Hi, ladies!!
It is Wednesday, November 19, 2008, today, and bitterly cold wind has blown as if winter has come. How are you??
Summary from the Victorian study:
W. J. Fox---the Unitarian minister suggested liberalization of the divorce laws, which eventually led to his exclusion from the Church.
William Bridges Adams---successful manufacturer declared that all ranks of society women were slaves who could only be freed from their slavery by making marriage a civil contract, dissoluble like any other contract.
Sarah Flower Adams---She compared performing fleas in the little boxes to human beings in the torture boxes, complaining that the worst box of all was one of marriage.
…There were a lot of fighting women in the 19C England, who must have had unimaginable struggles against public. It’s fantastic to know them, even though scratching the surface.
Well, take care not to catch cold, see you!
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Hi, ladies!!!
It’s been a cold windy day, hasn’t it? How are you doing?
I really appreciate your efforts, Cherry, to keep updating our blog, though you are pretty busy reading the book for our next Victorian Studies tutorial held on December 7th.
On Monday night, I went to the French classical music concert given by French Music Research Association, as I told you I was going to. All the pieces of music played at the concert were created by a particular French composer who was active in the 19th century French music world. I still remember his name but unfortunately I don’t know how to spell his name in a proper way.
The association holds a concert twice a year, according to the booklet explaining the tunes played on the night and some features for the next concert. I also got a huge amount of music concert information, which I had scarcely known until that night. I have only 24 hours and my personal allowance budge is, honestly speaking, so limited that I probably could not attend as many concerts as I want. Concert tickets are so expensive and unaffordable. Music is, perhaps, luxury for me.
On Saturday, I am going to my brother’s house in Osaka to attend a 7th year Buddhist memorial ceremony held for my dead mother and we are going to visit our family grave located not far from his house. My mother used to visit, as often as possible, the grave where her husband’s ashes were buried. It seems that she missed him so much after he died although she used to tell me that she wanted to become a widow. I was too young to understand the word “widow”, and so I asked her what the word meant. Eventually she discontinued making that statement, probably because she realized what she was saying and recognized that her remark was not educationally recommended to a young child like me. Probably she went through a lot of hidden hardship as a wife, which is quite understandable to me now.
Japanese marriages are not so different from several decades ago, and Victorian marriages are not so different from our contemporary Japanese ones.
Mr. Blower said when we met and talked the other day that he, as a child, promised himself not to get married, because he was so afraid of divorce. Now he is a married man and so far so good, he added, though.
Well, it’s almost time to cook supper, my lovely friends. Have a peaceful evening. Night, night…
Hello, ladies!!
Larry Smith said when we listened to him last Saturday at TCLC language Academy that his wife was a powerful and financially independent career woman. He suggested that his marriage was continuing because she did not divorce him. Larry seemed to me that he was afraid of being divorced, underlining it is time for men to become a good husband and wise father. If a man wants to maintain happy, cordial, and affectionate relations with his wife, it is a prerequisite for men to function as a good husband and wise father.
One of the reasons of the highest divorce rate in America has contributed to the growing number of independent women who do not need to depend on their husbands financially and economically.
I really agree with Plum's oppinion that "Victorian marriages are not so different from our contemporary Japanese ones".
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello. How are you?
On Tuesday, Ms. Nakamura living in Hokkaido called me. I met her at the meeting held in Hida this May. Studying about Miss Lucy Payne for some years, she wrote for the latest issue of Joseishi Kenkyu Hokkaido (The study of women’s history). She gave me a copy immediately after its publication. I wrote a thank you note, adding my impression and thoughts about her article. Over the phone, she said, “I was wondering if you had been in Sapporo.” She was joking but the way she said it didn’t sound so.
She informed me of the monthly meeting held by Sapporo Joseishi Kenkyukai (Sapporo Women’s History Research Group) which published the journal she sent me. They meet on the second Saturday. Knowing that we’re writing English essays, she said that all the members of NWSRG are welcome to attend the meeting when we come to Sapporo so that we can have a joint meeting.
* -------------------------------------------- *
Mary Shelley’s last novel is Falkner whose plot contains some coincidences. The title character is saved by an orphan girl, Elizabeth, when he almost kills himself. He adopts her. Sadly, they later find he caused the death of her foster mother.
Elizabeth’s foster mother, Alithea was loved by Falkner, before she married to Sir Boyville Neville and had a son named Gerald. Trying to have her return to him, Faulkner abducted her, “only to have her escape, then drown.” (p. 162)
Elizabeth gets married to Gerald Neville without knowing the fact.
The conflict between husband and father resembles what Mary Shelley suffered in reality. She was distanced by William Godwin as long as Percy lived. Yet, the story rather contrasts Falkner’s selfishness and the women’s self-denying attitudes.
Poovey argues that “indirectly, Elizabeth is carrying out an office that is far more aggressive and passionate but is, at the same time, permitted, even sanctioned, by feminine propriety.” (p. 163)
Falkner was punished by the mere existence of Elizabeth. “As Proper Ladies, and acting in the name of duty, the very women who had initially been instructed to regulate their own passions eventually became the wardens of men’s desires, authorized to punish the men society set over them.” (p. 170)
Hi, ladies!!!
It’s been so cold today, hasn’t it? I thought I was going to be frozen to death. I am happy that I am still alive.
I got a phone call, around 3 p. m. from my son, who is engaged in the management of several facilities for the elderly such as a nursing home and a day-care center. He is, sort of, married into his wife’s family, and with the support of his wife’s father he started to establish his own business. Having returned to Japan after ten years of study in New Zealand and Australia, he commenced to work at my husband’s company, but a couple of years later he moved to where he lives now. Once in a week or two, he calls me on mobile and keeps talking about how he is doing at work, which is, sorry to say, not so interesting to me. Today, he asked me to go to his place for New Year, but I would rather stay at home in Nagoya, just doing nothing but sitting around. Of course, I did not say that, because he sounded like begging me. Poor my son…he is always surrounded by his wife’s family members, who are, without doubt, very nice, generous and, most importantly, extremely kind to my son.
By the way, do you remember the Taiwanese teacher at the university, whom you have met once at Aichi Will? A couple of months ago, I came across her on campus and found her terribly slim. At first I could not recognize that was her. She said that she now wore size 17. 17??? She said that she used to wear size 25 or 26. I did not notice the existence of such sizes, but eventually, as she is working hard, she will wear size 11 or 9. When I saw her yesterday, she was wearing obviously too big a jacket, which she said she was wearing around the time she got married. She could not afford to get a new jacket with her salary from the university, she added. She had totally changed her lifestyle to lose weight, she made a confession. Good for her!!! Obesity is something we have to overcome. But she said that she started to worry about wrinkles, which she did not notice before losing weight. How cruel it is to lose weight!!! She is going to see a skin specialist soon, she remarked lastly.
Well, it is time to go to bed now, my lovely friends. Good night to you all.
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