Summary:
During this section of the book, Cathy informs the reader a bit about her childhood. She explains how her mother wasn't around much and she describes her father as hopeless in terms of financial income as well. So when he father died, she was sold. Back at this time when a girl didn't have any parents, she was sold. A man is paid to have a girl given to him along with her inheritance and as she gets older, he makes an effort to find someone that would place the best bet to marry her. This was how she became introduced to woman that had taken care of her as a child, Mary Rose. Princess Elizabeth has now moved in with Thomas and Kate. Cathy wasn't too sure about how that would work out seeing how she had suspicions about whether Thomas may have had feelings for her but she didn't want to mention this to Kate. Kate thought of Elizabeth as her daughter almost and that she was such a smart and mature girl for her age. She felt bad that such a sweet girl had to live around an evil half sister, Mary who was the eldest daughter of Henry VIII. Kate became pregnant and Cathy didn't feel like Elizabeth should have known about it although Thomas decided that he would go ahead and do it anyways. He explained that she was now a part of the family and there wasn't anything wrong with it and he felt the urge to share the news with someone. It was making Cathy upset that everyone was becoming a "family" because it used to be just her and Kate. It then became her, Kate, and Thomas then her, Kate, and the baby and now she was surrounded by everyone else and didn't fancy the idea. She explained to him that she wasn't a part of the family. She felt like Thomas would flirt with Elizabeth and she would do the same as well. She would smile at him a lot and play around with him in a way that they shouldn't. They didn't want to let off any signals but the only one that noticed was Cathy and she was surprised that everyone around was letting it happen. One night, Kate began bleeding and it worried everyone whether she may be keeping the baby or not because it's happened to other before and everything turned out okay. Thomas felt that he wasn't ready to be married because he was trying too hard and he didn't feel that it was enough. Cathy tried her best to encourage him that he was doing fine or that it could be that he was doing too much. This made her think about her husband, Charles that died a few years back and she began comparing him to Thomas where he was experienced with marriage.
Quote:
"Blood. No mistaking blood, it's not like pain, it's so clear a signifier and yet there's no telling what it signifies. Both triumphant and sly, is blood." (Dunn, 113)
Reflection:
The quote above has me confused which would be my reasoning for choosing it. What does the author means by it's no mistaking blood? On the other hand, it made sense to me because I can signify that I'm bleeding because I hurt myself but there are times where I don't know why I'm bleeding. I hope that everything with Kate's pregnancy goes well and I'm wondering what could be wrong that she's bleeding because it doesn't seem normal to be bleeding before you give birth and to have such pains. I'm still curious on Thomas's reasoning for marrying Kate as well and is there anything going on between him and Elizabeth. Could it be possible that she may have feelings for him?
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Sixth Wife (pages 1-60)
Summary:
The book is narrated by Kate's best friend Cathy. The story begins by her explaining how Kate is now dead and she will not be attending her funeral. Katherine Parr was the wife of Henry VIII. She was one out of six of his wives who survived before being killed like the others. Cathy explains how she set up her funeral but she doesn't want to attend due to the pain she feels. Everything at Kate's funeral she took part of but she has decided that she's going to stay home to watch the new born child that Katherine had before her death. She believed that Thomas, Kate's former husband was the cause of her death. It seems as if she has a strong hate towards him because she explains how she knows that he won't be at the funeral and that she doesn't want to see his face. Also, it would be clear that if she blames her best friend’s death on him she would develop a hate towards him. She thought that Katherine should have stayed a widow and if she did, she wouldn't had any problems to deal with when she made the decision to marry Thomas. She then goes into how Kate met Thomas and when she found out about their marriage. It had been a month after Henry died when Kate told Cathy and of course she was shocked. She didn't understand how she could possibly have made such a huge decision in such a short period of time. She figured that they were close which played another part in the shock because Kate didn't tell anyone until after it was done and she wasn't giving much detail about how it all happened. Cathy became skeptical about Thomas because she wondered what was it that he could have possible seen in Katherine to make him want to marry her all of sudden. I say all of sudden because Cathy mentioned how before he became a married man, he had his eye on Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn who was barely a teenager at the time. Cathy described Thomas and Kate as fairly close friends so she expected that she would be the last one Thomas would decide to marry. She wasn't sure whether he wanted to be with Katherine because she was rich or did he truly have feelings for her. Ed Seymour, Thomas's brother found this funny as well. Kate set up arrangements for Cathy and Thomas to meet. It had been some time since Cathy had last seen him and he was now forty but she said there wasn't much that changed about him. She felt that it was about time she'd see him now that he was married to her best friend.
