It's still a relationship that is sprung on Karen out of the blue, at a time when she is wrapped up in her own affairs, selfishly, but understandably (and marriage and total change of life plans is a huge thing, not merely a little drama, and her family have, from her POV, been pretty vile to her about it). It wasn't something she would have seen coming, even though it is something that she ought to have seen afterwards and been more considerate over.
While I agree that Karen's behaviour is massively entitled and inconsiderate, I don't feel it's beyond the bounds of how people who come from massively entitled backgrounds think. Karen's opinions didn't come to her fully formed, she got them from her family and schooling and environment. And frankly, Karen's behaviour is the anti-thesis of "un-English": within this century, the British army has served eviction notices on widows of serving army offices less than a week after their husbands were killed on active duty. It's nasty, entitled, selfish, and completely disregarding of other people's feelings. It's also not unique to Karen in her family. We'll see in the next holiday book how Marlows who are entirely sympathetic to Mrs Tranter write off the human feelings of people they don't know as unimportant and make decisions that will destroy a life...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-12-06 07:39 pm (UTC)While I agree that Karen's behaviour is massively entitled and inconsiderate, I don't feel it's beyond the bounds of how people who come from massively entitled backgrounds think. Karen's opinions didn't come to her fully formed, she got them from her family and schooling and environment. And frankly, Karen's behaviour is the anti-thesis of "un-English": within this century, the British army has served eviction notices on widows of serving army offices less than a week after their husbands were killed on active duty. It's nasty, entitled, selfish, and completely disregarding of other people's feelings. It's also not unique to Karen in her family. We'll see in the next holiday book how Marlows who are entirely sympathetic to Mrs Tranter write off the human feelings of people they don't know as unimportant and make decisions that will destroy a life...