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Before Elizabeth marries George Ross has his way with her ....Ross finds that his desire for Elizabeth is a sham.
Winston Graham's handwritten story plan notes - Poldark note book 2 (Early) page166 (The Courtney Library at The Cornwall Museum)
Initially the beginning of the Poldark story could easily fool the reader into believing that it is a love story about Ross Poldark and Elizabeth Chynoweth. This is despite the glaring snag that she chose Francis willingly over Ross because she thought she loved him better and that Elizabeth even admitted to this on occasion throughout the saga. But otherwise, regardless of this and what Elizabeth's later vague suggestion of a change of mind says about whether she truly and really loved Ross, there is still Ross's love of her which is usually undoubted by readers. Therefore at the very least the Ross and Elizabeth story would have been a story of unrequited love before he married and fell in love with Demelza. However, the major story development in the fourth book has Ross declare that he had discovered after his fateful night with Elizabeth on 9th May 1794, that what stood out to him thereafter was that his true and real love was not for Elizabeth but for Demelza. Winston Graham made comments over the years in interviews that corroborated that Ross fell out of love with Elizabeth. In his archived story plan notes held at The Courtney Library in the Cornwall Museum Winston Graham wrote more directly in delicate handwriting that after Ross had his way with Elizabeth '...Ross finds that his desire for Elizabeth is a sham.' (Pg166 2nd (early) Poldark notebook) Much of the writing around and in between is extremely hard to read. However though faint, these sentences along with a sentence in between that Demelza responded like a 'fish wife' (which presumably relates to her angry table swipe), can be easily deciphered. This note and the idea from this inspires this post to explore how this concept and theme of a 'sham desire' did really seem to shape Winston Graham's attitude and his writing approach with Ross and Elizabeth so that there was what seemed a determined and preordained narrative for their fate leading to their ‘love’ being presented as ever unworkable, unpromising and then finally being written off essentially as a 'sham'. This is as well as how this supports Winston Graham's concept of a happy ending for Ross and Demelza. The follow up post will look at how there were key plot points where Ross's 'sham desire' was at play and how this is quite overt when reviewing the narrative retrospectively.
While it seems that Winston Graham's story plan note referencing Ross's desire for Elizabeth as a 'sham' is a loaded sentence which explains so much, it is not all that shocking since as stated this actually just accords with what Winston Graham said in other comments published from interviews. For instance, as covered below he had said that after sleeping with Elizabeth Ross discovered he really loved his wife. Nevertheless, as a reflection of his mindset and the sentiment behind his narrative Winston Graham's personal note is powerfully confirmatory along with those other comments to further aid reader understanding of his story development. Certainly it does give a window into Winston Graham's mind and the perspective upon which he was writing from. Graham's choice of the word 'sham' is really a one word term to boldly capture what Ross said to Demelza in the last scenes of 'Warleggan' which Ross as covered in Reassurances Of First Choice did with conviction. However it captures what Winston narrated as well as reported about the essence of the story line depicting an eventual dramatic change in Ross's feelings for Elizabeth. In fact, Winston Graham went further through Ross's own declaration to take Elizabeth out of running completely, let alone as second best. And so what he felt for Elizabeth was then not at all comparable to his love for Demelza.
Pre Determined- A Very Anti Romantic Couple
So Winston Graham set it that despite having had the chance of the ultimate love experience with Elizabeth through sex, which was at least physically pleasurable (if not quite so emotionally), Ross ended up feeling the opposite feeling of a true and real love for Elizabeth, as he did feel for wife Demelza who was supposed to be the underdog. This and the revelation of Ross's 'sham desire' and more importantly Ross's understanding of this undoubtedly supports the idea of a genuinely happy ending for Ross and Demelza. It's show how when Ross told Elizabeth in 'The Four Swans' at the Sawle Church grave yard "...I love you. You were- the love of my life. Love can't turn to that much hate." he was both appeasing her but also indicating and confirming that she was no longer the love of his life and further indicating that there had been a 'turning' of his love into something else, though not so extreme so far the other way.
