In episode three of the 5th
series of Poldark Demelza made a comment which raised my eyebrows about how
'Romelza' came to be. When attacked by Tess for apparently being lucky enough
to have sold her body to her master for the price of a wedding ring, Demelza
did not get upset and deny this claim. Instead she said
"She's right, I knew what I
was doing when I went to Ross's room that night. He was an honourable man and I
took advantage in his time of weakness."
All this was said with a wry smile
on her face to Morwenna, Rosina and Kitty. Of course book Demelza would never
have discussed such matters with her best friend let alone the younger locals.
Apart from that, on the TV show the more modern Demelza speaks as if 'that night'
or her popping into Ross' room to seduce him is somehow common knowledge and
she was just providing more context and flesh to the bones of the story. It
could be that the writer thought this was a great comeback for Demelza against
Tess and a way for Demelza to come across as getting one up on Tess' attempts
to embarrass her. However that does not seem to be the case since Tess left the scene after making her remark and so the comment was not even directed at her but her friends who with her being
married into the gentry were technically lower in status than her. So did Debbie
Horsefield seek to reframe Demelza's Blue dress seduction night as a callous
act of manipulation and make Demelza 'look bad'? That was initially my thought
but on reflection I do not think that is necessarily the case.
Demelza's response to Tess'
accusation suggests that she was indeed after a wedding ring when she attempted
to seduced Ross. That is not a motive that appears to me to be the case and I
am considering this matter mainly with reference to the scene as set out in the
first edition print of Ross Poldark (book 1) since though slightly altered, I see the TV show adaption in essence is a condensation of the book scene.
By the time of this blue dress seduction night Demelza
is now 17 years old and had been living at Nampara for 4 years. Though she
loved him she had never considered seducing her master before or that she could
even have a chance with him. She knew he had been interested in marrying a fine
lady in the gentry (Elizabeth) and a scullery maid like her thinking she could
be a suitable replacement was laughable. So she loved him from a distance.
However the turning point and the trigger to this seduction plan and to then bringing on the birth of Ross and Demelza as romantic couple was the visit she received from
her father earlier that day on 30th May 1787. He was claiming to be a reformed man and
wanting to speak to Ross of his plan to take Demelza back home to Illuggan.
This was despite knowing that Demelza objected to this. Whether he was truly
reformed Demelza could not know for sure and she thought;
'....but there she would be
working in a home where no kindness had ever been shown her.'
She speculated that if she
returned home she would have to stay and if not the 'leather strap' (presumably
the instrument used by her father to beat her), then the ruling force would be
his 'religious zeal'. So it is clear that Demelza did not want to go home as he
thought she wouldn't be happy there or blossom there and would be subjected to
abuse from her father either physically or mentally.
In contrast to her feelings about
her old home, Demelza had strong feelings about staying at Nampara, a place she
now considered home.
'She was fiercely attached to it.
And of course to Ross... Not until she came here had she lived at all.'
We are told that;
'Here, for all her ties, she was
free; and she worked with people she had grown to like and for a man she
adored. Her way of seeing things had changed; there were happinesses in her
life she had not understood until they were on her. Her soul had blossomed
under them.'
The above puts up a strong case for
why she wanted to stay at Nampara and does make me wonder how remaining at Illuggan
would have shaped the person she eventually became. It clearly sets out her motive for
wanting to stay at Nampara with no mention of a wedding ring or aspirations to be mistress
of Nampara. I therefore rule out this motive for the seduction and this is consistent with their excahnge in Twisted
Sword (Book 11) when Ross suggests to Demelza that at the time of their first
meeting he was not a good catch for her she tells him "I didn't know I was
making any catch." How did Demelza get from this thought to a plan of seducing Ross?
Demelza's father stated that he
needed to speak to Ross about his plan to take her back and that Ross would 'understand'.
