Captain Blamey

[BonnieAlice]

One more episode to go and I am still trying to figure out what the objections are to Verity marrying the captain.  We gathered a reputation for being a wife-beater.  Is there something else that we're missing???  (As if that isn't enough!.)  I hope someone is still following this and will reply.

[Anothermi]

IIRC Captain Blamey didn't just "have a reputation", he paid the penalty for his participation in his wife's death. He told Verity about all this. He must have had some mitigation of the penalty (because he's a free man now) but he carries the stigma of murder with him.  For the Trenwith Poldarks that would be more than enough reason to reject him. They wouldn't want to get to know him as a person, he was a murderer - end of story - to them. They would not want Verity to marry a murderer (what kind of life would she or her children have with that hanging over them? - not to mention she might suffer the same fate herself!), nor would they want the reduction of their own status in the eyes of both their peers and the 'lower' classes that association with a wife murderer would bring (I feel the show leaned more toward the latter as the main motivation).

 

Blamey admitted to Verity that he did kill his wife, but he also told her his side of the story so she would know he felt he was not a killer at heart, but a man who made a serious mistake in his life (being drunk specifically) and that he would never make that mistake again. The fact that he told her about this skeleton in his closet BEFORE proceeding to court her made her trust him. Her family would never let him near enough to hear his side, and it would likely not make a difference if they did because social status was their most precious asset - especially given their mines were failing and they would need the esteem of their peers to try to deal with this.

 

This is what I got from the show. I had to use a fair amount of extrapolation to come to this because the dialog doesn't state anything flat out but I'm glad they didn't as it would not be good story telling. Hope this helps.

[BonnieAlice]

Wow, thanks!  We do not binge watch our shows so by the time we got to epi 7 I was having trouble remembering just what had happened and it was really bugging me.  You're right, a lot of extrapolation has to take place in some of these things!

[Llywela]

To be fair, I think most families today would also panic if they found out their daughter/sister's boyfriend had served jail time for killing his first wife! Neither Charles nor Francis ever said a word about social status. They said that they didn't want Verity to be involved with a wife-killer and weren't prepared to trust that he'd changed.

[Arwen Evenstar]

Since I haven't read the books, the series provides sketchy details at best as to what exactly transpired between the Andrew and his first wife. It seems to imply an alcohol fueled incident or accident.

A sea captain/naval officer would have normally been a catch for a long in the tooth spinster like Verity. Graham describes her as "plain with fluffy hair and a mobile mouth", so that's not exactly a description of a beauty in the same sense of Demelza, Elizabeth, or Caroline. Verity is one of my favorite characters in the book along with Demelza and Agatha.  She was obviously out of options or prospects for her age, so a widower was a logical choice. So far, the marriage seems a happy one; Andrew adores her and so does her stepson, and there's now a baby on the way.

[Neurochick]

On 11/27/2016 at 2:45 PM, Arwen Evenstar said:

Since I haven't read the books, the series provides sketchy details at best as to what exactly transpired between the Andrew and his first wife. It seems to imply an alcohol fueled incident or accident.

In the book it says that Andrew was drunk and pushed his wife, who hit her head and died; Andrew did serve time for it. 

[Arwen Evenstar]

8 hours ago, Neurochick said:

In the book it says that Andrew was drunk and pushed his wife, who hit her head and died; Andrew did serve time for it. 

Thanks, Neurochick. Appreciate your filling me in.?

[JudyObscure]

What gets me is the same actor was in "Lark Rise to Candleford," playing a man who everyone suspected had killed his first wife.  Add to that, the actor always looks angry to me, so I don't trust him at all.  Add to that, the actress who plays Verity was in "Lark Rise," so I think she should know better.

[LJones41]

On 8/29/2015 at 0:38 PM, Llywela said:

To be fair, I think most families today would also panic if they found out their daughter/sister's boyfriend had served jail time for killing his first wife! Neither Charles nor Francis ever said a word about social status. They said that they didn't want Verity to be involved with a wife-killer and weren't prepared to trust that he'd changed.

