Hi Anna,
Thanks for your thoughts. However, I would strongly disagree with the later
part of this point:
�a) she was silent and hostile to the minister after the wedding night and
no doubt drove him over the edge�
She may have been silent and even a little hostile to the minister. It�s
been a while since I read the novel so I can�t remember exactly what her
attitude was. But if she was it was out of fear. Like Oates has said in
interviews, at that time most girls who weren�t yet married had little or no
knowledge about sex. even if they were as relatively old as Ariah was when
she became a bride. It�s probable that Ariah had no idea what to expect or
what was expected of her on her wedding night. Naturally, especially since
the minister wouldn�t openly talk to her about it, she would be afraid and
possibly defensive. But the real reason why Ariah definitely didn�t �drive
him over the edge� was because the minister was a homosexual who couldn�t
admit it to himself. And, even if he could have, he would have received very
little sympathy from society at that time. He chose to go over the edge. I
don�t think Ariah wanted or intended for the minister to commit suicide.
It's true she felt a horrible guilt because she believed she drove him over
the edge, but it wasn�t her fault at all. I think partly what Oates was
doing in this opening section was showing us the horrible burden that is
placed on women in Ariah�s position. They are made to feel blame and guilt
for things in a completely unjustified and harsh way. I think when thinking
about all of Ariah�s other �crimes� as you call them it�s important to keep
this in mind as a possible cause for her acting and reacting to certain
situations in the way she did. She certainly made a lot of bad decisions,
but I don�t think she is worthy of such strong condemnation.
Eric
>From: LSULLA@aol.com
>Reply-To: jco@usfca.edu
>To: jco@usfca.edu
>Subject: Re: JCO: The Falls
>Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 22:19:46 EST
>
>Hi Cyrano,
>
>Let me think about this. By no means is Ariah a "stock" villian.
>However,
>her self-centered behavior created a series of malevolent consequences.
>This
>is a short list of her psychological crimes:
>
>
>a) she was silent and hostile to the minister after the wedding night and
>no doubt drove him over the edge
>
>b) she cut off the minister's parents and denied them any knowledge of
>their son's last hours.
>
>c) she cut off her parents and deprived her children of a relationship
>with
>their grandparents
>
>d) she isolated herself from Dirk's law practice and provided absolutely
>no solace to him
>when he took on a very important and difficult case. Dirk went through the
>anguish of losing his friends and his social position alone. She did
>nothing
>to comfort him.
>
>e) she stunted the development of her children.
>
>f) she disinherited her children from their father's estate and forced
>them
>to live in penury.
>
>g) she crushed her young daughter and drove her to psychosis
>
>h) she denied her children knowledge of their father's background and of
>his heroism
>
>The crazy family of grifters in "My Heart Laid Bare" caused less damage
>than
>Ariah. The actress sister in "A Bloodsmoor Romance" who almost killed
>Mark
>Twain during lovemaking caused less harm than Ariah.
>
>Alma in "The Tatooed Girl" was vulnerable and damaged. She perforned
>nasty
>and anti-semitic acts to ingratiate herself with her asshole "boyfriend".
>She was disadvantaged and unloved but she was not 1% as threathening as
>Ariah. Anyway, Alma redeemed herself in the end.
>
>There was no redemption for Ariah.
>
>Anna
>
>
>
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