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8:04 pm
January 3, 2012
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As I have already stated in the “What are we all reading” Page. I have recently re-read Emily Purdy’s book called Mary and Elizabeth. At the back of the book Emily has posted some questions.
I wonder what all of you would make of them..
1. How different were Mary and Elizabeth’s childhoods? How were they alike? How did their relationships with their parents, the loss of their mothers, the alternative periods of being in and out of their father’s favour and their father’s multiple marriages affect and influence the woman they grew up to be?
2. What did Elizabeth learn from her dalliance with Thomas Seymour? Did it strengthen or weaken her? Did it make her wiser or leave her emotionally damaged? What do you think of Tom Seymour and his method of wooing woman? Would you have fallen for him?
3. If Edward had survived how would Tudor England have been different? What would have happened to Mary and Elizabeth? Would they still be remembered today, or would they be virtually forgotten, their names only known to serious historians of the period? And would Edward have spent his entire life imitating his father, or would he have eventually discovered himself and become his own person?
4. Why did virginity play a big part in Elizabeth’s life? What did it mean to her? Why does she emphasize it by adopting white dresses and Pearls? Is it symbolic, Psychological, or propaganda, or are the boundries blurred by all three?
5. What part does Catholicism play in Mary’s life? Why does she cling to her faith as a drowning person would a life preserver? Why does she try to force her religion on her subjects even when they resist? She believes herself to be God’s instrument and that her life has been preserved to do His work; is this a sign of delusional or unstable mind, or is she a sincerely devout person who means well but repeatedly makes bad decisions?
6. How does Mary and Elizabeth’s relationship change over the years? How are they alike and how are they different? What are the sources of friction between them? Was there any way they could have got along and been loving sisters and friends, or were they doomed from the start to be rivals and adversaries?
7. How did Mary get along with her ardently protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey? Why does Mary condemn her to death? Do you think she was right to execute Jane?
8. What were Mary and Elizabeth beliefs and experiences with love, sex, marriage and Childbirth? Are the decisions they make about these things the right ones? Why do they make the choices they do?
9. Mary see Philip as a dream come true But is he? What was Philip’s true character? Is the man himself as pretty as his picture? Despite her subjects “heated” protests, Mary marries him anyway, was this a good decision personally or politically? Is marriage what Mary expected it to be? How does it affect her emotionally and mentally?
10. Why does Elizabeth carry on her flirtation with Philip, when she knows this will hurt and provoke her sister? Is there a genuinely amorous element to it, or purely a calculated act of self-preservation?
11. Mary at the end of her reign has either lost or failed at everything that matters to her and dies a lonely broken woman. Do you pity her or do you believe she got what she deserved? What, if anything could she have done differently to avert this tragedy?
12. At the last meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, Mary realizes that Elizabeth is the phoenix that will rise from the ashes of her disastrous reign. What qualities do you think made Elizabeth England’s greatest Monarch? Why did she succeed and Mary fail?.
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
1:07 am
October 28, 2011
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You know I think Purdy is actually a bit bizarre. She puts forth a lot of really strange imagery and theories in her books and historically inaccurate is not the word for them. But anyway…I should probably note I have not done a great deal of reading on Mary and any reading I have done on Elizabeth was about six or seven years ago so I’m a bit fuzzy on a lot of it…
2. What did Elizabeth learn from her dalliance with Thomas Seymour? Did it strengthen or weaken her? Did it make her wiser or leave her emotionally damaged? What do you think of Tom Seymour and his method of wooing woman? Would you have fallen for him?
Firstly “What do you think of Tom Seymour and his method of wooing woman? Would you have fallen for him?” We don’t know anything about his method of wooing women. There is obviously no evidence he sang songs and brought them honey cakes (one of the really weird aspects of this book) If we are going on the Purdy’s fictional Seymour then I doubt any woman would find him attractive, let alone Kate Parr, as he seems like a giant oaf. If we’re going on the historical Tom Seymour then we do know he was very handsome. One historian (was it Starkey?) said something about his dashing beard which cracks me up. In the end he came from a good family, was clever, charming, good looking and had prospects. As a Tudor woman I am sure I would have found him more than pleasing. If it was Purdy’s Seymour I would have beaten him with a large broom.
I wouldn’t use “dalliance” as a word for Liz’s relationship with Tom Seymour. We’re not sure what happened. For me it was sexual abuse on his part, and an emotional attachment on hers. I firmly believe they never went as far as having intercourse.
I could spin psychological and point out something about father figures but I think Elizabeth had a reasonably good relationship with Henry towards the end. There is an element of her childhood though where I think she worked very hard to please Henry and show him she was accomplished. But then relationships between parents and children in Tudor times were not exactly emotionally rich. I think she really loved her stepmother and was devastated when Kate sent her off to separate her from Seymour. I wouldn’t say Seymour’s treatment of her emotionally damaged her but it would have made her wary of men.