Even though Ross had fought Demelza's father off on the last occasion, the
circumstances were different this time. Ross was still sulking and bruised from
his chat with Elizabeth where she repeatedly told him 'I don't love you' and
that she loved Francis instead. He had pent up anger and was looking for a
fight to release his tension. Fending off a drunken unrepentant abusive father
that appeared keen to take his daughter to continue using her as a punching bag
was a worthy and just cause for him. Only on this occasion, her father was well
dressed and swearing blind that he had repented and was a new man. So as to his
belief that Ross would understand and allow him to take his daughter back
Demelza thought;
'That was true. Ross would
not stop her going. He might even expect it of her.'
It actually seems that it was her
father that put the idea of seducing Ross in Demelza's mind. He had questioned
her about whether she was living in sin with her master and spoke off such rumours.
On reflection Demelza thought that a silly speculation and that surely if there
was anything between her and Ross she would not have had to listen to her
father for an instant and would have just told him point blank that she was not
coming back and she belonged there at Nampara. Still she rejected any chance
that Ross might refuse to let her go because;
'...there was no proper feeling
for her on his part, not beyond a kindly interest.. That was not enough, not
near enough...'
And so then the plan was born.
She needed to get him to have a proper feeling for her. She needed to seduce
him.
TV show Demelza talks about
pouncing on Ross in his 'time of weakness'. It is true that Ross returned home
that night having drunk alcohol, though he was not drunk. He was also feeling
distraught about the outcome of Jim Carter's trial earlier that day. These are
things that Demelza would not have foreseen though it is true she did not
cancel her plans when she became aware of them. Still it cannot be said that
she purposefully chose for him to be in this condition at the time she wanted
to execute her plan. Demelza's father's return could have been the next day and
so indeed that built in the need for an urgent execution of the plan.
Even after dressing up in Ross'
mother's fine blue dress found in a trunk in his library Demelza was quite the
unconfident seductress. To a degree she was almost completely passive in her
seduction. There is my case that she did not even do any seduction before Ross initiated the
first sexual contact. Demelza did not actually even initiate the confrontation with Ross in either the book or the show. Instead
she tip toed round the room and waited for Ross to notice her in the blue dress. A bumbling and poor start
to this manipulative task if ever there was one and it then opened with was
Ross rebuking her for taking liberties wearing his mother's dress.
Ross had been set off in anger and annoyance at Demelza and this led to her challenging him like a child
declaring that she's been seventeen years old for weeks and would asking if he would
continue to treat her like a child. Her obvious lack of sophistication and having to make this case in the first instance and Ross eventually rapping her
knuckles with a wooden poker does not suggest the work of an A class seductress
manipulating her target with the finest skill. There was no seduction here.
Yet. Winston Graham tells us that;
'From the first desperately shy beginning she
had succeeded in working up a feeling of grievance against him;...' and later that
'Her attempt at coquetry had been a painful failure'. However curiously Winston Graham tells us that 'nature was coming to her help'.
I take that to mean that given the shambolic and failed attempt at seduction thus far what proceeded thereafter can be set aside from her seduction efforts and her intended manipulations as other forces were at work to bring her the outcome she wanted.
What occurred in the next part of Demelza's mission to seduce Ross was a scene where it seems she actually abandoned her mission, admitted defeat and declared that she would leave in the morning before throwing herself at his feet in distress. In his efforts to console Demelza (by wiping her eyes, kissing her cheek and trying to pat her arm paternally) and her responses of appreciation he challenged her about the rumours about them and that if she acted this way 'what they say of you will become true'. A strange choice of words if we acknowledge that Demelza's seduction did not get off the ground and turned into something else. Prior to that when trying to pat her arm paternally in we are told that 'His authority was gone' and 'That didn't matter'. His comment to her here then curiously suggests that Demelza's battle was in fact not actually lost and that the validation of the rumours of there being something sexual between them was indeed in Demelza's hands if she continued to act that way. Or at least Ross was saying it was up to her to validate them or not. That is presuming that how he acted was not in the equation. He was not determined to ensure that the rumours remained untrue. Though Demelza had more or less admitted defeat to her mission, so too had Ross admitted defeat to resist it.
