Just writing to say that I've seen, mentioned in passing, that Margaret was "abused by her father in the book".
Now, I love that book, have read it multiple times, and I haven't yet seen any proof for this in the text.
If someone could point me towards proof in the book, I would be most grateful!
It's been a few years since I read it, but I never saw that either ... it's not even implicit in the text as far as I know. The idea never even occurred to me until I saw some of the posts you mention! I always saw Margaret's relationship with her father like this: he was the one she was closest to, and perhaps the only one in her family who truly understood her and respected her for what she was.
shareThanks for expressing it so clearly!
I've gone back and tried to find some "evidence" for this and have found absolutely nothing to support it. (I suspect it's a theory dreamt up by the "girls only become lesbians because of early sexual abuse by a man" brigade.)
Reaching wildly, there's the dream where Margaret sees her father in a prison uniform, an inmate of Millbank. Could this be the source of the misreading? Could people have decided "Margaret sees her father as a prisoner, therefore he did commit a criminal act during his lifetime and Waters is trying to give us the message that he was an abuser"? If so, this completely ignores the fact that, when this dream occurs, Margaret is convinced of Selina's innocence. She does not equate "imprisonment" with "guilt" but with "injustice", so what she is seeing in this dream is the person she loved most in the world suffering unjustly. It's another incident which has an impact on Margaret's emotions, causing her to relax her impartial judgement towards Selina.
Besides, during that same dream she sees her father's bare feet: "I remember thinking, how strange, I don't believe I ever saw Pa's feet before". To me that line confirms a lack of physical contact between Margaret and her father, making the whole issue of abuse next to impossible.
I'd say that if there is any "abuse" in the Prior family, it's the emotional abuse Margaret suffers at the hands of her mother.
I'd say that if there is any "abuse" in the Prior family, it's the emotional abuse Margaret suffers at the hands of her mother.
One of the reasons why Margaret's character resonated a lot with me is because when I was growing up, I was closest to my father and didn't get along with my mother well at all
Emphatic nodding from over here - I didn't get on well with my Mum when growing up because I clearly was not the daughter she'd hoped for. She wanted a feminine child who was into clothes, she got a gawky thing that preferred books and talking about obscure fads with Dad. Because of her disappointment in me she sometimes used coldness and scorn, so whenever I see the Margaret-Mrs Prior relationship I think, "Can so relate".
Fortunately, as with you, things have grown a LOT better between my Mum and myself - so much so, in fact, I think I'll be equally devastated at the prospect of being bereaved of either Mum or Dad. (Don't want to think about it, let's move on!)
Also, it's a mark of Waters's talent that Mrs Prior, who so easily could have been left an unsympathetic monster, is ultimately characterized in terms of her understandable frustration with Margaret's eccentricity. We may not like her, but we can understand her.
I haven't read the book yet, but there is a scene in the movie when Margaret's "suitor" who is practically raping her says something to the effect that he should have done this sooner (forced himself on her) and therefore replaced her first love (daddy) in her mind. He also makes reference to what daddy did to her. My first thought was daddy did sexually abuse her. Although she protests quite convincingly she has no idea what he is talking about and to unhand her. Vigers comes to the door and says to him, can't you see when a woman don't want you? Another telling point, but you knows anything at that point. Perhaps this was just the imagination of the screenwriter. Margaret seems to have been devoted to daddy but then again she does says, her obligations ended when he died and she wants to be friend of dads and mums.
shareFor God sake this guy never appeared in the book!
Reading the book I never thought that there where more between daughter and father.
IMO, Margaret was far ahead of her time! She was very different, had interessts that where not appropriate for a young woman. That sealed her doom! After the dead of the only person who ever understood her, lifes didn't make sense anymore. She was intelligent, but also very vulnerable, one reason why she would be betrayed so many times! Selena was here last chance to turn her life into happiness...But it probably should not be. -.-
*beep* Selena! XD