It seems on reflection that Winston Graham really committed to his concept of Ross's 'sham desire' from the outset and that this can be seen by the way he casted Elizabeth early on and along with the narrative path he took for Ross and Elizabeth's story. This is so that retrospectively it is hard to find anything but frustration in it. As well as that the typical ingredients or features of a mutually true and real love are few and far between in the Ross and Elizabeth story. Such was the case that where other couples such as Dwight and Caroline, Drake and Morwenna and Jeremy and Cuby faced their challenges and obstacles amidst their love and romance, the Ross and Elizabeth dynamic was not one that boded well to match that path and prove itself to also be a true and enduring love. In fact, much of Ross and Elizabeth's story was anti romantic and it seems that it was this that often created the challenges, rather than the other way round. However, it is the lack of romance in the Ross and Elizabeth story which seems to serve as a foreboding for unromantic outcomes for them. This fits with the end where both of them felt strongly that they no longer held a romantic love for the other.
Although there is a subtle narrative of Ross subconsciously and therefore gradually falling out of a 'sham' love with Elizabeth well before he discovered and announced this, it is clear that Winston set up Ross's night with Elizabeth as the incident that would bring about Ross's conscious awareness that he was not, (or that he no longer felt he was) in love with Elizabeth. Ironically Winston Graham’s commitment to this development was evident from relevant features pertaining to this key night. This includes the very nature of it overall as a violent episode which caused resentment and shame on both parts for different reasons. However it is both telling and fitting with the end outcome that Winston Graham ensured that Ross and Elizabeth's trajectory was far from romantic from the very start of their story and that included their night together. Indeed the lack of romance and love was not just about their fateful night together. Even the references to the period when they were together before Ross went to war have barely a few lines of romantic narrative to really convey strong visuals and the nature of their apparent mutual love, which later they even belittled as 'childish'. But the likelihood of a romantic fairy-tale outcome for them that arises out of a stream of narrative thereafter that was constantly devoid of romance, except for in nostalgia, would probably be poor.
Unloving! Perversities And Black Desires
'He took a seat and looked at her (Elizabeth)....Beautiful and fragile and composed, a married woman. A Black desire rose in him to smash the composure. He subdued it.'
Ross visits Elizabeth and confronts her about breaking their marriage promise 'Ross Poldark' (Internal book 1 Chapter 7)
Winston Graham's anti romantic approach with the foundations of the Ross and Elizabeth story really speaks to how he as the author viewed the Ross and Elizabeth coupling and perhaps therefore also his aspirations for them. It is informative to compare his approach with other love stories. Where Elizabeth fell in love with Francis and wanted to marry him over Ross, Morwenna did not wish to marry Reverend Whitworth while she loved Drake and the narrative was clear in her yearning for Drake during her marriage rather than after a point in it. There was an unquestionable narrative for Caroline and Verity of active parental (or guardian) opposition to their choices of Dwight and Captain Blamey respectively. Yet they still pursued their love and before resorting to elopements, when met with other temporarily successful obstacles, they too yearned for their suitor and admitted their ongoing love in their separation during which both women literally wilted and Caroline also turned down a proposals from a lord who she even felt was nice enough. As covered in Absence Of A Devastated Heart (Elizabeth Compared) Winston Graham did not give Elizabeth the typical instincts of love or brokenhearted dismay that he gave for his other lovers and when in 'Warleggan' she was subjected to George's character assassination of Ross, which she thought was overstated, unlike how the other women responded to this about their love interests, she found that 'there was some grain of perverseness which took pleasure..' in hearing this.
Equally while Ross's decision not to fight for Elizabeth when he found she was engaged is no reflection on his instinct of love, some of his responses to her in conflict were disturbing too, if not sadistic. For instance, where sadness or a broken-hearted distress might be a romantic response to a relationship conflict or devastation, Ross's black desire to smash Elizabeth's composure on more than one occasion, of which he followed through with once, was certainly not. That spoke of a feeling and behaviour that was destructive and was without the consideration and respect that love typically ensures. It was a feeling that Dwight, Drake and Captain Blamey did not ever feel when at the height of conflict for the women they loved and which would be hard to imagine they would ever have felt. Jeremy who was equally as desperate and charged up to have Cuby as his wife one way or another, would not entertain Ross's advice to take that same approach to smash Cuby's composure. Instead, loving and respecting her deeply Jeremy won Cuby round with tenderness and not any instinct for violent domination that would contradict the true love he felt for her. Naturally this warrants consideration of the real nature of Ross’s love for Elizabeth.