It's clear from the text that in
Demelza's pathetic state of sobbing having apparently abandoned her seduction,
something had changed in how Ross saw her. Nature had indeed come to help her. His
initial thought on first seeing her in the dress was that she looked 'adult'
and that he felt like he had adopted a tiger cub without knowing what it would
grow into. At this point with her now at his feet he is noticing the tumble of
her dark hair 'at the gleam of her neck'. He touches 'her hair with its light
and dark shadows' and from the 1st edition text notices 'the glitter of her
tear-filled eyes and the warm ivory swell of her breasts.' Demelza had managed
to seduce Ross when she was not even trying and had considered her attempt a
failure.
"I live only for you
Ross".
This was Demelza's simple but
most likely genuine reply to Ross's comment about making the rumours true. in
fact we are told that she said this 'without fear' and 'without coquetry'. So
she was indeed being factual with Ross rather than flirtatious. She was not in
seduction mode yet this moved him to make the first sexual move and to kiss her
on the lips. Winston Graham keeps the drama going by seeing to it that by some
'mischance' Ross has a sudden reaction to a gesture by Demelza in sweeping her
hair back. He appears to have a change of heart and releases her from his lap.
He thinks it would degrade her to be turned into his strumpet and takes himself off to bed bidding her
"Good night, my dear". Still we readers are told that 'a raging
desire moved through his pulses.' and that he now tried but failed to remember
her as the thin little urchin trailing across the fields with Garrick behind
her. 'The urchin was gone forever'.
In the TV show when reflecting on
this night and Demelza's comments that she had known her place as his maid
except for the night she came to his room, Ross says
"I think if you had
not I'd have come out and fetched you."
Again I initially did not think
this was an accurate comment and fair reflection of that night. Although it was
a comment which seemed to sit alongside Demelza's earlier suggestion of having
taken advantage of Ross and suggested that in fact that seduction was not such
a callous affair, that it was not almost imposed on him with him trying to
resist but instead very much welcomed by him too. When I consider the next
scene from the book I do feel that actually Ross' comment gives a fair
impression after all.
Although I make the case to say
that Demelza's earlier attempt to seduce Ross really did not take off and
became a scene of her going from being rebuked, to her pathetically apologising to Ross
for her behaviour, at this point when Demelza comes to Ross' room and asks him
to undo the hooks of her dress at the back, save for her having been in the
dress and having styled her hair from beforehand, her
active seduction commences.
But this is only after Ross had already initiated a
sexual act on her by him kissing her on the lips earlier. Again Demelza does
not initiate the sexual contact. Ross takes the bait and whilst undoing the hooks
slips his hand into the opening of her dress and onto her waist. What is
interesting however is that even with success looming and Ross following her
lead without resistance, Demelza proves herself yet again to be far from the master
seductress and manipulator. 'At the last moment when all was won...' her
conscience hits her and she confesses her deceit to Ross in lying that she
could not do up the hooks herself when in fact she could. So her seduction
attempt comes to a halt again and she repeatedly states whilst crying that she
lied and that he should not take her if her hates her for this. Ross
technically free to do the 'honourable thing' and left to decide the way
forward ignores her and decides to proceed lighting an extra candle beforehand.