Quote:
"With everyone at the chapel, the house was deserted and I'd never been so alone. It might have been that everyone had died. Everyone in the world, even, so that I could have walked from the house and kept walking but never found anyone again. Just kept walking until I, too, died. From starvation or exhaustion or perhaps sheer loneliness- can you die from loneness?"
Reflection:
When I'm reading, I usually look from passages that stand out to me besides the plot of the story. As a human, there have been times where I've felt lonely although it's not as much as Cathy seems to be feeling. When I came across this quote, it made me think could it possible that I could ever feel this way myself because I haven't been through an experience like this? Additionally, I understand Cathy's point of view on the decision Kate made because it doesn't seem like it was the right move to make after only a month of being a widow. It makes me think whether or not there was much thought put behind her decision or could it be that Kathy's just over analyzing the entire situation?
The book is narrated by Kate's best friend Cathy. The story begins by her explaining how Kate is now dead and she will not be attending her funeral. Katherine Parr was the wife of Henry VIII. She was one out of six of his wives who survived before being killed like the others. Cathy explains how she set up her funeral but she doesn't want to attend due to the pain she feels. Everything at Kate's funeral she took part of but she has decided that she's going to stay home to watch the new born child that Katherine had before her death. She believed that Thomas, Kate's former husband was the cause of her death. It seems as if she has a strong hate towards him because she explains how she knows that he won't be at the funeral and that she doesn't want to see his face. Also, it would be clear that if she blames her best friend’s death on him she would develop a hate towards him. She thought that Katherine should have stayed a widow and if she did, she wouldn't had any problems to deal with when she made the decision to marry Thomas. She then goes into how Kate met Thomas and when she found out about their marriage. It had been a month after Henry died when Kate told Cathy and of course she was shocked. She didn't understand how she could possibly have made such a huge decision in such a short period of time. She figured that they were close which played another part in the shock because Kate didn't tell anyone until after it was done and she wasn't giving much detail about how it all happened. Cathy became skeptical about Thomas because she wondered what was it that he could have possible seen in Katherine to make him want to marry her all of sudden. I say all of sudden because Cathy mentioned how before he became a married man, he had his eye on Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn who was barely a teenager at the time. Cathy described Thomas and Kate as fairly close friends so she expected that she would be the last one Thomas would decide to marry. She wasn't sure whether he wanted to be with Katherine because she was rich or did he truly have feelings for her. Ed Seymour, Thomas's brother found this funny as well. Kate set up arrangements for Cathy and Thomas to meet. It had been some time since Cathy had last seen him and he was now forty but she said there wasn't much that changed about him. She felt that it was about time she'd see him now that he was married to her best friend.
Quote:
"With everyone at the chapel, the house was deserted and I'd never been so alone. It might have been that everyone had died. Everyone in the world, even, so that I could have walked from the house and kept walking but never found anyone again. Just kept walking until I, too, died. From starvation or exhaustion or perhaps sheer loneliness- can you die from loneness?"
Reflection:
When I'm reading, I usually look from passages that stand out to me besides the plot of the story. As a human, there have been times where I've felt lonely although it's not as much as Cathy seems to be feeling. When I came across this quote, it made me think could it possible that I could ever feel this way myself because I haven't been through an experience like this? Additionally, I understand Cathy's point of view on the decision Kate made because it doesn't seem like it was the right move to make after only a month of being a widow. It makes me think whether or not there was much thought put behind her decision or could it be that Kathy's just over analyzing the entire situation?
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