In the examples given above there was love story narrative that saw both hopelessness and also an instinct of love from couples, not including Ross and Elizabeth, that inspired persistence by them over years and which demonstrated in action a strong, resilient and more importantly a real love triumphing over adversity and obstacles. But this was not the case with Ross and Elizabeth where there was resignation, dismissal, belittling of their early romance (at least by Elizabeth), disturbing the other’s peace and sometimes perverse enjoyment of actions or words that brought the other one down a peg or two. The love wins all mantra was not Winston Graham’s vision for Ross and Elizabeth and that of course would be the case for a relationship and love that to Graham was just an illusion he had authored for a storyline he was working up to for the revelation of it as a sham on Ross's part. But also, where Graham's narrative did not confirm that Elizabeth did truly love Ross and in fact stated in that fourth book that Elizabeth's '...feeling for Ross had never quite been definable to herself..' the 'sham desire' seemed very much a mutual thing. Really, Winston Graham was casting the Ross and Elizabeth coupling as based on a ‘sham desire’ on both sides. This seems to have been all part of a vision and theme for which in the writing proved to be consistently anti romantic for them from Ross's return to Cornwall. through to end.
Undesirable ! A Frustrated and Frustrating Sham Love
‘….the hub from which all the spokes of his later experiences led away, lay in the few minutes of anger and lust and overpowering frustration from which Valentine could have been born.'
Ross's thoughts on Valentine's conception 'The Twisted Sword'
Ross in ‘The Miller’s Dance’ had thoughts appreciating how he derived his happiness from Demelza who radiated it, even from her pleasure in small things. That begs the question of how, though Elizabeth was attractive, since she only seemed to offer Ross pain and frustration without many moments of satisfaction and illumination, what was there to be desired of Elizabeth by Ross when this seemed intrinsic and unrelenting? This is especially as beyond saying basic compliments of thinking her to be ‘lovely’ and ‘kind’, there was nothing outstanding or of more substance narrated by Winston Graham on behalf of Ross to base his desire for Elizabeth on. Whereas in contrast, Ross went further in referring to Caroline Penvenen to Dwight as ‘so exceptional’ for a wife to be (Warleggan). Consistent with the concept of Ross’s ‘sham desire’ Winston provided no strong narrative that justified Ross’s devotion to Elizabeth that was well backed up and based on some quality of her character that was above average. Yet he did by Ross of Demelza, quite elaborately and poetically sometimes. Indeed, in contrast to Elizabeth, Winston Graham was not shy in narrating Ross truly singing Demelza’s praises so his that desire for her could never be thought of as baseless or likely to be a ‘sham’ one.
A Sham Desire for a Difficult Connection
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Ross and Elizabeth's relationship was fraught
with disappointment from the start as
unbeknown to Ross at war Elizabeth
had promised to marry his cousin in his absence. |
In the absence of substantial praise singing of Elizabeth’s attributes by Ross, Winston Graham stuck to an angst narrative path throughout their story where Ross and Elizabeth’s clashes with each other saw them left interchangeably disappointed and frustrated with each other on a number of occasions. The concern would be that due to their characters and the quality of their interactions these clashes were often without real resolution or peace on them thereafter. Even in the softer moments for Ross and Elizabeth, in between the upsets, these reprieves seemed only to be setting up for another upcoming disappointment and betrayal that again would not feature any rays of light common ground. And so they would leave another pain unresolved and lingering. In the later books, apart from when compromised by talking to either one of Elizabeth's adults son's after her death, Ross’s recollections of Elizabeth tended to come with negative connotations. He told Jeremy in 'The stranger From the Sea' that his situation with Elizabeth was something he "..should more properly call it a shipwreck..", and expressed that things changed for him when he found "someone better..". In 'Bella Poldark' Ross was in turmoil after a disaster with Valentine and his memories of Elizabeth were unleashed and included his meeting with her in 'The Four Swans' where Ross thought of how his 'frustrated love' of her welled up. Knowing this now to be love based on a sham desire it would, and had indeed proved to be a frustrated love for Ross in more ways than one. But this was yet another negative framing of Ross’s feeling for Elizabeth which underhandedly justifies the eventual understanding that he did not really desire her.
