How Much is Too Much?
Or, if Sex is What Girls Have and Boys Want, what are the latter entitled to do to get their Share?
The conflicting assumptions rising from Clare's character, I concluded, were ultimately the source of my unease. Clare may indeed be the wanton hussy or at least the love starved woman both she and her creator assume her to be under that prim and proper facade. Her responses to Nicholas' advances are perfectly believable, even for some one who doesn't consider herself wanton. However, despite her doubts of her faith, and however ultimately unsuited she may be in it, Methodism and the social ties to the town into which she's put so much of herself should be of paramount importance to her, if the sacrifice she makes for the town is to make any sense: she isn't painted as a desparately restless rebel, struggling against the bounds of propriety. Instead it is her love for Penreith, its inhabitants, and their way of life that drives her to make the bargain to Nicholas.
In a modern romance, such a bargain---one kiss a day for three months, made with a man who actually stops promptly when told no (one of the most redeeming, and for me, endearing qualities about Nicholas) would not even qualify as the frothy stuff of romantic comedy without a properly prim and uptight heroine. Clare, however, is part (and wishes to continue, as so many of those other rebellious heroines do not) of a small community in which such behavior is strongly censured. Therefore, I expected to see Clare grieving, or at the very least deeply divided, over the loss of her principles, even though the basis of them, her religion, is one for which she has doubts. One can have doubts to the point of agnosticism and still hold to the patterns of behavior dictated by one's faith, if one believes in its ultimate value, as Clare does.
In fact, her position is in some ways the most difficult of all, because she hasn't the profound faith to help her resist Nicholas' blandishments; they're altogether enticing, and so the combination of wild hormones and every emotional pressure the far more experienced Nicholas can bring to bear unite to put her in a position that is nearly impossible to resist; on the other hand if we are to believe her desire for grace, then she ought to be feeling worse about her failures of conduct. It's bad enough to be forced into doing something that's wrong, worse when you are made to choose it. (Now, I have been making one assumption here that may not be correct, since I have no direct experience: that Clare feels her religious principles rather than societal mores have suffered the principle hurt from her premarital activities, and that being the case, religious wrong is lot harder to rationalize away than societal disapproval.)
Of course, if she were really upset, then Nicholas would come perilously close to being a cad, in modern terms, if not modern terminology. In his own era, there's no question he's behaving absolutely disgracefully, but Putney's characters so obviously possess modern sensibilities that I tend to judge them on modern rather than regency standards. Since his coercion is purely a matter of persuasion (however emotionally laden) it falls into that grey area which current society, to judge by the many varying standards being thrown up, that, when practiced by adults, falls between normally acceptable male pushiness for sex and date rape.
Clare doesn't have enough regrets for his behavior to come anywhere close to the latter. If she had had the sorts of shame I expected, he at the very least have to give some believable reasons while she shouldn't feel guilt (tough, in my opinion, unless she wants to throw up the precepts as well as the faith of her religion), or suffer some heavy remorse. Or he could do both. My gut instinct was that Putney wasn't willing to go that far, which instead makes Clare out to be rather hypocritical about her religion. Given the volatility of current socital standards regarding what is and is not acceptable pressure to bear in relationships---which ultimately may have to be resolved at the level of individual couples, though I do think society will eventually have to more closely codify expectations, at minimum---I would have preferred to see more exploration of this theme, even if it meant Nicholas was going to have to be a real demon, at least for awhile.
Return to the review of Thunder and Roses
Sylvus Tarn Last modified: Fri Sep 11 12:26:55 EDT 1998
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