In-Depth Analysis of A Long Fatal Love Chase

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Originally written in 1866, this book brings up many issues, such as deceit, love, obsession, power and superiority. While reading this book, I found three specific keywords to describe the theme of the book – superiority and obsession being two of them, and the third one being heroine. It is easy to generalize these keywords into “usual”, but this novel brings about a concrete issue which was then, more of a taboo, than being, in today’s circumstances more and more usual as time passes by. Except first, a little more about the book, in order for some points to make sense…
The 346 paged book starts off by telling us about Rosamond, an innocent girl with restricted freedom, living on an island with her grandfather who is keen to live her life in total freedom. Rosamond is a character filled with love and naivety, and her grandfather, her only relative – probably even her only known, is a more ignorant, cold-blooded and isolated type of character, showing no love to his granddaughter. Therefore, Rosamond is longing for love, and out of nowhere, the Phillip Tempest guy appears into the picture. He is more or like in his thirties, somewhat attractive and knows Rosamond’s grandfather. Having to have spent some time with him on the island, Rosamond falls in love with Mr. Tempeset and at the beginning, Tempest shows to be a secretive and cold person. After gambling his granddaughter for the sake of his previous debts, grandfather loses the game and Tempest takes Rosamond away, with her own will. After a illegitimate marriage which continues happily ever after through one years time, Rosamond discovers deceit, which is held by her so to known, husband, the master, superior, who has got the power. After a row of deceits, the major one being his legitimate marriage to another woman, she finally breaks her naivety and escapes from him. Soon enough she realizes that his obsession leads him to stalking and holding on to her, even persuading for a divorce from his real wife, and accepting her wills of anything. This stalking eventually leads to chase throughout cities of Europe. Through her rejection and determination of not being owned by any man; her belief in freedom, the character of Rosamond portrays a heroine.

After reading the book, I suspected that this book was based on a heroine, instead of a hero, which has been a dominating character throughout the past. While reading about the author and the genesis of the book, it struck me that the author, Ms. Alcott was a lot for women’s right, and therefore portrayed a heroine instead of a hero. It even struck me more when I read the back of the book, where it is read that this novel wasn’t published because it was considered “too sensational” by her publisher James R. Elliot! Not specifically the publisher, but until very recently, women were considered as not good enough as men. We are told that men were smarter at older times – they could build and produce without technological tools they use today. But the thought of women, considered not as good enough as men continued on, and it still does today (even though in smaller portions). So, were men much smarter before? Maybe a tiny bit, but not much…

This theme is actually very interesting. Even though Tempest’s self-confidence on him having the power to get Rosamond back, Rosamond doesn’t let this bother her and escapes from him, as well as trying to make her own living without depending on him. Women seems to always have been depending on their husbands for financial and social needs, not believing much of their own capabilities being accepted in various societies. Moreover today, to close this cliché of a woman needing to be dependant on her husband or has to be a housewife, women tends to go for a higher education today, so that their jobs won’t make them dependant on money, and that their children today can also be sent to kindergarten. Heroines are more usual today; there are no abnormalities when novels and films consists of heroines. During the time Louisa May Alcott wrote this book, it was seemed more abnormal than it is today, because there were fewer women who had the opportunity to get or develop their educational level. And with a book like this, where a woman is denying her love for her previous husband, demanding freedom and in total control of herself, the publisher (or generalizing even more, the society) might have considered the theme as a perseverance for women to claim for a higher education and more freedom. Of course, this would leave children to be obligated to kindergarten, and men not having as much power anymore. For men at this time superiority seems to have been very important – therefore women’s rights didn’t occur until very recently, and still, there are certain regions of the world that hold males as superiors.

My own reactions towards this is pretty obvious – there can be no ridiculous thing such as “male superiority”, it is just so ridiculous and illiterate which just pulls reality and social development back. Still in Sweden, a high technological country as Sweden – neutral and a role-model country for some – even here, there are still inequalities in the two genders’ wages. While male’s receive 100%, women receive about 70%(!!) on average in the same profession, which is causing severe arguments and problems. The Western society has to change frankly, as it is considered to be, along with the United States, the world’s leading technology and development center. Meanwhile, I enjoyed reading this book with passion and excitement for every chapter. The author’s style of writing fascinated me to the novel, and the context of ...