'What would have happened, he thought, if she'd married me? ....Perhaps there are elements in her nature and mine which would have made our life together difficult.'
Ross's thoughts about Elizabeth 'Jeremy Poldark' (Internal Book 2 Chapter 4)
In the first instance Ross's love for Elizabeth had surely been 'frustrated' by Elizabeth's decision to choose Francis at the start of the story. This effectively meant he could not live this love out with her and instead had to focus on coping, healing and then finding love elsewhere. Then it was frustrated by Ross’s own discovery of his 'sham desire' for Elizabeth years later, but before that meeting. And throughout it, Ross's experience of his love for Elizabeth had also been 'frustrating' to him as well as frustrated. For instance, it had been frustrating for him to face Elizabeth's cool composure in explaining why she had not kept faith to marry him. Then, as with the interchangeability of their positions there was the frustration in Ross realising in 'Jeremy Poldark' that Elizabeth was interested in him as she was challenging him for ascendancy in his mind despite knowing him to have finally found his own marital love and happiness with Demelza. Then there was Ross's resistance to this along with his internal conflicts and doubts over his love of Elizabeth. That included when Ross thought that his and Elizabeth’s characters together would have made life difficult for them. This alone throws up big question marks as to the reality and foundation of Ross's desire for Elizabeth. In addition to all of this Ross's loving sympathies and the obligation he felt towards Elizabeth as a widow saw more frustration for him with yet another betrayal by Elizabeth, but with his greatest enemy. Equally Elizabeth will have experienced more than the same feeling in his retaliation to this.
Desire or Delusion?
Never letting up for them Winston Graham continued this stream of angst and frustration in Ross and Elizabeth's story path which due to the paternity issue with Valentine even carried over into the next set of books and indirectly led to Elizabeth's death. But as can be seen, frustration had been a feature from the start, well before the very act that was to be the love making between Ross and Elizabeth, but is not best described that way. Of course that incident would normally be a highly charged experience of romance, but was also turned into something sordid and anti romantic given the sexual violence involved. Such was the case that Ross would think back on this experience in ‘The Twisted Sword’ as being yet another that was frustrating. This time his feelings in this event was described as 'overpowering frustration' along with lust and anger. So at this point it really cannot be unfair to say that the Ross and Elizabeth story was undoubtedly defined by frustration (as well as betrayal and disappointment) and in retrospect it is easy to see that Winston Graham’s mindset for this couple was not just to define it like this, but to cast their dynamic as so problematic and deeply rooted with red flags as to the chances of a harmonious and loving relationship between them. Indeed there is much to say in another post on this based on indications of Elizabeth’s emotional commitment to marriage, Winston Graham’s narrative about her ability to love in good and bad times and her values, many of which Ross knew were at odds with his own, only for more to be in view to the readers during her marriage to George. Of course, despite being the Saga's hero Ross too was flawed and there were aspects to his character which were challenging. The required compatibility and otherwise tolerance by both would likely have been 'difficult' with this coupling given their character and track record.
In all, after Ross's return to Cornwall it may therefore be hard to see what Ross and Elizabeth’s connection was based on other than frustration and nostalgia from their younger days. With Ross even questioning their connection and supposing they would be a difficult match because of their characters, it is also fair to consider that any desire Ross had for Elizabeth was a ‘sham’ because it was very likely based on self delusion and idealism. As to be covered in the upcoming post that idealism was likely largely based on that nostalgia from their childhood romance. Indeed it is therefore not a coincidence that Winston Graham wrote in to the story Ross’s own acknowledgment that he had been subject to an idealisation of Elizabeth. But with Winston Graham's mindset and attitude in focus, it is also interesting to consider other literary tools he used to convey his message of a 'sham desire' and to add meaning to the events between Ross and Elizabeth that support this notion. That includes even the date upon which Ross and Elizabeth had their sexual encounter which was the trigger for Ross’s epiphany.
A Selected Date For The Death Of Love Of Elizabeth
'Scared too the memory of Grace Mary: beloved wife of Joshua Poldark, who departed this life on the ninth day of May 1770: aged 30 years. Quid Quid Amor Jussit, Non Est Contemnere Tutum.'
