[3]
”I think at that moment when he lashed out at her [which was unusual to him, [his sister Eloise would have done it long ago [21], she realized the immense and unreasonable sacrifices
she had asked from him and that his coldness was caused by her sterness, her lack of emotional support and neglect of
his personal needs [22]
And Yes, I understand her fear for the social death, her deep mourning and her [wrong] assumption, that she ”helped” him by being stern…
But you know, as I said, at a certain moment, whether Iit concerns love, good intentions or bad intentions, when the
result harms someone, it no longer matters!”
”A deep wound for Anthony is also that while Daphne is allowed to marry for love [however that was within their social classes, she married a Duke, Anthony’s closest friend], his mother
coldly commands him to break up his love affair with opera singer Siena Rosso.
[Eventually it’s Siena herself who ends the affair, but triggered by Violet’s and the Ton’s fierce resistance, leaving Anthony heartbroken]
While of course Lady Violet wants him to be happy too, to her defence must be said, that
a marriage between an aristocrat and an operasinger was a no go area in Regency Time, since
opera singers not onl;y were of another social class, but were also considered
as immoral women.
Such a marriage would ruin the marriage chances of his sisters, so Violet had no choice.
But in the light of her severe strictness against him and his scolding for even innocent
mistakes he makes, her fierce resistance against his affair [which she considered as a mere ”infatuation] must have hurt him deeply, a fact Violet didn’t realize at all.”
SIENA ROSSO
But it got even worse.
Anthony met with operasinger Siena Rosso and fell desperately in love. [7]
And I say ”desperately”, because a possible marriage with an operasinger
was a no go in Regency Era, leading to immediate social death
to the whole Bridgerton Family, especially because Anthony was the
Head of the Family [8]
So Violet’s concerns about the love affair of her son Anthony and Siena
Rosso were understandable, in the light of her real fear of the social death [9],
but that was not the point.
The point was her total lack of motherly compassion and warmth [at a certain moment
she knew it was more than an ”infatuation” [10] and her dehumanization
of Siena Rosso, calling her ”a certain soprano” [11], without taking into account the emotional effect on her son.
All those things together: trauma because watching the death of your father, the burden of maintaining a household and managing Estates, a mother who
emotionally neglects you and is sabotaging the woman you love, including
a duel challenge to your best friend:
