Friday, December 14, 2007

Miss Fix-it

I haven't finished the book yet, but I just finished a few chapters that covered Flora's intentions to "fix" Elfine.
What problem does Flora think Elfine has?
The bottom of page 29 covers this well: "Elfine must be transformed indeed; her artiness must be rooted out. Her mind must match the properly groomed head in which it was housed. Her movements must be made less frequent, and her conversations less artless. She must write no more poetry nor go for anymore long walks unless accompanied by the proper sort of dog to take on long walks. She must learn to be serious about horses. She must learn to laugh when a book or a string quartet was mentioned, and then confess that she was not inhibited." Quite a detailed list.
And then humorously she adds,"And there were only twenty-seven days in which to teach her all these things!"
How does Flora fix Elfine's problem?
Aside from above list, Flora tries to dress her better. I love this line: "Do, for heaven's sake, avoid orange linen jumpers and hand-wrought jewelry. Oh, and shawls in the evening."
Her main goal is to get her engaged to Richard Hawk-Monitor, by transforming Elfine before the dance at Godmere. She succeeds--"She felt as though she had shaken her fist in the face of Aunt Ada Doom."
Does Flora herself have a problem?
I probably have to think about that more, or wait until I'm done with the book. So far I would say that she is bossy and controlling, and I think maybe she is rather "inhibited", even though she claims she is not. She does like everything "tidy", but life really isn't tidy, is it?

No comments: