Naïve women nature and men egotism
Women in this text inca it dreams which may never come true and, when they do not, suffer because of that. This happened to Mary when she was building plans of their future life with Vincent. He promised that when he comes back from the trip, they will be happy together. But as it turned out, he hasn’t meant any of that. Women think that there are two hearts who love each other there will be a marriage soon, but for as for the men they are more egotistic than the women. If there is a goal they want to achieve they will do everything for it. And Vincent did: he left the woman he loved in order to get what he wanted, and his choice made unhappy both him and Marry. Pretty ironic that pursueing one’s goals can make someone so misery and unhappy.
The less society knows about you the better reputation you have
Paradoxically, if you want to have a perfect reputation you should hide your real feelings and thoughts. Mary knows this fact like no other. She is regarded as clever and intelligent person whose father was the great scientist, she is calm and modest. But no one knows her real feelings, her attitude to life, her real emotions. When Mary comes to the theatre with her friend Alison, she sees there Mr. Hemming with his future wife. She feels terrible; it is unbearable to see them together, because she loves him and it is not her who has to sit there by his side. She tried not to look at them and fixed her eyes upon the stage: “The sentimental lovers now swear eternal fidelity… Were they the real puppets, Mary wondered, or she, and Vincent, and Miss Higgis, and Blaythewaites each pulled this way and by their passions, their ambitions, their desires?” but Mary can’t tell anyone about her feelings, so she just hides it. People talked to her but she didn’t listen to them, she wanted to leave but she couldn’t “leave the theatre without making a scene, having explanations.” So she hadn’t any choice but to play her role, because it is what society waits from the woman, and Mary played her role well.
What ought young ladies to do?
Dr. Danby is examining Mary. He looks grave, because the patient looks unhealthy. He says that she should work less and go out of the city for a while. But Mary refuses because she has a lot of work and she is just 28 and her health is all right. The doctor didn’t believe it, because Mary looks much older and then he says: “I should like to have all you young ladies living a healthy out-of-door life, happily married, and with no mental worries. There is something wrong there. It is unnatural. Not fit, not fit for girls.” So he considers that all young women ought to be married, have children and have no worries, otherwise there is something wrong with them. Dr. Danby represents the stereotype of British society that doesn’t accept any other way of life and way of thinking: people are expected to act in a particular way, because otherwise no one understands them.
The great power of women and how to use it
There is no doubt that women have a great influence in the world. But there is a problem: women can’t control that power and even more they aren't always accustomed to using it. Alison says Mary: “If only women used their power in the right way! If we were only united we could lead the world.” This great power will work only if women help each other to struggle against the stereotypes and stupid laws of society. But ironic is that women are impulsive and changeable and it is their nature, so they just act separately because the woman will never share the desirable victory with another woman.
The sport of destiny
Love was offered twice to Mary: the affection of Perry Jackson, her friend from the London School of Art even though she didn’t love him, and the selfish passion of Vincent Hemming, a man who was another woman’s husband. And in the end she is left alone. Was something wrong with her? Yes, she was a modern woman, a woman with principles, a woman who always struggles with destiny, and even if the second one “always wins the game”, she never gave up fighting the dreary battle of life without anyone’s help, but “The women live long, yes – we live long” this thought came into her mind when she was standing and looking at the beauty of Nature; Nature is also a woman, and it has its own struggle with the destiny.
