Fairness in the Marlow household

[carmine-rose.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the fair/unfair treatment of the Marlow young by their parents. I'm thinking specifically the treatment of Nicola by her parents/mother in Cricket Term. Is there anyway this could have been handled better? Should it actually have been Nicola who was going to have to leave? Should they have told her or dropped it on her in the summer holidays? Should they have removed all the girls, or perhaps just both twins?

For that matter, should Lawrie have been given the Prosser? (I know this wasn't her parents' decision, I'm just interested whether people think it was a good judgement call on the part of the staff.)

In a similar vein, what about the horse business in Peter's Room? Was it fair that their mother bought Ginty a horse for her birthday, and said no-one else was to ride it? Was it reasonable to buy herself one before ensuring the children all had equal access to a horse for hunting? In effect, she created a situation where one daughter was the only one in the family who was unable to go hunting (without hiring a horse), which seems harsh to me. But then, I'm from a small family where such unequality with gifts never happened - is this normal for a large family? Was Lawrie's reaction reasonable, or did other readers take it as just one more example of her throwing whiny tantrums?

These two occasions seemed to me to best illustrate Mrs. Marlow's failings as a mother (and also perhaps where the children got their selfishness) - I wondered if anyone else felt the same.

Can anyone else think of any other examples of this kind of thing? Or of fairer treatment?

Comments

[coughingbear]

This makes lots of sense. Also, I think I suggested this further up one of the threads, but I wondered if it is in part because Mrs Marlow still worries about Ginty after the Traitor stuff and being trapped after a bomb, and thinks it will help her.

Just had an additional thought, could it also be that she can't resist buying Catkin as well as Chocbar, and Ginty's the only child he will suit? She's very encouraging when Lawrie and Peter first discuss having the Idiot Boy, so perhaps she's just desperate for horses after all those years of Hampstead.

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

In a sense, one of the most encouraging ideas is of Catkin as camouflage for Chocbar, I agree.

[owl]

Ginty does cause a lot of her own problems, however. And Peter is probably at least as badly damaged as she is by the events in Traitor.

BTW, does anyone else find it odd that the Marlows go from Swallows-and-Amazon types in Traitor, with Commander Marlow owning a boat (as opposed to commanding a destroyer :D), and then in Peter's Room it's all horse-and-hound, and the parents even got engaged at a Hunt Ball.

[coughingbear]

I do wonder what happened to their boat, though quite possibly it was something they had while their father was stationed in the UK and he sold it/passed it on to another officer when he was promoted and sent overseas, since there was no one to look after it. Thinking about Ransome, in We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea the children are told they'll probably have access to various boats that belong to the Navy/naval officers, so it may have been similar for the Marlows, and only 'theirs' temporarily.

The combination of country gentry types and Navy doesn't seem odd to me, though it's interesting that of the holiday books Traitor is very much about the sea and the RN, then they become much more countryside until Run Away Home which switches back again.

[owl]

Yes, I suppose that the boat must have been got rid off, otherwise it would have been heard of again in Run Away Home at least.

Well, maybe 'odd' was the wrong word. of the holiday books Traitor is very much about the sea and the RN, then they become much more countryside until Run Away Home which switches back again. Yes, that's exactly what I meant. In FL there's a bit more boats with the Regatta or whatever it was. Possibly they were doing more boat stuff in the summer holidays between CT and AT that we never see.