The little girls


Who were the parents of those blonde girls? Were they triplets? They were always dressed alike and they all looked like eachother?

"We plunged into the corniucopia, quivering with desire, in the ecstasy of unbridled avarice."

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In the story, there are a lot of little Alabaster sisters, I think there were four of them; I think that's who they are.

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[deleted]

They are apparently Eugenia's sisters, although if we remember that her mother was surely past the age of child bearing, it would bring to question if they wernt really offspring from Eugenia's and Edgar's past encounters. There was no contraceptives back then, after all.

If that is the case, then it would mean at least the mother is in on the incest, if not the father as well.

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They are apparently Eugenia's sisters, although if we remember that her mother was surely past the age of child bearing, it would bring to question if they wernt really offspring from Eugenia's and Edgar's past encounters. There was no contraceptives back then, after all.

If I remember correct they were all the younger sisters. Also because of the lack of birth control woman kept giving birth up intill they were near death. Going by the time period I would guess the mother was married and began to have children around her late teens or early 20s.That would place her around her mid to late 40s when the story takes place. It was not uncommon for woman to keep bearing children while in thier 30s.

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I totally think they youngest twins are Eugenias and Edgar's. Their mom was in her 40's or 50's and it is much harder for women to be impregnated starting in their thirties...and then menopause in the 40's/50's...and the fact that I doubt those two parents were gettin it on with each other anymore

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I totally think they youngest twins are Eugenias and Edgar's. Their mom was in her 40's or 50's and it is much harder for women to be impregnated starting in their thirties...and then menopause in the 40's/50's...and the fact that I doubt those two parents were gettin it on with each other anymore


But that’s where the irony comes into play when it comes to a women’s fertility. Even though her chance of getting pregnant decreases after the age of 35 her likelihood of having twins if a pregnancy does occur increases. Even before the use of fertility treatments doctors and midwives always noticed that most of the twins they delivered were to older mothers.

There are many theories as to why this happens but it is believed it is an instinctive biological occurrence that a women’s body has in a last ditch effort to produce a few more offspring before the baby making factory completely shuts down.

The poster above you also made a very good point. Back in those days a woman usually got married in her late teens to early twenties and started producing babies soon after. Most women could expect to become grand mothers before the age of 45 and in some cases women found themselves pregnant along with their oldest daughter or daughter in law.

We are also making speculations about the mother’s age based on the physical appearance of the actors in these movies but keep in mind that the husband was probably several years older than the mother and women didn’t have the benefits of botox, hundreds of face creams, and cosmetic surgery back then. Even if you were an upper class women you would have a rather used up appearance by the age of 30 due to multiple births, hard water, harsh soaps, and the lack of the modern day luxuries mention above.


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instinctive biological occurrence that a women’s body has in a last ditch effort to produce a few more offspring before the baby making factory completely shuts down.
It is also believed that it's because the factory starts to work erratically. Women's cycles can become very weird around that time. Menstruation cycles without ovulation (hence no possibility of conception) then multiple ovules produced at another cycle (hence possibility of fraternal twins.)

From that screen play, I didn't get the feel that these 3 girls are Eugenia and Edgar's kids. However I get clearly that Eugenia and Edgar are blood siblings as opposed to just step siblings as it was argued on another thread on this board.

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"because of the lack of birth control woman kept giving birth up intill they were near death. Going by the time period I would guess the mother was married and began to have children around her late teens or early 20s.That would place her around her mid to late 40s when the story takes place. It was not uncommon for woman to keep bearing children while in their 30s."


30s? Try 40s!

Some women got married when they were 14 or 15 and had a dozen or more kids by the time they were in their 40s. I'll bet they welcomed menopause.

And we have morons TODAY in the 21st century who think that those were the good old days and things were better when women had no reproductive rights, including access to effective birth control and safe, legal abortions.

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It was not uncommon for some very fertile women to bear children in their early 50s -- my late grandmother thought that she was going through menopause when she was pregnant with my father. And my mother had my little sister at age 46 in 1967 -- and was barred from any type of fertility treatments due to it being illegal for her race (we're Black). The only thing that I can chalk it up to is the fact that both women had only 1 or 2 sexual partners in their entire lives -- husbands -- thus greatly decreasing their exposure to STIs, germs, etc.

The twins were indeed Eugenia's sisters to show how close the family tree was -- the propensity to bear twins runs deep.

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[deleted]

I read the novella, and recommend it. The blondes were Mrs Alabasters, she was the 2nd Mrs Alabaster, hence they were Eugenia and Edgar's half siblings. It's unclear because the elder Alabaster kids call the 2nd Mrs "mother".

---
Darling, nothing is final 'til you're dead, and even then, I'm sure God negotiates. (Ever After)

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I can see how some people might think that the little girls are Eugenia's & Edgar's from before she was married.

It wasn't unusual at the the time for a family to hid or disguise an inconvenient pregnancy of an unmarried daughter by saying the baby is the mother's. Mom and daughter would go away to someplace off the beaten track where they are not known and their friends would not drop by, vacation for a time under assumed names, and come back with a new baby. "I was so surprised to find out I was in the family way while I was in (name of famous spa here), and then the doctor sent me to a private clinic in the mountains/by the sea for my health. My daughter was such a dear to stay and keep me company."

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