We all know that Cynthia wants to keep her engagement to Roger a secret? Do you think she ever gives a good reason for it? What does she tell Roger? Why does she react as she does when Mr. Gibson says he will tell the squire? Are you convinced by her answer? Why will it cause her "a great deal of distress if it gets known"(407)?
So many questions . . . but it is time to speculate again!
I have the same apology for the late post on this blog as the last. Do you know there are places in this country with no cell service??????
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14 comments:
Cynthia never gives a good enough excuse for not wanting everyone to know about the engagement. She just states that he is "very plain and awkward" and she "likes pretty people and pretty things"(377).
But she plays along with the engagement by allowing Roger to kiss her before he leaves for 2 years, giving him the impression that she will act engaged and wait for him. I'm sure that if someone else comes along in that time frame that she wants, she'll go for it. There's something sneaky about Cynthia that we will find out about as we read the book further.
I'm not sure why she reacted the way she did to Mr. Gibson and the need for secrecy unless it has to do with Mr. Hamley and whatever there is between them. Only more reading will allow the truth to come out.
I'm sorry, Mr' Preston and Cynthia and what the connection is.
I do not think that Cynthia ever gives a good reason for keeping her engagement a secret. She simply says that she does not want anyone to know about it. She asks Roger to keep it a secret and agrees that she will not keep herself tied down to him for the two years he will be gone. She claims that she would have been more than happy to totally agree to the engagement but Roger had requested her to leave herself as free as she wished. She does not want Mr. Gibson to tell the squire because this would ruin the secret. I think that she is scared that if the squire finds out, the entire town will find out, including certain people that she does not want them to know about her engagement. Maybe she is scared that it will ruin her chances of finding a better match for herself.
Cynthia does a great job of playing two totally different characters: her familiar present and her secretive past. I do feel that Cynthia enjoys Roger's company and rather welcomes his love for her, but whatever the hell happened in her past--at school, with her mother, or Preston--is keeping her from making a move. She doesn't give good reasons to Roger or Molly because she's just beating around the bush. There certainly is something fishy about the situation, and I think Molly, if no one else, is catching on.
The only thing I can think of as to why Cynthia reacts the way she does when Gibson mentions telling the squire is that she wants to protect the family. She always referred to herself as not being 'good’, and this would be one less burden that the family would have to go through.
The distress quite simply comes from Preston's hold over her. If he gets word of what's going on in Cynthia's love life, we're bound to get more drama.
Cynthai never gives a good reason for wanting to hide her engagement to Roger but I think it has something to do with the estranged relationship she had with Mr. Preston in Ashcomb and she knows better than anyone that if he found out she was going to marry someone else, he would do something to destroy the relationship since he wants to be with her and he would also reveal the secret that he has been hanging over her head all this time and Cynthia won't be the pretty little woman everyone thinks she is. She already has a complex about having people like her just like her mother for she has already stated that many times in this novel. If people found out what she really was, she would be ruined.
Cynthia really never gives a good reason for wanting to keep her engagement a secret. But since she considers herself "no good," I believe she is protecting certain people. Cynthia has been a busy little girl and has gotten herself into some scandalous adult mess! which we will all find out what this mess is soon enough. hehehe She more than likely doesn't want to upset the man who has dirt on her, and the man she claims to love. One might cash the other one out with the secretive information that is being kept from everyone, including us.
In response to Cicely...
I agree with your anaylsis of what is possibly the reason why Miss Cynthia won't come clean about her past. You and I, well, everyone really, thought along the same lines but you and I agree that she probably wants to protect
herself from Preston getting even in some way. These are my kinda of people--scandalous, sneaky, lowdown, and just shameless! Gotta love 'em.
I don't really like Cynthia much. She doesn't seem to take other people's feelings to consideration very often.She herself says that she's not a good person, yet what does she do to change that? I think she rather likes being the shallow, uncaring person she seems to be. She doesn't really explain why she wants to keep the engagement secret.Her life is wrapped up in mystery and weak lies, and I think her selfish nature is only hurting the situation rather than helping it. She has a fit when the secret is no longer as secret as she hoped it would be. The distress it causes her may be because she is a flirt and she doesn't want any other potential suitors to know that she is attached. I think she is stringing Roger along, perhaps as backup if she cannot find anyone else who may catch her eye. Eh, at least that's my view of it at the moment.
In response to everyone,
I notice we all agree on Cynthia's failure to give a good reason for her wanted secrecy. I think it's a bit comical reading the first line of your responses and seeing the exact same thing in all of them...
In response to shelley,
I think that you are right that if Cynthia finds someone else in the two years that Roger is gone then she will jump at the chance to marry him. Obviously, she really doesn't love Roger and there is definitely something sneaky about her.
Claudia, you're right in that we are evidently dissatisfied with Cynthia's hesitations; however, I believe I'm the only that that still believes in her--that might be the male stand point of view here since I am the only male that responded. Although I don't agree with the way she directs everything inward, like an introvert, I still think that she is indeed attempting to make the best out of the situations. Yes, she admits to not being a good person, but I don't think she sulks in her helplessness; it's just an inevitable fact that she has to live with.
Heck no! She doesn’t give any reason at all. She just says that she “much rather have it kept a secret”. She tells Roger that he must keep it a secret—rather she makes him promise to keep it a secret. Oddly enough, the two agree that Cynthia will not “bound” herself to Roger. Hmm, why get engaged and not hold each other to the engagement? I wonder what Cynthia has up her sleeve.
I am predicting that Cynthia’s reaction to Mr. Gibson telling squire stems from the possibility of her disappointing both families when she gets engaged to someone else (or reveals her engagement to Mr. Preston). The two must either be engaged or previously engaged. I am not convinced by Cynthia’s seemingly sincere acceptance. I believe she never had any intention on marrying Roger, but that she feels compelled to say yes not to hurt his feelings. It will cause her “a great deal of distress” because (just like Mr. Gibson’s reaction to Cynthia’s flirtation with Mr. Coxe) if the town knows about her engagement with Roger, it will hurt her image/status when she reveals the skeletons in her closet.
Hey Martin,
Like how you suggest she's playing two characters, which in all actuality, she is. She's sweet, innocent Cynthia who wants the world to love her and then, she's narcissistic Cynthia who turns into the town's slut after everyone's man. She's such slut material (just like her mom).
Well we all agree on most of the issues. Cynthia is easy to figure out along with her mother. The apple didn't fall far from the tree...
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