 

Which makes me wonder why Graham had portrayed Blamey in this manner.  Not only is he a wife killer, but a recovering alcoholic.  Why give Verity a romantic interest like that?

[Arwen Evenstar]

42 minutes ago, LJones41 said:

 

Which makes me wonder why Graham had portrayed Blamey in this manner.  Not only is he a wife killer, but a recovering alcoholic.  Why give Verity a romantic interest like that?

I guess you'd have to ask Winston Graham...he seems an odd choice for someone as lovely as sweet Verity, but her sea captain seems to adore her.

Perhaps redemption is a recurring theme in the Poldark novels.

The one thing I don't get about Verity is that she's always in beige...ball gowns were beige, day dresses beige, wedding dress beige, gave birth in beige, baby swaddled in beige.  I'm wondering if it's the preferred color of the character or wardrobe just chooses that for her. Demelza gets to wear reds and greens and golds to show off her lovely hair and coloring.

[Ceindreadh]

6 hours ago, LJones41 said:

 

Which makes me wonder why Graham had portrayed Blamey in this manner.  Not only is he a wife killer, but a recovering alcoholic.  Why give Verity a romantic interest like that?

Maybe to bring it home how limited her choices were. Verity was pretty much 'on the shelf' when she met Blamey (IIRC in the books she met him at Francis & Elizabeth's wedding). He was basically her last chance at marriage and maybe she was willing to overlook his flaws for a chance of happiness. 

[Arwen Evenstar]

Before Francis died, he reconciled with  Blamey and Verity. Francis was able to see that Blamey was indeed a good man who had paid his debt to society and lived an exemplary life afterward.  I loved that scene this season.

A gentlewoman like Verity was expected to marry well wrt to money, position, and reputation. Elopement among her class would have been scandalous. No doubt she didn't want to suffer the same fate as Auntie Agatha, so she chose her own happiness.  This might be off topic, but it makes me wonder why Agatha never married, given that spinsters back then were pitied more than they were revered.  If anyone has read the books, does Graham give us Agatha's back story?

[Llywela]

1 hour ago, Arwen Evenstar said:

A gentlewoman like Verity was expected to marry well wrt to money, position, and reputation. Elopement among her class would have been scandalous. No doubt she didn't want to suffer the same fate as Auntie Agatha, so she chose her own happiness.  This might be off topic, but it makes me wonder why Agatha never married, given that spinsters back then were pitied more than they were revered.  If anyone has read the books, does Graham give us Agatha's back story?

Not all women got the chance to marry, especially when they lived tucked away in a rural backwater with a limited pool of suitors to choose from. Sometimes the right match just never presents itself. As I recall from the books, Agatha does talk about a young man she'd been engaged to when she was young, but I can't quite recall why the marriage never took place. One or other of them changed their mind, or something happened to prevent it, and then the chance was gone and she settled into life as a spinster.

[nodorothyparker]

I vaguely remember Agatha talking about one that got away for one reason or another, but I can't for the life of me remember the particulars either.  I want to say he died, but I have no idea if that's right.

As far as Verity goes, there's a couple of things at work against her.  By the time we meet the Poldarks in the first book they're not in any position to provide Verity with a good fortune or dowry that might entice a suitor.  She's in her twenties and not regarded as a particularly pretty girl.  And she's been serving as a fairly competent mistress of Trenwith and thus making their lives comfortable for years, so Daddy Charles and Francis aren't in any big hurry to marry her off no matter what they might otherwise say about it.

It's a big deal at this time for a woman to marry without her family's permission and blessing, and given Blamey's history and reputation you can see why the Poldarks don't want to give it or be aligned with such a man.  The Poldarks are old money with a very good pedigree even if they don't have much in the way of actual money any more.   Verity, on the other hand, knows all too well that she's already considered dried up and that her chances of ever having a husband or home of her own are diminishing with every passing day she gets older so she's willing to consider his extenuating circumstances and take the chance.