Grave headstone message of Ross's mother Grace Mary 'Ross Poldark' (Internal Book 1 Chapter 4)
With a 'sham desire' and a falling out of love by Ross of Elizabeth in Winston Graham's mind, the significance of 9th May 1794 as the date when Ross slept with Elizabeth cannot be denied. That was also the anniversary of Ross's mother's death. Ross in the first book (first edition) thought of his mother as his 'old love' whose blue dress, Demelza, (his soon to be 'new love') had tried on on 31st May 1787. As highlighted in the opening scene for Ross's return to Nampara in 'The Angry tide', Winston Graham gave Ross a number of cyclical life experiences and Ross had this moment recognising this for himself at that point. But Winston Graham's penchant for this literary tool of repetition is evident in his decision to choose 9th May for when Ross was triggered towards a realisation of his ‘sham desire’ of Elizabeth and that his real love was not of her. This is since it was a day that marked the death of a women Ross loved, being his mother and on this second occasion involving Elizabeth, it would then mark the day that brought about the death, not of a woman he loved, being Elizabeth, but instead the theoretical death of his love for her. This connection is unlikely to have been just a coincidence. This is just as it was hardly a coincidence and without meaning that Graham named a character in the book with a bad leg, Rosina Hoblyn or a man described with snake like features, Monk Adderly.
No Coincidences: Carrying Over Meaning
Winston Graham showed that he liked to use various tools to add layers of meaning to his narrative or to align the meaning of one incident with another. For instance, there is also how despite mixing up the date of Elizabeth's death 20 years later when he wrote 'The Stranger From The Sea', Winston Graham mentioned, the first President of America; George Washington as alive but unwell in the passages before he wrote that Elizabeth died in 'The Angry Tide'. In writing that Elizabeth died on 14th December 1799 Winston Graham had given her the same day and year of death that George Washington had died in real life. Then just as doctors were confused and uncertain as to what caused George Washington's death, Winston Graham happened to give the same or similar narrative to Elizabeth in hers too. Indeed Dwight Enys and Dr Behenna could not agree on the cause of Elizabeth's death and Dwight was left with only a suspicion he never shared so that everyone else was in the dark as to the cause. So just like that was and seemed to be Winston Graham aligning the occurrence and circumstances of George Washington's death with Elizabeth, it is another unlikely coincidence that of all the days of the year for Winston Graham to choose, that he would choose a day of death in Ross's life as the same day he slept with Elizabeth, from which his belief in a true love of her would end too.
The choices Graham made seem to have been very intentional on his part in relation to where and with whom he felt real love lay and as discussed below his own character biases. This is notable in the first edition of 'Ross Poldark' when Demelza as the 'vital and engaging' character that Graham described she was, was making advances to Ross in his mother's blue dress. Winston Graham described that 'nature was coming to her help' in her mission to make Ross want her to stay with him while on her side Graham confirmed Demelza’s love of Ross. In the first edition of the first book Winston Graham went further to insert Ross's mother into the scene saying 'Her spirit moved and quickened between them.' The difference in that case was Winston Graham clearly had a favourably romantic agenda for Ross and Demelza at this early stage and used these additional and unusual bits of narrative to give spiritual support to this whilst in contrast enthusing Ross and Elizabeth's story with narrative that suggested their union would be unnatural and difficult.
Of course Elizabeth's marriage to Francis, her second marriage to George and then her eventual death was more from Winston showing that he never had any romantic agenda for her and Ross. So he failed to add any openings to allow for this except the period of Elizabeth’s widowhood where Ross made no move. Neither did Graham add narrative which indicated that Ross and Elizabeth suited and could surely and comfortably make each other happy without significant compromise even without the obstacles they faced. However, believing that 'Warleggan' would be his last book in the saga, and in keeping with the anti romantic agenda for Ross and Elizabeth, it would seem that Winston intentionally carried over the occurrence and essence of a dying of something from the first notable 9th May date in Ross's life, to the second with Elizabeth. In doing that the connection of the date really does seem to support the meaning of the death of his love for Elizabeth on the basis that the desire element for romantic love had been a 'sham'.
An Intentional Happy Ending Means The Antagonist's Failure
"I wanted to do a love story with a happy ending and that was it."