So we can say that Demelza's
active seduction in offering Ross the back of her dress to unhook was too far
down the line for him to withdraw and her seduction had worked. But it was before
Demelza even came into Ross' room, probably before he dismissed her and made
for bed that Demelza's failed attempts at seduction had nevertheless fulfilled
the intended aim. In his room now he wrestled in his mind about not pursuing his desire for Demelza. He thought of it as a 'fair desire'. It was a 'raging desire'. His reasoning with
himself led him to thoughts that it was nothing unusual for a young man like
him from the gentry to 'tumble' his kitchen maid and that she was off age now
and knew her own mind. He questioned what was the matter with him and had
thoughts of lightening up and enjoying life more. All these thought were just
before Demelza came into the room and the fact that he no longer saw her as
that urchin any more, that he recognised her as a sexual possibility and had a
desire for her does support the notion that if he had not fetched her that
night, it would not have been long before he eventually did if she did not come
herself. Certainly if Ross would have back peddled on his reasoning to more
honourable thoughts of restraint, we were not yet shown this happening.
It now seems clear to me that it
was Ross that generally had the control above Demelza in this blue dress
seduction night. It was not seduction that won Ross over but as the narrator
tells us 'the magic appeal of youth, which was beauty in its own right.' He
recognised her 'flowering maidenhood' and as Ross in the TV show stated he was
already fond of her. They had already had kind of companionship and one that
would bring him to even begin to share his woes with her about the Jim Carter
trial. When reminiscing on it in 'The Stranger From the Sea' (Book 8), Ross
teased Demelza about how she had seduced him this night. She told him that by
the end of the night it did not feel like it and reminded him that he had lit
and extra candle. He did not challenge this suggestion but seemed to agree
explaining "I meant to know you better by morning."
It is undoubtedly clear that
Demelza did not plan this seduction of Ross for a wedding ring but rather for
the chance to stay at her sanctuary in Nampara away from her abusive father.
Also because she adored Ross. She felt she needed Ross to have more than an
kindly interest in her and this would have to be achieved through sex in order
to motivate him to fend off her father. There was an intention by Demelza to
take advantage of Ross. This was not necessarily in his time of weakness. That
was a coincidence but she managed to entice him to her whilst failing or at
least retreating from following through with acts of seduction since nature had
taken its cause to stir a desire in Ross beforehand. Demelza had the intent but
failed in the execution. Nature took its course and gave her the result she
wanted anyway.
Given Demelza's moral compass and conscience it is
understandable that she would nevertheless view her act more harshly than the average seductress and also see it as
'taking advantage'. However regardless of whether there is disagreement on this
and if it should be seen as more of a successful and manipulative seduction, Ross
was a free agent. He was a single and older man by 10 years who could chose
whether or not to embrace or reject an attempt at seducing him. Of course,
Demelza without the detail was aware that he was in love with another woman but
given that this other woman had rejected him in favour of another man (his
cousin Francis), she, Elizabeth had no claim on Ross. She had relinquised this and in any event was not at this
point seeking to cash in any claim. Ross had wanted to move on with his life. It was 4 years since Elizabeth had rejected him and marred another and it was him who decided at his own liberty to make vows of marriage to
Demelza. Of course this was her risk to take but I do reject the suggestion
that therefore Demelza should have expected Ross to cheat on her with his ex
girlfriend 7 years later and that there should be no sympathy for her in this.
It is of course expected that in making those marriage vows Ross made the decision to put aside
his feelings for the other woman and commit and be faithful to Demelza.
Finally I think it is worth
noting the significance of the blue
dress. This being Ross' mother's dress we are told (1st edition-Ross Poldark
novel) that the 'old stiff silk dress' was 'part of an older love' for Ross. In
his bedroom he thinks of Demelza's young body inside it and it should then be
clear to us readers that this is a foreboding that she would replace this older
love who wore this dress or in her wearing this dress she at least has become a
figure of his soon to be new love. I therefore also do not think it
coincidental in addition to that, that whilst Ross' Mother representing his
older love died in 1770, Demelza, his new love was also born that year in 1770
too!
Poldark Series 5 continues on BBC at 9pm on Sundays (UK)
Elizabeth Poldark: A Touch of Red Dress Seduction (A Love of Ross Poldark Pt9)
Demelza Poldark: A fall from grace in a fall for Hugh Armitage
Demelza Poldark: A fall from grace in a fall for Hugh Armitage
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