Patrick

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Patrick's romantic life provides a lot of scope for speculation.  The canon only provides Ginty, Claudie, and Nicola.  I'll state up front that, of the three, Nicola is obviously the best match, in my opinion.  Claudie is a non-starter, and unless Ginty gets a massive dose of maturity or Patrick goes off the deep end, we can rule Ginty out.

On the other hand, I see other possibilities.  First Rowan, for all that there's an age difference.  They certainly interact well together at the Nativity play in End of Term.  And I can see each providing the other with something each lacks - a romanticism that would be a nice break from Rowan's constant level-headedness, and a practicality that might help Patrick go somewhere in life.

The other, surprisingly enough, is Ann.  She is the only religious Marlow, and surely between low church Anglican and conservative Roman Catholic they could find some common ground. With the Anglican communion having its own turmoil, Ann might decide she doesn't want a woman vicar or blessings of same-sex unions.  One suspects that Antonia Forest would have found today's religious landscape very interesting (and would have been very happy with the new Pope).

Comments

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Modern girls, based on my sons' experiences. Ann is hardly a modern girl. Ann would have eagerly thrown herself into Rivers's missionary work.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Based on what? That she's willing to do Peter's share of the washing-up? There's a sharp division, as Ann's Patrol were astute enough to point out in Autumn Term, between Ann's self-sacrificing behaviour towards her family and her attitude towards the rest of the world, which is still principled but much more brisk and hard-headed. One might
almost call it Rowanish, in the small glimpses we see when she's dealing with her dormitory babies.

Also, Ann has no money. Therefore, short of Mme Orly leaving her an inheritance (and I'd say Ginty was a more likely beneficiary), I doubt Rivers would have been interested.

[owl]

Ann is, however, closer to modern than Caro Lamb was. In every age, some women will unfortunately go for the bastards, and those with more of a sense of self-preservation, won't.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

'Worst sense of self-preservation' among the Marlows is probably a tie between Peter and Ginty. Karen ranks surprisingly high, though I don't think anyone outdoes Lawrie. ;)

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Does anyone besides me think that Peter won't end up in the Royal Navy after all? I think a sense of self-preservation may make him consider a career change after he leaves Dartmouth.

[coughingbear]

I hope the Navy's sense of self-preservation will make them encourage him to consider a career change!

[charverz.livejournal.com]

I can't help but to think of Prince Edward, who just wasn't cut out to be a Royal Marine. The Marines didn't have any problem with that.

[coughingbear]

Hmm, just given that there are quite a few 'modern girls' commenting here that they aren't particularly fond of the Byron type, I think that generalisation falls down rather fast.

I can see Ann throwing herself into missionary work (as of course we know Forest envisaged in a way, though taking the form of working as a nurse in developing countries), but I think she is also quite independent and, like Rowan, used to making up her own mind and running things. I can't see her as a helpmate in the way St John Rivers had in mind. I've argued before that she's just as much officer material as Nicola and Rowan.

[manda-09.livejournal.com]

I agree with you - she's definitely got the Marlow being-in-charge streak.