I am both re-reading Villette right now (by Charlotte Bronte), and reading The Home for the first time (by Fredrika Bremer).
Charlotte Bronte is world famous, of course. Fredrika Bremer, an author from Sweden, may not be famous right now, but she was back in her day, even in the USA. The Loserville library has many of her books, including Hemmet (The Home) in the original Swedish. Both of Charlotte and Fredrika lived in the early-and-mid-1800s, and as I’m reading both books simultaneously, I noticed a similarity!
Charlotte Bronte has a character called Dr. Graham who is lusting after a silk-and-lace flirt called Ginevra Fanshawe. He lusts and lusts and lusts (very respectfully, of course, entirely comprised of humble, noble, and gentle words) and misses entirely that Ginevra Fanshawe is just playing and messing with him. Until one day, he sees Ginevra sneer at his mom. And in that one instance, he loses all respect for her, and she can’t believe that he is no longer fawning all over her.
Fredrika Bremer has a character called Ernst Frank. He’s married, but his gamla flamma (“old flame”) has come back to town and he’s very excited about it. Not that he possibly imagines doing anything improper, he thinks they’re just going to rekindle a very sin-free friendship. Ernst’s wife Elise, on the other hand, is all worried and believes the old flame wants to steal her man, but doesn’t dare tell Ernst cause he won’t believe her. They host a party at their home, and the old flame is invited. She makes a sneering remark to Ernst about his wife; in that instance, Ernst realizes his old flame is indeed up to no good, loses all respect for her, and ices her out. She then leaves town.
You know why both scenarios stuck out to me? Because I feel like in modern books, it’s more likely that when the old flame, or when a Ginevra Fanshawe, makes fun of the wife or the mother, then the characters like Dr. Graham and Ernst fall for it. Because they are so enamored. And rather than defending their wife/mother, they start sneering at them too. In Villette and The Home, the “bad woman” is dispatched away pretty quickly, and the “good woman” is honored. In today’s books, I feel like it takes the entire story arch for that to happen.
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