Winston Graham on ‘Warleggan’ - The Evening Argos Weekend Magazine 2001
When speaking of intention, Winston Graham had told The Evening Argos Weekend Magazine in 2001 that when he wrote 'Warleggan' he intended it to be the last in the saga. He also said that "I wanted to do a love story with a happy ending and that was it." This is not an unusual revelation for an author of a story that while not Mills and Boon in its style is nevertheless still a love story. It's pretty standard in the book writing industry generally. In acknowledging his story as a love story, one can recognise the obstacle and the antagonist, just as there typically is in every love story in order to create the romantic tension for the flagship love coupling. Demelza who once referred to Elizabeth as the 'bogy' before visiting Trenwith for Christmas as Ross's new wife in the first book, later gave her the qualities of an antagonist when she thought that 'Elizabeth had done her best to ill-wish the first years of their marriage. She had failed.' She went on to consider that Elizabeth had tried to make the most of Ross's grief and Graham had narrated early in the second book that Elizabeth was piqued by how well Demelza was received when Ross debuted her to the family as his wife. So in response ' she had taken pains to see if she could rebuild her ascendancy over Ross.' Her role in the story was to negatively impact Ross's new and mutual love story.
"For a time, after that night,....for a time nothing came clear. When it did, when it began to, the one sure feeling that stood out was that my true and real love was not for her but for you."
Ross to Demelza 'Warleggan' (Internal Book 4 chapter 6)
There is no doubt that along with the challenges that life threw at Ross and Demelza which they overcame, Elizabeth was a point of tension to the Ross and Demelza love story. This was based around Ross believing he still loved her as well as his wife, but more so Elizabeth's attempts to entice him back so that she had his dominating interest and attention at the cost of his marriage to Demelza. It is then logical that the happy ending was bound to revolve around Elizabeth being unsuccessful in her goal to be desired by Ross, let alone to be his most desired. This is just as George was also an antagonist or rather the contagonist second to Elizabeth where his goal was to make Ross a failure in surviving life. Like most stories where the antagonist fails, George did and Ross became financially comfortable with a number of business, stayed out of jail and even became a local hero and valued person to the government. Equally on account of Ross's realisation of his 'sham desire' for her and his true love for his wife and not her, Elizabeth failed too. Thus, this secured the happy ending Winston Graham said he had achieved. However, in terms of his commitment to this Winston Graham had laced the narrative well beforehand with this likely outcome of Demelza as the surprising frontrunner by having her subtly outshine Elizabeth to Ross along the way. By his early narrative that it was Demelza who was the key that unlocked Ross's desire and love and meant more to him than any other woman, Winston Graham unsuspectingly gave the likely happy ending outcome away in the second book. But for a more meaningful happy ending Winston Graham went further and this was delivered through Ross's declaration as cited above and elsewhere that in the way that mattered which obviously was a true and real love, he did not love Elizabeth that way at all.
A Sham Device- An Author Saving Ross From The Not Very Nice Elizabeth?
'She's not really a very nice character so, although there was a model for her, i'd prefer not to say who."
Winston Graham -Radio Times October 1975
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Winston Graham told Radio Times
Magazine in 1975 that Elizabeth was "not
really a very nice character..."
|
After all of Winston's Graham's efforts in the narrative to present the Ross and Elizabeth coupling as devoid of romance, compatibility without significant compromise and the capacity to build a resilient love that was not characterised by frustration, disappointment and changing feelings, there is little wonder that in wrapping up what he thought was his last book, that he also wrote Ross stating that Elizabeth meant nothing to him anymore. Obviously that was relative to what was then important to him and with the new story line of Valentine's paternity that Graham conjured up for Elizabeth, unbeknown to Ross he would be forced to experience her ongoing significance in the next set of books. But perhaps along with all this, Winston Graham's comment in interview to the Radio time in 1975 revealing that Elizabeth was “not a very nice character” is the biggest indicator of what was bound to happen by the end of the story for a happy ending of it to be achieved. Winston Graham's personal dislike of Elizabeth as the character that the protagonist was in love with, was likely what inspired the outcome that the only way Ross could fall for her was because of idealism. For Winston that would surely have been the 'sham' of Ross desiring Elizabeth because he viewed her more favourably than he should have. That Ross thought Elizabeth was 'nicer' than she really was and so as Elizabeth masked her flaws to secure admiration from as many as she could Ross too had been somewhat fooled by her, (perhaps as Francis might have discovered through marriage). And yet her character blended enough with George Warleggan's to make that marriage work, if not for her paternity deception. But as can be discussed in another post Graham wrote that after Ross’s night with Elizabeth ’All his old values had been overthrown and he found himself groping for new ones.’ Then Ross alluded to Demelza at the happy ending that having never had Elizabeth but wanting her, that he had over considered her apparent value from her true value. This suggests that in the end Ross’s discovery of the ‘sham’ did actually come down to thinking Elizabeth was a more admirable person and of greater value than he realised she really was. That then will have essentially echoed Winston’s Graham’s belief.
