This blog post is in Catharine Pleyel’s point of view, and whether she really is the ‘perfect’ wife and woman set out by the events from Clara’s point of view. I think, 14 chapters into the novel, Catharine is pushed aside and considered to be the perfect example of lovely, kind and submissive as women were back in the 1700-1800’s as opposed to her own person.
Maybe more on her character will be revealed as the book goes on.
One of the many letters she may have written for her own peace of mind
*Disclaimer; an added plot that’s not in the novel.
I am always set aside because I am meek. They believe I don’t have the capacity to take in the problems that are happening right now. I am made up of their perceptions and I hate it. Clara puts me on the pedestal for the face of a perfect wife. I am far from perfect; the death, the abortion, and the betrayal.
I remember when Henry’s lover died. I was devastated that Henry did not tell me and I had to find out through sneaking around. I followed them for a bit on their walk – hiding in and around bushes as one does – and just felt upset that my own brother and husband can not tell me the truth.
Is it because I am a woman? But why does Clara not get the same treatment? Why am I constantly pushed aside?
I get I may have acted a bit too harshly when Eugenie died only 14 weeks in my womb. I lost my baby, is there any other way to act? I did not tell Theodore, Clara or Henry. I did not believe they could handle it. Everything they told me then was heightened in my emotions, but an explanation was not something I could give to them. They pushed me aside even further in the events that took place in their lives because I could not “handle” it.
Henry may have had more reason to keep things from me, we have not had the best sibling relationship, but it should not take away from the things he keeps from me. Before Clara, before Theodore, I had no one. I was alone with Sallie. Sallie was my friend when I was young. She gave me advice, she showed me right from wrong, and her voice stayed passed the days I lost her, or rather she disappeared leaving me alone to fend for myself. Her voice did echo, in and out through the years, but for the most part she was gone.
I got lucky when I found the Wieland siblings, they accepted me, considered me more normal than normal, let me become one of them in matrimony and in blood.
Catharine’s fragile. She’ll get upset. She’s delicate. She’s ill. They always said this.
They don’t realize I am actually hurt, I feel undermined, I feel like my purpose as a woman, a wife and a friend is overlooked due to preconceived notions.
But I do not know what else is for me to do.
I guess that is it for me now, the whispers may not have stopped just yet, but I will resign for now.
Sallie Pleyel
I like how your “Catherine” echoes similar motifs from the novel – hiding, misdirection, suggestive voices. (The “echoing” bit is great — we use this verb figuratively all the time to describe memory … but in Wieland the “echoing” is embodied, voices actually speaking).
I’d love to hear your thoughts after this next reading assignment — what can we say about Catherine’s “purpose” now? How does the idealized view of her play into the plot and pathos of these chapters?
And I don’t know about others, but I definitely see a bit of Brown’s Clara in your Catherine’s voice — the resentment at being underestimated and excluded at times.
Catherine’s thoughts truly resonate with the voices that “mind hunt” Clara, Pleyel, and Wieland. It’s truly a perspective of Catherine that we don’t necessarily see in the novel. it also contains that self-destruction aspect of Clara that her inner thoughts have upon here.
as a reader, it never came to my mind to think about Catherine’s internal struggles regarding the people around her. This piece of writing gave me a new view of Catherine that will be considered as I’m reading the rest of the chapters.
I love how Cathrine is given a voice here, especially since she really is cast away or maybe just ignored throughout the novel.
It is really interesting how you were able to really put into perspective what Cathrine may actually be feeling within the novel itself. I was actually interested in the gender roles within the text and you were able to really put focus on those differences.
Catherine is never given the opportunity to voice herself, and it might because Clara did not see her significance within the text.
While reading for Monday I was actually interested in Hegemonic masculinity and how although it isn’t heavily portrayed you can still see traces of it within the novel. An example of this is when Pleyel was ‘slut-shaming’ Clara in a sense. Which was completely uncalled for. What I also found interesting is how even though Clara is the narrator of this text she is still overshadowed by the men: i.e their conversations, their lives, the things that revolved mostly around them. Which is very similar to Cathrine, even though we don’t get to see much of her side of the story.
Loved reading from Catherine’s point of view! What strike me was the fact that ‘Sallie’ is actually a doll but Catherine speaks about her as if she is real. Considering how we read about ventriloquism and how it is a part of the plot, the idea of a doll being best friends with Catherine is uncanny and could be read as a foreshadowing device for her unfortunate death caused by someone closest to her heart.
Struck*