PossumPie wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 6:59 am
I did some sleuthing since this thread started. Lizzie's "Europe trip" was nearly 5 months. The cost of a trip like that would have been beyond most people's reach.
"An 1882 report in Galignani’s Messenger, republished in the New York Times, indicated that cabin passengers on average take “spending money of at least $3000 each”; that “many estimate the cost of a four months’ tour at $1000” (HART, D. 2017. Social Class and American Travel to Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century, with Special Attention to Great Britain. Journal of Social History, 51(2), 313–340.)
This wasn't a trivial gift. Even assuming Lizzie only took $1000 spending money on her 4 1/2 month-long trip, the equivalent in today's money for the whole trip would be about $54,700. Was it because Andrew had paid for Emma to go to school and Lizzie didn't? My father paid for my college education, but my sister didn't want to go to college, so he gave her a 4-acre lot for her and her husband to build a house on to be "fair"
Those dollar figures translated to today’s values are eye-opening! This was no minor gift, even for a man of Andrew’s overall wealth, and especially in light of his frugal habits. Could it have been Andrew’s way of contributing to Lizzie’s entree into society, since that was what she seemed to have built the foundation for, with all of her volunteer work? He did not value the show of wealth, himself. But Lizzie may have seen it as a way, beyond just church service roles, to establish herself as a social equal to the “Hill set.” And to placate her, or because he really did love her in his way, might Andrew have provided this trip as a way to finally make her happy?
For during these few years, she is working actively and with determination. She’s teaching, she’s volunteering on several committees, she’s impressing church elders with her effort. I think Lizzie is seeking to form an identity for herself. She’s seeking to differentiate herself from what she sees as her family’s humiliating house and lifestyle. At the same time, she’s proud of the Borden name and wealth, and identifies with that. She’s set to make distinct for all to see her identity as a “lady,” who deserves to take her place with those residing on the Hill.
But her huge push failed. She is escorted home from the reception honoring the travelers by a young man only doing her a courtesy. Father does not follow through on purchasing a house on the Hill. She has only mediocre success as a teacher, having difficulty managing the class of boys. She sustains an injury to her arms, serious enough to be written up in a local paper, from a falling dumbwaiter as she is serving dinners she volunteered to prepare. We see no evidence of her participation in gatherings among or friendships with the upper-crust. Perhaps she is seeing little glamour in and reward for her work? Maybe her family’s lifestyle or difficulties in her own personality kept her from being embraced by Fall River’s top layer? She had dreaded coming back to her unhappy home, and when she does, there are still Abby and her Father and that house, just the same, only seen by her more harshly after the light of better living glimpsed on her European tour. I think Lizzie’s hopes faded then.
My view is Lizzie became embittered during that time after the trip and before the killings of 1892. She became disillusioned and concluded she could not, by her own efforts alone, make the best society treat her as she felt entitled to be received. So her frustration and resentment grew. She likely became more “contentious,” as Uncle Harrington called her, and her family gave her favors (the larger room, the paint color choice, etc.), attempting to keep the peace. The 1891 robbery of the home escalated tensions most seriously; then, just weeks before the murders, Andrew killed (her?) pigeons.
I think the family interactions were psychologically complicated. I do think Andrew tried to calm both daughters, and especially Lizzie, using money favors—and his motivations were likely a complex mix. He likely felt some degree of love, possibly guilt (let’s just say, generally, for inadequate parenting), and sympathy for Lizzie losing her mother so early. He may also have felt some compassion for her peculiar nature or been trying to manage it.
But I believe he was also frustrated and resentful at Lizzie and Emma’s objections to his financial control, especially his Fourth St. house gift to Abby. Andrew sent his daughters mixed messages. He’d give a financial gift, but leave his room key on the mantel, possibly as a taunt. He’d give Lizzie her choice of paint color for the house (usurping Abby’s proper right to this choice), yet put the pigeons he’d killed where Lizzie could seem them about to be prepared for dinner. He’d buy back the Ferry St. house from the daughters, yet begin to make plans (once again in secret from the girls!—but probably leaked to them by JVMorse) for the transfer to Abby of the Swansea farms.
And if was going to make a will, Lizzie and Emma were also being kept in the dark about this, and grew increasingly—disproportionately, probably—paranoid that they’d be left with little. Or maybe they were right? The fact that they feared this shows they perceived Andrew’s anger, or disgust, or deteriorated love for them, and believed that meant he would deprive them monetarily.
So, I see a pattern of emotional ambivalence in Andrew’s actions with respect to Lizzie. She reacted with strong emotion, and this, added to her growing frustration and resentment, built the anger which resulted in the murders. The money was important, as she probably thought that spending it on the right house, right clothes, right style was the key to her entree to society. But it was to stop Abby and Andrew’s holding her back, and to punish them for it, that was the chief motive for Lizzie’s crimes, I think.
, the 'Effects' are my speculation.
it's a rolling table.
But it might still hurt your wrists. What about hanging it (open to the middle) from a leather belt that you could loop around your shoulder? Might be a bit hard on the book, but could be easier on Kat.