Where the narrative of a story starts with the protagonist in love with a woman that the author feels was not really a very nice character, it is likely they would engineer the narrative so that by the end of it the protagonist would ‘snap out of that’ for the sake of that happy ending. This is even if for the purposes of realism this was not quite so instant but gradual, if only for that sake of building story tension. It is evident that this is just as Winston Graham did. Equally on the other hand Winston Graham made no secret of his love for Demelza's character who was inspired but not totally based on his own beloved wife. Such was Winston Graham’s admiration for Demelza that he wrote the 'Meeting Demelza' short story about her. Of course it is likely that having a much higher regard for Demelza, Winston Graham probably considered that she was more worthy of an ending where her husband’s feelings over her and another women would not only be resolved, but would be so very much in her favour. That would be an author’s permitted and typical character bias for the leading lady he made the saga's heroine. So to them it would make the obvious happy ending to see her and the equally deserving hero rewarded in this way and the antagonist and specifically the lady thought by the author not to be deserving by nature of her character, not so rewarded. According to his character perception this was the happy ending Winston Graham delivered.
War is Over! A Triumphant Ross and Demelza Victory Confirmed
It's the story of a man who is deprived of the woman he loves, then discovers once he has her, that he is really in love with his wife.
Winston Graham- Winston Graham Goes A Second Round Article -Opelousas- Daily World' newspaper dated 25th June 1978
Winston Graham's ongoing commitment to the happy ending of Ross's ‘sham desire’ is echoed in his published comments on the plot which are few and far between. Where he did comment there was a certainty and finality to the conclusion of what could be considered a love triangle if not for the love between Ross and Elizabeth being revealed as a sham and both ways not quite true and real love. In further support of his statement about Ross’s ‘sham desire’ these other comments from Winston Graham perfectly align with this. For instance, Winston Graham gave an interview published by Opelousas -Daily World in 1978 where as mentioned at the start of this essay he said that after Ross 'has her (Elizabeth) (he discovers) that he is really in love with his wife. Against any suggestion of an ongoing simmering love or ‘thing’ between them Winston Graham specifically expressed a finality in the matter when he further stated that 'the (first) four books culminated in the 'completed cycle' of the relationship of Ross and Elizabeth.' While he then explained that Elizabeth's ongoing presence in the next set of books was to support the new 'theme of the parentage of Elizabeth's child', there may have been ongoing frustration between her and Ross on this in the those books but any narrative of romance or desire between them was non existent. In keeping with that idea despite an emotional meeting with Elizabeth in 'the Four Swans' Graham still narrated Ross wanting to share the good news for a second time with Demelza that his feelings for Elizabeth were not comparable to his for her. Otherwise, separate from this paternity issue and her death Ross’s thoughts and interaction with Elizabeth were passing and minimal respectively across the three books until her death and even afterwards.
In reinforcing the validity of the happy ending of 'Warleggan' for Ross and Demelza Winston opened up their story in 'The Black Moon' explaining that ‘the warmth of their reconciliation had been full of passion’ and ‘had brought them closer in some ways than they had ever been before, all defences down.' He then cast them as more affectionate than before so that the other significance of 9th May which was that it remains celebrated as victory day for Europe in regards to World War 2, could also and quite easily be aligned with and reflected in the triumphant rebirth of their marriage following the death of Ross's ‘sham desire’ for Elizabeth.
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