honestly with this new chapter i believe she forced herself to hurt iora. i’m sure savarin was a sadist who would have done worst since is suspect since she had such a close relationship with the servants she knew iora would be taken care of when they put her to live separately.
fls mother was not only assaulted but forced to stay and marry her assaulter. she knew wellamy loved her sister but knew she had to play the role of a villain to be executed. i don’t think she wanted to live after living for years with the man who ripped apart her family and ruined her life. i don’t agree with what she did but she genuinely died the day that man saw her.
I said I have empathy for her because of her own assault she experienced, but her literal plan was to make Wellmy the heir and than kill Saravin (rightfully so), and Iroa. She talked about how she hated Iroa because she believed she was Saravin’s child. The same way she treated the servants nicely she didn’t need to abuse Iroa if anything she could have simply ignored her that would have been better. No matter how bad she feels now the crime has already been done. Now Iroa has to work through the trauma of being abused by both people she should have been able to call her parents. Honestly even her own daughter has to work through her own problems because of growing up in that type of environment and basically raising her self.
Honestly it was children taking care of children. Just because you put a jewel on her doesn’t mean you raised her.
again, i know that. i’m only saying that realistically speaking i also believe she deserved her punishment and shouldn’t have just been forgiven. the only thing i was trying to say is that it’s interesting that we expect a woman who literally lost apart of herself and has so much internalized guilt and hatred not only for herself and the “family” that caused her pain, to have saw the light and changed on her own. likely her “abuse” did not end the day of her assault and continued right until savarin was executed.
now being able to reflect in a convent she knows she’s wrong and does not expect forgiveness. she genuinely was living on auto mode for revenge which is why she could never be the adult who stepped up for wellamy or iora, especially when no one recognized her own truth till the butler spoke to her.
i agree with your take, she needed the punishment to properly understand and reflect on what she's done. i think a huge part of her character and trauma,, and especially that of ioras abuse,, would have been minimized if she was simply forgiven from the beginning - plus, the author is opening discussion on survivors guilt and trauma through that, and the fact that many victims go on to commit abuse themselves ... this punishment is her atonement, like you said, the things she did to iora were awful and unforgivable.
i hope this doesnt end with the happiest ending for her, but at least provide some relief to wellmy, iota, and clartes, they shouldnt have to live in denial or questioning their whole life and at least get some closure as to why she was acting that way. whether they choose to forgive her or not -- i really hope they dont try to excuse her actions either.
Well I apologize if it came off dismissive. I understand your point a little better now with the second comment. I wasn’t saying the mother doesn’t deserve grace.My initial comment was also in reply to the comments that felt that the mother deserved to be completely let off basically which I didn’t agree with. I do understand that she was an adult that was going through things that why I said I would have felt better about if she would have just completely ignored Iora instead.
I think she could live a decent life as a nun. There’s many people who choose to become a nun and live full lives.
Now, I don’t know about telling her daughter the truth. I just feel like she’s already been through so much. As for Clartes I’m 50/50 on one side it’s been 18 years for him since she left and I feel bad bringing that type of pain back up when looks to have moved on. But at the same time I want him yo know so he knows she didn’t just run away. In the end if he’s willing to listen she can tell her story to him and finally let go of some guilt that honestly she shouldn’t fully have to bear.
i agree with this take, i have empathy for her but i also believe in her facing the consequences of her actions. just like how there’s no way to justify rape, there’s no way to justify child abuse.
i do have a softer spot in my heart for her though, as what savarin did on a mere whim changed the course of her life forever. i do wish she’ll be happy in the end but whether she’s forgiven by clartes, iora, or wellmy, is all up to them.
I might be in the minority but I feel the mother deserved her punishment. She literally planned on killing a child that had nothing to do with what happened to her. Mind you who had also just lost their mother at that.
I can have empathy for the assault the mother experienced but the sheer amount of abuse Iroa went through was insane. The beatings, to being starved, and verbal abuse from her and her husband by far were ridiculous. If it wasn’t for the younger sister who knows how Iroa might have lived or even survived and that’s crazy to say.
Ultimately she was the adult in the situation but instead of acting like one she chose to take her frustrations and anger out on a child. If we’re being completely honest both children basically raised themselves.
Besides a covenant isn’t a death sentence. You can live a decent life as a nun. I know people feel like she should have a happy ending because they feel sorry for her but I’m sorry I can’t bring myself to feel completely sorry for her when she was complicit in her crimes. Also she talks about wanting to make her daughter happy while never actually putting in the effort to get to know her daughter.