Fatherhood in the Forest

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

Reading through people's comments on the last post, I found myself musing on the fathers depicted in the Marlow series. Even though none of them play a major role, there's quite a range.

The omniabsent Commander Marlow seems the kind of father who sees putting an expensively framed cabinet portrait of the family in his room as a substitute for taking leave to see them (see also Nicola's preference for a photo of Giles' ship and Nelson over photos of her family members?), but otherwise appears a friendly, no-nonsense sort of fellow. You have to smile at his pragmatic military preference for Nicola's crew cut in Falconer's Lure.

Arguably the most negative depiction of a father in the series is Mr Hopkins. When Berenice proclaims Meg's tormented family life to the masses, Meg shifts from being a workaholic nonentity to a disturbing reflection of her father's abuse, reinforced by his brief, dour cameo near the end of The Cricket Term (in which Forest hints that he also abuses his wife). On the subject of pastoral care at Kingscote, it's faintly reassuring that the school did attempt to intervene on Meg's behalf, even though it didn't succeed.

Mr West is warm and engaging; Mr Merrick is wry and genial, and seems to have a pretty healthy relationship with his son, where Patrick respects the boundaries he sets and wants his approval without fearing him. Our fleeting glimpse of Mr Todd suggests to me a conservative pillar of community type who indulges and secretly enjoys the eccentricities of his wife. Then, of course, there's Edwin, who is the only father whose parenting we see centre stage in the series.

There was a very interesting discussion of Edwin on Girl's Own in 1998 or so, which revealed a divide among Forest fans. Some would have happily had him locked up for the riding crop scene; others agreed that this was appalling behaviour, but allowed him more leeway. He is certainly a stern and authoritarian parent, though when he see him he is under a lot of stress and seems used to being the disciplinarian half of the parental team: see Rose's appeal to Mrs Marlow when he pushes her to stop reading and go outside. I'm not sure what I think of him as a parent, but he's certainly an interesting and complex character.

What do other people think about Edwin, and Forest fathers in general?

Comments

[oursin.livejournal.com]

He's an archivist. I can think of ways in which Kay might have encountered him via academic routes: for example, he might have been teaching palaeography (though I wouldn't have thought that even at Oxford undergraduates would be studying this in their first year, but who knows?) or there might well be instructive student visits to the archives. Perhaps there's some kind of system of students volunteering in the archives? But it all seems to have happened extremely fast.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I didn't start doing palaeography until I was doing an MA, though I studied English rather than Classics, which might explain it.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I did my final year special subject in a topic in medieval history, and I don't recall us using anything but printed sources (compilations of documents, etc): didn't do palaeography until my archives diploma (actually I think I may have done a course at the IHR while waiting to get on the diploma course - but certainly nothing at undergraduate level).

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

I was thinking he might be some sort of subject librarian, who helped classicists with research. But there's not supposed to be talking in libraries, much less flirting.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I can't quite see first year classicists needing to have access to archives (especially as Edwin's area seems to be early modern British, given his palaeographical skills)! Possibly they met through some extracurricular activity of Kay's?