But after learning that Sarah had cheated him, he hesitated again and went to church alone to confess because he had committed a crime that he thought was unforgivable. After that, his search was not entirely out of love, but a responsibility of feudal society. Charles is always full of contradictions. On the one hand, he is loyal to Sarah at heart, on the other hand, he can't keep his virginity. On the one hand, I am eager to get rid of decadent life, on the other hand, I am lazy and lack the courage to change.
In the process of Sarah's relationship with Charles, Sarah really always takes the initiative. But Charles' self-choice cannot be ignored. He is not completely in the dark, even deep down, he is eager to walk into the "trap" set by Sarah. As early as when they met in the barn, Sarah had told Charles that their meeting was not "accidental", but Charles didn't mean to blame. As a 32-year-old adult, he expected things before climbing the hotel stairs. More obviously, after Sarah disappeared, he told his lawyer that it was all my choice. Is it really just out of love that he turned a deaf ear to Dr. Gorogan's advice?
On the surface, things developed according to Sarah's "design", but the so-called "Eve's temptation" is only the combination of Charles' inner desire and reality. He was tired of aristocratic life, and he realized that his engagement was just a hypocritical "exchange". His love for Sarah contains his rebellious identity with her, and he also longs for freedom as much as her. After his uncle got married, the attitude of Mr. Freeman, a businessman, made him feel chilling. What he lacks is courage. Sarah played the role of catalyst, and it was his own will that set Charles on the road to freedom. From this, Charles is by no means a "doll" completely controlled by Sarah.
Sarah: The most puzzling character in the book. As a heroine, she doesn't appear many times, far less than Charles. But it left a very deep impression on people. She could have gone with the flow and sold her dignity for secular respect. But she gave up, preferring to use a contemptuous name to express her dissatisfaction with this depressed society, her untimely life and talent. At the beginning of the book, we can imagine that if Sarah was born into a middle-class family, it would be enough for her to realize her dream. Charles, who could have easily entered Cambridge University, did not finish his studies because of depravity.
From beginning to end, Sarah hoped that she and Charles were equal. This equality is manifested in the fact that people are free and can not be bound by responsibility. Although Sarah ended up painting freely, she didn't know exactly what she wanted like Charles. She rejected Charles' proposal, mainly to maintain the integrity of the spirit of freedom, but also abandoned her responsibility to another extent. Sarah's image in books always appears in a mysterious state. Scholars and readers have a lot of analysis and speculation about her pursuit of freedom and her motivation to associate with Charles, so I won't repeat them here.
In fact, this mystery is almost determined by the unique perspective of this book. When describing Charles, the author uses the omniscient perspective used in general literary works, so we can clearly know the psychological activities of the protagonist. When describing Sarah, we only use a bystander's perspective, or Charles' perspective. What we see is a woman from a male perspective, which is still far from the real Sarah image. We can't know Sarah's psychological activities, and naturally we don't know her motives. What readers can do is to speculate on infinite consciousness with limited words and deeds-it may be infinitely close to the truth, but it cannot intersect.
From this perspective, Sarah has always been shrouded in mysterious charm, and her role is constantly changing. She is an ordinary governess, a rebel in feudal society, an "Eve" full of temptation, a "director" in her heart, a female artist, or "Emma Bovary", but this is just what Charles saw. We don't know the real Sarah, because there is no psychological description of Sarah in the book, which weakens Sarah's free spirit as a symbol to some extent. Because Sarah has no independent voice, her spiritual independence lacks realism to a great extent. It also makes readers' guesses about Sarah, a "mysterious" character, never find an answer.
In addition, the author uses Sam and Mary as lovers to satirize the "open" relationship between men and women at that time. An essentially innocent woman like Sarah is oppressed everywhere, but in the fields, a voluntary or forced "affair" is staged every day. People feel used to it, no one cares and no one is responsible. In the introduction before this chapter, the author quoted a piece of information that many young girls were defiled when they were minors, but the adults around them turned a blind eye. (Author: May Xianheheng)