: The Woman Thou Gavest Me Novel plot and novel summary. What is The Woman Thou Gavest Me Novel about

0 Reactions

The Woman Thou Gavest Me (novel)The Woman Thou Gavest Me is a best-selling 1913 British novel by Hall Caine. The book is a fictional first-personal account of a Catholic woman's struggle after marrying the wrong man. It was one of Caine's most contentious books, causing outrage on its release for its handling of adultery, illegitimacy and divorce. It was the seventh-best-selling novel of 1913 and was made into a film in 1919.

Plot
First Part: My Girlhood
Mary O'Neill is brought up in Ellan, loved and cared for by her invalid mother within a house dominated by hostile and cruel relations. Mary is sent to a convent school in Rome at the age of seven and over the subsequent ten years her mother passes away and she grows in religious devotion until she decides to enter a convent. However, her father instead decrees that she should be married. Before returning to Ellan, Mary again meets her childhood friend, Martin Conrad, who is aghast to hear that she is to marry Lord Raa, a known 'profligate and reprobate.' But they are both powerless to oppose Mary's father's wishes.

Second Part: My Marriage
The 1919 film depiction of Lord Raa trying to force himself on Mary
Back in Ellan, Mary is troubled to meet the foppish Lord Raa, who is clear in his opinion that their marriage is an open arrangement for kudos and money. Her feeling about the marriage is confirmed by letters from Martin Conrad which reveal that Lord Raa has a mistress in London. However, Mary's family have invested too much in the arrangement, both in money and arrangements, to change their minds. Against her better judgement, Mary satisfies her family's and the community's expectations and goes ahead with the marriage.

Third Part: My Honeymoon
Lord Raa soon proves himself to be a repugnant and terrible person on their honeymoon. Having attempted to rape Mary on their wedding night, Lord Raa then begins an affair with a former school colleague of Mary's, Alma Lier. Mary eventually confronts Lord Raa about the affair, but instead of denying anything, Lord Raa blames Mary, claiming that he was forced to another woman since she was "no company for anybody but the saints and angels." Mary then happens to meet Martin Conrad, fresh back from his successful journey to the South Pole. She is instantly awash with happiness, which Lord Raa and Alma notice darkly.

Fourth Part: I Fall in Love
Port Soderick, arguably the model for the location of Castle Raa
Mary and Martin soon fall in love. This frightens the highly moral and religious Mary and so she flees back to Ellan. However, Alma and Lord Raa's entourage accompany Mary and her husband and their home is given over to the debauch of the drinking, gambling and immoral living. Mary makes unsuccessful enquiries about getting a divorce and returns to find the house vacated of guests, as they have ominously gone off on a cruise when it was discovered that Martin was coming to visit. Despite her best intentions and determined attempts at self-denial, she and Martin admit their love and, on the eve of his departure on another mission to the South Pole, she goes to him in his room.

Fifth Part: I Become a Mother
After Martin leaves for Antarctica, Mary finds that she is pregnant. She flees Castle Raa secretly and travels to London. After evading discovery with the help of a schoolhood friend, Mary hears of the (ultimately false) newspaper reports that Martin had died at sea. After failing to find any better accommodation, it is in the poor area of Bayswater that she gives birth to a baby girl.

Sixth Part: I am Lost
In order to earn money, Mary gives the child to be cared for by a woman in Ilford and gets a job as a seamstress in Whitechapel. However, poverty drives up the demands of her working day and lessens her ability to act against the poor care that her child is receiving. Upon learning that she has an illegitimate child, Mary's landlord and employer casts her out and she is faced with a desperate need to earn a large sum of money in order to pay for her sick child's care. Without other options, she determines to become a prostitute, but is saved from acting on this when Conrad arrives back from the Antarctic and saves her from the street.

Seventh Part: I Am Found
Conrad takes Mary home to his parents' house in Ellan to recover. Lord Raa divorces her in the courts, apparently leaving the way open for her and Martin to marry. However, Mary is recalled to her Catholic vows and sees that she cannot marry again, but she is put off telling Martin this when she discovers that she is terminally ill and without long to live. Mary doesn't wish to spoil her remaining time with Martin and so pretends not to be ill until the very last. She dies peacefully at home and Martin takes back up his scientific task in the Antarctic.

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

Load Full (0)