So, last week I said that I understood Mrs.Hammond’s motivation for basically using her daughters, selling them away to husband’s to secure her own future wealth and prospects. After this most recent reading however, I don’t know if I totally understand her motivations to keep Emily away from Kelroy. Aside from the obvious (her shallow nature and obsession with money), she really only seems to be behaving cruel to Emily just for the sake of being cruel. It’s also still quite funny to watch her try to keep her winnings from the lottery secret, while Mrs. Cathcart is spreading it all over her group of friends. Whenever Mrs.Hammond started scolded her, I made this face while reading.
However, it was refreshing to see Kelroy care for Emily’s wellbeing, since I feel like many similar romantic leads only seem to fixate on their love interests physical attributes. Seeing him being worried about leaving Emily alone with her mother (and the slimeball Mr. Marney) was such a nice characteristic that I loved that Rush put in to round him out more and make his love for Emily seem more than surface deep.
Womens Lit. Blog 