Charlotte and Geraldine Parallels

Like the other members of the class, I believe Desmond greatly improves in its second and third volumes. With more voices and letters, Smith provides a variety of perspectives and adds personal touches to the previously politically heavy piece, as observed by CBennett. Smith opens the second volume with a letter from Geraldine Verney, granting Geraldine a voice in the story's unfolding. As a result, the second volume offers immediate insight into Geraldine's hardships as Mr. Verney's wife. Geraldine endures perpetual criticism and maltreatment from her husband. Her passivity and unfailing obedience to Mr. Verney are frustrating, as many of my classmates have noted, but unfortunately, Geraldine cannot command the plot like Jane Austen's Lady Susan. Unlike Austen's protagonist, Geraldine cares for her children and risks losing everything and harming their future should she defy Mr. Verney. Elise proposes that, through Geraldine, Smith creates a parallel between the standards placed on women and the political revolution of the time. I believe that Smith also uses Geraldine and her unhappy marriage to reflect on her own marriage and to comment on the unfairness of 18th century divorce laws. Like Geraldine, Smith could not escape her husband's hold over her, so perhaps, by highlighting Geraldine's sufferings in her marriage to Mr. Verney, Smith hoped to make a case for legal reform and women's rights that would benefit women like herself.