1. “’You call that romantic? Byron’s a complete cynic.’
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788 – 1824). Portrait by Thomas Phillips, 1824. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
“’In my dictionary, romance is not maudlin, treacly sentiment,’ she said. ‘It is a curry, spiced up with excitement and humor and a healthy dollop of cynicism.’
“She lowered her lashes. ‘I think that you will eventually make a fine curry, Dain–with a few minor seasoning adjustments.’
“’Adjustments?’ he echoed, stiffening. ‘Adjust me?’
“’Certainly.’ She patted the hand lying beside her. ‘Marriage requires adjustments, on both sides.’
“’Not this marriage, madam. I paid–and through the nose–for blind obedience, and that is precisely—‘
“’Naturally, you are the master of your own household.’ she said. ‘I have never met a man more adept at managing, everything and everybody. But even you can’t think of everything, or look for what you’ve never experienced. I daresay there are benefits you’ve never imagined to having a wife’”(Chase 214).
Why does Jess feel that Dain needs to change? Why is Dain so reluctant to change for Jess?
Virgin of Smolensk. Russian–Stroganov School, late 17thC.
2. “’She was a whore. She ran away with the son of a Dartmouth merchant. She lived with him openly for two years and died with him, on a fever-plagued island in the West Indies.’
“He turned and looked down into his wife’s pale upturned face. Her eyes were wide with shock. Then, incredibly, they were glistening…..with tears.
“’How dare you?” she said, angrily blinking the tears back. ‘How dare you, of all men, call your mother a whore?’ You buy a new lover every night. It costs you a few coins. According to you, she took but one–and he cost her everything: her friends, her honor. Her son'” (Chase 233).
How has Dain’s feeling toward his mother effected the way he treats women? Will he ever be able to forgive his mother?
CW
ENGH 202: Why Women Read Romance 
2). Dain dislikes his mother because she was the first woman to leave him, and of all women it was his mother. He needed his mother as any child should need their parent, especially since his father was cold to him. He blames his mother for leaving him in a place where no one likes him willingly. He believes his mother did not like him enough to take him with her. Therefore, he thinks that no woman will willingly want to be with him because his own mother didn’t love him enough to take him with her. That’s why he pays for his pleasure because he knows that no woman will willingly want to please him, and by using money it emphasizes his power of these women, a power that he didn’t have when his mother left.
Dain only sees one side of the story, his side. He doesn’t seem to want to understand the reasons behind the actions of his mother. Perhaps with the help of Jessica he can learn to forgive his mother. Jessica will be the key to help him understand and see that there are women who can and want to willingly care for him and want to please him, but at the moment he doesn’t seem to think that that’s possible.
1. Jess feels Dain needs to change because he is not going to be on his own now, a marriage consists of 2 people to make it happen and she is going to need him to cooperate with adjustments. She feels that she is in his future wife now and the will bother need to compromise in order to make their marriage work. Dain is so reluctant to change because ever since he has been independent, he has never obeyed to anyone else but himself and has always done what he has wanted to do. H has always been able to pay for what he wants and he is now buying off his marriage with Jess and does not think there will actually exist a marriage based relationship and feelings like husband and wife. Dains whole prospective of Jess and him getting married is paying the bills for her and leaving her in one of his houses and going back to usual single life. He does not think he needs to change or make adjustments because this marriage was an agreement with contract not based on actual love yet.