One of my favorite points to come out of today’s discussion was the idea that the invalid mother was a common trope in Victorian literature. I believe I’ve heard before a similar idea that every coming of age story has to star an orphan so the protagonist has the freedom to make mistakes that make for an interesting story (this may have been an argument about Disney movies …). What strikes me about this in retrospect is the paralelle conversation about the relative weakness of Mr. Hale. As we said, he would have been considered fairly feminine at the time, so he is in effect unable to act as a father or mother to Margarette. It feels like an interesting variation of the orphan trope to have a parent present for most of the story but who is so ineffective. I wonder if that is unique, at least for the time period.

It seems strange to me how rare it is to fine good coming of age stories that feature strong parents. I’m sure some exist that I’m not thinking of. I would appreciate any suggestions.