The Missing Three Years

Last night I went back and read chapter XXXIV where Isabel listens to her cousin Ralph while he tries to discourage her from marrying Gilbert Osmond by telling her she will be put in a cage. After a long conversation where Isabel assures him at the beginning he needn’t bother as she is quite set on the thing, Isabel asks at the end, “Do you think I am in trouble?” and he replies “One is in trouble when one is in error.”

Moving into chapter XXXV we listen to Gilbert Osmond profess fine words to his betrothed on their future happiness, his own delight. “I won’t pretend I’m sorry you’re rich; I’m delighted. I delight in everything that’s yours--whether it be money or virtue. Money’s a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.” When Osmond’s daughter Pansy is told she says it’s very delightful, “…you and papa will suit each other. You’re both so quiet and serious.”

The couple marries without fanfare and we are moved three years forward not privy to anything that happens in those three years except that a son is born, to die six months later. How did he die? What was his name? We don’t know. In the 19th century it was not uncommon for babies to die in the first year. James doesn’t seem to have anything to say on this event and it is lightly passed over. Why include it at all? Today the death of a six-month-old son would be worthy of a few sentences if we are, as James said, studying the psychological motives of our character. We have no idea if or how this affected Mrs. Osmond and certainly not Gilbert Osmond. Again, I may be trying to inflict 21st-century psychometrics on the 19th century. But just because babies frequently do not make it to the first birthday does not mean a shock hasn’t taken place. I could come back to this in my sequel but should I? I just have a nagging suspicion that part of the couple’s disdain for each other may have begun with the death of this son. But we don’t know, it was not a part of HJ’s framework.

So all happiness was expected and all happiness lost with all the naysayers (almost everyone in the story) proven correct. That is the compelling drama of TPOAL. It is also what bothers me; those missing three years. How have they become enemies within three years? Not that it can’t happen, marriages often break down in three years, give or take. But why in this case? The question hasn’t been answered to my satisfaction. Nevertheless, Mr. and Mrs. Osmond have fallen apart and that is what I have to grapple with to write a sequel.