Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Miss Betsy as a Monomaniac

Does Betsy care about Trueworth at the end of volume 2 or is just only worried about her reputation and what diversions she will have to find without him?

"if Mr. Trueworth had desisted his visits, it was only because he was convinced she desired not the continuance of them. [...] she spoke [these words] with no other intent than to clear herself of the imputation of having been forsaken; -- a thing she looked upon as the worst blemish that could be cast upon her reputation." (Haywood 323)

"they possess the sharp ability to split reality into differentiated fragments, each to be endowed with a specific function. Parceling, appropriating, and controlling are some of the tell-tale signs of their condition. [...] Under their alleged ordinariness is concealed a love-hate relationship with permanence, a less than noble need to dominate." (Van Zuylen 10)

Miss Betsy rarely takes the time to consider how her own actions affect the people around her. She deflects the blame for her split with Trueworth completely onto him. She continues to believe that he wasn't special to her and that he left because he recognized that. She couldn't possibly admit that it was her own faults (or apparent faults) that caused him to leave.

Like the Monomaniac that Van Zuylen talks about, Betsy compartmentalizes Mr. Thoughtless into a past diversion of little meaning to her. In order to avoid the shame of being "forsaken" she separates him from  any emotional attachment she may have had for him. She makes him out to have been a mere suitor in the long list of lovers she has entertained. To further mend the situation she begins to entertain Mr. Munden and then Sir Frederick.

Betsy desires control and others to dote on her in order to provide her self-worth. She separates her actions from the actions of others passing all the blame on to them so that she can continue in her state of "innocents". Through this process she maintains her "control" and "dominance" of her social life.


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