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Part I: The Proposal, 7 July 1950

#99: Sept. - Oct. 2011 (Fiction)
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realiz

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Re: Part I: The Proposal, 7 July 1950

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No, I thought her accepting the engagement ring from Gilbert was part of her still under her parents rules and the rules of society. Her empowerment came first from finding the body, which gave her an escape from the marriage and from the honeymoon night, and then even more so when she was introduced by Dirk to the magic of love and sexual enjoyment. She, at this point, felt free to defy her parents and the world and follow her heart. Underneath she did not feel like she deserved this and felt that one day she would pay for her sins.

Maybe you are right...her damnation in a sense freed her of following convention, at least in her mind. I don't know if she is capable of devouring anyone.
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giselle

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Re: Part I: The Proposal, 7 July 1950

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lindad_amato wrote:That's and interesting comment, "she feels empowered despite being damned". Is her damnation what empowers her? She certainly wasn't empowered before she was willing to give up her soul for an engagement ring. Has she become a succubus who will devour Dirk?
Ariah seems like an unlikely succubus, on the surface, but I'm convinced that there is more to Ariah than meets the eye. She clearly has seductive power.

Her attitude toward marriage is baffling. She treats it as a prize, as if she has crossed the finish line first, when really she has just crossed the starting line and now has to deal with the day to day reality and take the good with the bad. Marriage has significance to Ariah, as a ceremonial rite connected to the soul in the sight of God, although she doesn't seem religious in a conventional sense. In this way, marriage is more of a 'finish line'.
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Re: Part I: The Proposal, 7 July 1950

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Dirk's mother was some piece of work. The way she hid herself from the world, but wanted Dirk to be there for her. She wouldn't even reveal herself to her son. They had a slightly inappropriate relationship that I think his mother wanted to sustain. He pulled away from her, but was still in her clutches when he went to visit her. I loved it when he snatched her veil away. He was sick of her crap and ready to show her.

She refused to acknowledge that he had feelings for a girl from Troy. She kept mentioning that they didn't know anyone from Troy. I wonder how Mom will feel when Dirk marries Ariah.

Dirk had fallen hard to take the risk of seeing Ariah without any encouragement from her. In fact she had barely noticed him. What was it about her that drew him so?

I think Dirk was a little out of his mind. The way he gathered the flowers was out of control. He was bleeding and hardly even knew it. He was stepping near the edge with no safety net. Then when he saw her he was so unsure of himself.

She had to be shocked to see him. She seemed to take it into stride when he professed his love for her and asked her to marry him. She drank her champagne and took it all in. She agreed so fast to marry him, to take him, that it was hard to believe this was the same Ariah who had married Gilbert. Doing the right thing. Marrying the right person whether she loved him or not. She sees marriage as a salvation and is too eager to enter into marriage with Dirk.
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Re: Part I: The Proposal, 7 July 1950

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Good comment and you're right, Claudine Burnaby is a real witch. I think pulling off her veil was a metaphor for revealing the person inside and, strangely, the one who really cannot live with this 'inside'person is Claudine. But Dirk has a problem - he loves his mother and this makes him vulnerable .. and he has another problem .. he loves Ariah, which is great at first and then not so great and this makes him vulnerable again. And as the story proceeds there is another woman as well ... Dirk's in big trouble.

'Witches' got me thinking about gothic fiction and realizing that maybe this novel could be classified as gothic, like some of Oates other work. The dangers of love, the setting, the symbolism of the falls as it eats up these souls (beginning with Dirk's great grandfather who walked the proverbial tightrope .. what's that about?) possibly a curse? All this is feeling gothic.
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Re: Part I: The Proposal, 7 July 1950

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So is Dirk walking a symbolic tightrope? His life doesn't seem as physically threatening as his great grandfather's, but is it?
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