad for her.  He truly loved her.  It was nothing, for example, like Morwenna's marriage to Ossie.

Mrs Gimlett wrote:

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Not sure why you feel sorry for Keren.  I reckon she was a scheming little minx.  Bronny, when you have read your first edition 'Demelza', you might agree.  There is much more about her and Mark in this book and it is not at all pretty. 

 

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 Oh thanks Jane I shall look forward to it very much!

Demelza

A passionate child rolling in the dust with her ugly dog; a girl driving oxen; a woman....Did anything else matter?

Not sure why you feel sorry for Keren.  I reckon she was a scheming little minx.  Bronny, when you have read your first edition 'Demelza', you might agree.  There is much more about her and Mark in this book and it is not at all pretty.  Mark was so much overawed by her fragility and the fact that she was very different from anything he had known before, you could see their marriage was going to be a disaster.  She was much the quicker brained, able to think ahead whereas poor old Mark was steady, reliable and unable to work out that she really was not for him. 

I was always struck by Ross' assessment of Mark when he went to the Scillies to meet him and found a shell of a man, haunted by his actions. Ross suddenly wondered if he was as untouched by time as he had supposed.

bronny wrote:

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By the way, I always liked her full name 'Kerenhappech' (sp?) - very pretty.

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 Thanks!  I did remember that it was something unusual!

Demelza

A passionate child rolling in the dust with her ugly dog; a girl driving oxen; a woman....Did anything else matter?

Smollett wrote:

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I have a wee bit of sympathy for Keren; yeah I know,   she was a  self centred manipulative cow & caused so much unhappiness, but she was trying to survive in a harsh world & using her assets to 'get ahead'. Her relationship with her former boss is evidence of this.

She was jealous of Demelza, yes, and bitter. I suspect I would be a bit bitter too in her shoes... Good looking, young,  talented, & clever, but not clever enough -she misjudged her control over men and this was her undoing. Women at court behaved this way, unscrupulously; Keren was not in their league, and this was a Cornish mining village, so her fantasies couldn't be realised. She died unmourned, and I feel a wee bit of pity for her.

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 I guess I feel a wee bit of pity for her too.  But I just don't like it when people manipulate other people to get what they want.  I see what you mean about the double standard with regard to class status though, and her disapointment that her fantasies couldn't be realized.

bronny wrote:

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Sabrina wrote:

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 I agree, it is easy to have a lot of sympathy for Mark.  He put Keren on a pedastal when he first met her without getting to know the kind of person she really was.

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 Yes and you can see why - she would have appeared so interesting and 'exotic' to him - an actress wow! Compared to all the local girls....and similarly she would have missed all that attention after she married him. So you can kind of see her point of view too. Bad decision on both their parts.....and Dwight's too. He was luckily to have got out of that relatively easily and to have retained the trust of the locals.

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 True, I guess she would have missed her acting career and all of the attention after she married Mark.  But then, what did she expect?  Dwight seemed lonely for female companionship at that time, although I'm not exactly sure why, I would have thought he would have had a lot of pretty women to choose from.  Thank God he finally met Caroline.  As for Mark, he had to flee the country, and I think later died without ever having re-married, very sad.

Char Nanfan wrote:

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I think the main difference between Demelza and Keren was Demelza never expected more than she was given and so she  appreciated the different lifestyle she so unexpectedly was offered even as a  servant to Ross whereas keren thought the world owed her big time! 

Its strange that in the case of Keren Daniel , i believe most readers and viewers hold most sympathy for Mark, he never really knew what hit him! and his life was ruined thereafter.

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 I agree, it is easy to have a lot of sympathy for Mark.  He put Keren on a pedastal when he first met her without getting to know the kind of person she really was.

Char Nanfan wrote:

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She was not a sympathetic character yet had a similar background to demelza so why she was quite so ambitious and soulless, was never really explained. She was unable to relate to anyone really, and would probably have met a sticky end at some point as she seemed unable to understand other peoples emotions or characters.

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 I believe you are right.  She thought the whole world revolved around her and her desires.

She was not a sympathetic character yet had a similar background to demelza so why she was quite so ambitious and soulless, was never really explained. She was unable to relate to anyone really, and would probably have met a sticky end at some point as she seemed unable to understand other peoples emotions or characters.

Brigantia wrote:

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Oh, Keren! How I longed to give her a slap! I was willing Mark not to marry her all along (see how I treat these wonderful characters like real people??)

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 I know, I definiitely would have advised him not to marry her!

I did not like this character.  She was a manipulator who used both her husband Mark and Dr. Enys.  It was tragic the way she died, but it was no wonder that few people had much sympathy for her.