Journal #13 Tabitha Tenney: How Does She Want Dorcasina to Come Across??!!

QUOTE:

“Hush Betty; you are in a passion and know not what you say: I am extremely sorry that you were so rudely treated; but it is unjust to impute it to Philander. I dare say the youth is well nigh distracted at his disappointment” (Tenney 927).


SUMMARY:

Dorcasina is completely unaware of the joke that has been played on her, and Betty gets to suffer for it. However, this could possibly be an example of how foolish a girl obsessed with potential love can be.


RESPONSE:

Dorcasina can be looked at in many different ways: she could be a strong female who does what she wants and even disobeys her father, she could be naïve and trusting of the men who just want to use her, or she could be seen as a completely self-centered girl who deserves to have what happens to Betty happen to her. I tend to think of her as the last possibility, especially since she is smug enough to assume Philander is head over heels in love with her. Dorcasina also seems to speak to Betty as if she knows everything, and Betty is too inexperienced to understand what it’s like to deal with multiple men trying to woo her.

Betty may be inexperienced, and she does seem to let her imagination get the best of her, but I think she’s on to something when she says the other female could not possibly be a woman. Dorcasina, on the other hand, is positive that Philander must be a very desirable man (since he is in love with her), so therefore he had to have chosen her over a woman who’s already his supposed lover. Part of me wants Dorcasina to be completely humiliated so she can be brought down from her ridiculously high horse, and the other part of me still wants her to be humiliated, but maybe to make her stop putting Betty through so much unnecessary drama.

I’m not sure if Betty is an African slave, or just a white handmaiden, but this type of situation makes me detest how spoiled people can put their “help” through so much; and this when they don’t even deserve it. Betty has to look out for Dorcasina, because I guess it’s part of her job, but I really hope that Dorcasina gets what she deserves without causing any more trouble for Betty in the rest of the story!