YA - Chapter Six - Jack and Sophie

[ylla]

The obviously composed and recopied letter now abandoned its original and improvised, grew far less coherent, far less legible. He had just made out the words 'you left her bed and came into mine' when he was called on deck.

Trouble at home and trouble at sea.

Comments

So. Much. ANGST! DDD:

[alltoseek]

I have been taking in adultery without a goddamn leg to stand on and there is the Devil to pay. It destroys a man's appetite, you know.

D:

...his mind ran on that letter and on the stranger who had written it.

DD:

...showed him Sophie's letter clear and the sense of desolation, fury and extreme distress returned with even greater force.

DDD:

...a first cold, cold shock was the sight of his daughter Charlotte... her face expressed no sort of pleasure...

DDDD:

'Is that indeed all you have to say to me, Sophie?'
'Yes it is,' she cried, 'and I never want to see you again.'
'Then be damned to you for a hard ill-natured and pitiless unforgiving shrew,' he said, anger rising at last, and he walked out, leaving her bowed over the miserable letters, utterly appalled by his words and by her own.'

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD:

Re: So. Much. ANGST! DDD:

[sidlj]

*IZ DEPRESSED*

This is all new to me. Everything from now on in the Read is new to me. I was as blindsided as Jack. *criez*

No Stephen :(

[alltoseek]

So odd to see the post heading "Jack and Sophie" instead of "Jack and Stephen".

Would Jack have been any better off if Stephen had been present? Would his friend be a source of comfort and solace?

Or would Jack rather have to hide his feelings from Stephen, as he did (or tried) in The Commodore, as Stephen does not like displays of emotion and there are rules about unburdening your bosom?

And oh yeah, more angst:

The grief and anxiety did not die away, but of necessity they receded [chapter opening, referring to Stephen's departure]

D:

...still low in his spirits: he hated to think of Stephen wandering about there on a hostile shore, among so many more or less trustworthy foreigners.

DD:

Yet this was a lonely breakfast... he missed his companion quite severely

DDDDDDDD:

Re: No Stephen :(

[sidlj]

If I find out that Stephen is having an absolutely spiffy good time, I'm going to be really pissed off.

Re: No Stephen :(

[heather_mist]

*coughs*

*looks off into the distance, whistling under breath and trying not to catch sidlj's eye...*

Nice here, isn't it? Lovely weather...

Re: No Stephen :(

[sidlj]

NO FORESHADOWING! *glares*

Jack's Regrets

[alltoseek]

He felt no particular guilt except for this foolishness [keeping Amanda's letters]: by his code a man who was directly challenged must in honesty engage - anything else would be intolerably insulting. Yet had he known of this miserable old woman's prying and her malice he would certainly have played the scrub in Canada.So Jack feels no guilt about his affair with Amanda. She had the nerve to make a pass at him, he had to take her up on it. His only guilt is in leaving the letters where they could be found by a malicious prying old woman

Re: Jack's Regrets

[derien]

But had he known Mrs. Williams was a malicious prying woman, he would have turned Amanda down ('played the scrub in Canada')? But he did know - he lived with her for years, knew her through-and-through; her entire behavior was clear to him from the moment he read she had been put up in his study.

That does certainly shake one out of the proper flow of the story, doesn't it? Of course he knew she was malicious and prying, what ridiculousness on his part to ever pretend he did not. It doesn't play, and feels too damned much like a poor literary device.

Re: Jack's Regrets

[sidlj]

Yet had he known of this miserable old woman's prying and her malice he would certainly have played the scrub in Canada.

I think what is meant here by "known" is "foreseen". If he had foreseen this particular future instance of the old bat's snooping and tattling, he would have behaved differently.

Re: Jack's Regrets

[esteven]

WEll, he had her in his house for ages. I cannot believe he did not realized that she was a malicious busybody and would stoop to anything, ANYTHING to damage him in Sophie's eyes, which it means Mrs Williams would pry and prod. I think it was just very, very daft of Jack not to destroy those letters. He should have fed them to the flames since first they arrived. (and he should rather feel guilty for being such a scrub to Sophie)

Jack without Stephen

[esteven]

The grief and anxiety did not die away, but of necessity they receded
The older Jack gets, the less he seems able to get a hold on his worry for Stephen. He will only rest easy again when he has the doctor in his sight again. I feel that it has got ever worse through the books with every time, Stephen is set on shore on spyhatty business.

Sorry, to have ursurped this post about Jack and Sophie

Re: Jack without Stephen

[alltoseek]

Let's see, was the last time in Peru? And Jack had to go haring off after him, futilely? And Stephen was warned, but only just in time, and had to make a month's detour?

Yeah, I can see why Jack's worry might only increase with time! Don't let him go, Jack! Give him the ol' wobbly lip!

Re: Jack without Stephen

[esteven]

And Jack had to go haring off after him, futilely?
Yes, and nearly die himself, and bring death for the men that were with him.

It seems as if Jack is well on the way to getting paranoid whenever Stephen has to do business.