From what we see of her at tea, it seems unfair to think that she [Mrs C] would really have been turning the children against Edwin. Has Kay been encouraging Edwin to worry about something that hasn’t actually been happening?
How about this?
Edwin Dodd, shy, former grammar school boy, meets Rosemary Clavering, trainee primary teacher, in his last undergrad year at Oxford. Also bookish (in a later time period, she’d probably have been doing a history degree herself) she is more outgoing than Edwin, but their personalities seem to compliment each other. Rosemary’s parents own a family engineering firm making railway parts: gregarious like their daughter, they find Edwin a bit of a dry stick. But they recognize the couple seem happy, and when they get married give them a substantial sum towards a house in Oxford.
Initially Rosemary works, but when Edwin’s career is established she stops to have Rose and Charles. It’s basically a happy marriage, although Rosemary is increasingly aware how much Edwin and her lives have polarized, and she is looking forward to developing her own interests as the children grown older. The pregnancy with Fob is an accident and afterwards Rosemary suffers severe post natal depression. Distressed but clueless how to help, Edwin retreats more and more into his work, to the disgust of Mrs Clavering, who is spending a lot of time with the family. Further, although never bad-tempered with Rosemary, his stress shows in irritability with the children and Mrs C.
Rosemary slowly recovers but remains much closer to her parents and outspoken about her resentments with Edwin and her way of life: she particularly complains about Oxford, its academic snobbery and attitude to wives. Edwin focuses on location as the problem and something he can fix – he eventually manages to line up the Streweminster job (perhaps subconciously pleased its further from his in-laws) and presents it to Rosemary almost as a fait accompli. But Rosemary is furious – he really doesn’t get it – and her parents are equally furious, especially as they see it as Edwin using the money they gave the couple to move their daughter further away from them. Rosemary decamps to Chester with the kids, and in a bold move, goes on holiday with her sister to the Alps…
Dodd/Clavering back story
How about this?
Edwin Dodd, shy, former grammar school boy, meets Rosemary Clavering, trainee primary teacher, in his last undergrad year at Oxford. Also bookish (in a later time period, she’d probably have been doing a history degree herself) she is more outgoing than Edwin, but their personalities seem to compliment each other. Rosemary’s parents own a family engineering firm making railway parts: gregarious like their daughter, they find Edwin a bit of a dry stick. But they recognize the couple seem happy, and when they get married give them a substantial sum towards a house in Oxford.
Initially Rosemary works, but when Edwin’s career is established she stops to have Rose and Charles. It’s basically a happy marriage, although Rosemary is increasingly aware how much Edwin and her lives have polarized, and she is looking forward to developing her own interests as the children grown older. The pregnancy with Fob is an accident and afterwards Rosemary suffers severe post natal depression. Distressed but clueless how to help, Edwin retreats more and more into his work, to the disgust of Mrs Clavering, who is spending a lot of time with the family. Further, although never bad-tempered with Rosemary, his stress shows in irritability with the children and Mrs C.
Rosemary slowly recovers but remains much closer to her parents and outspoken about her resentments with Edwin and her way of life: she particularly complains about Oxford, its academic snobbery and attitude to wives. Edwin focuses on location as the problem and something he can fix – he eventually manages to line up the Streweminster job (perhaps subconciously pleased its further from his in-laws) and presents it to Rosemary almost as a fait accompli. But Rosemary is furious – he really doesn’t get it – and her parents are equally furious, especially as they see it as Edwin using the money they gave the couple to move their daughter further away from them. Rosemary decamps to Chester with the kids, and in a bold move, goes on holiday with her sister to the Alps…