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Dialect
Chapter 9: The Marsh and the Flood
Explanation and Analysis—Lydia's First Marriage :
After the death of Tom, her second husband, Lydia begins to reflect upon both of her marriages. Her reflections upon her first husband, Paul, are presented in the form of a detailed flashback:
And, thinking, she became again Lensky’s girl-bride [...] She remembered her first transports when he talked to her, the important young man with the severe black beard. He had seemed so wonderful, such an authority. After her own lax household, his gravity and confident, hard authority seemed almost God-like to her. For she had never known it in her life, all her surroundings had been loose, lax, disordered, a welter. ‘Miss Lydia, will you marry me?’ he had said to her in German, in his grave, yet tremulous voice. She had been afraid of his dark eyes upon her.
In her later years, Lydia looks upon her marriage to Paul as a painful mistake. By the end of his life, she was almost relieved to see him pass away, as she had already dedicated so much of her time and health to his political causes. When she thinks about Paul after Tom's funeral, however, she suddenly sees herself as "Lensky's girl-bride." In a flashback, she recalls her first impression of him as an "important young man with the severe black beard," who conveys a sense of almost "God-like" authority. She then remembers, with specific detail, the moment when Paul first proposed to her "in his grave, yet tremulous voice." Though Lydia feels that she has emotionally moved on from her unhappy marriage with Paul, this flashback reflects the complexity of her feelings about him.
Related Themes:
