'Seeds of enmity had been sown time and again but never reached fruit. It seemed that the whole weight of years was coming to bear at once.'Demelza (Book four/Chapter three)George Warleggan is a major and vital character in Poldark. In this he played an antagonist role to Ross Poldark. He did so in antagonising Ross's business ventures, brushes with the law, and also in his friendships and love interests. When examining the relationship between Ross and George and how things escalated it seems clear that at the heart of it rested George's inferiority complex and his frustrations that Ross seemed to show no real respect or fear of him and was stubbornly unwilling to patronise him in any way. George's inability to forget an insult in particular drove his bitterness and hostility towards Ross to no end. As Ross somehow managed in the long game to rise above adversity and be well regarded and popular, George who might have thought him unfairly privileged seemed to at times feel a kind of resentment for him akin to jealousy. But for Ross, his growing contempt for George seemed rooted in his disdain for George's character and principles but also (and mainly) due to George's determination to impose an 'oppressive influence' not just over worthy and poorer men but over him too. It is in their clashes together that Graham showed that aside from insults made against his wife Demelza, the thing that Ross took as the next greatest offence was dealing with disloyalty from his friends in favour of George whom he eventually regarded as his greatest enemy. Except for with Demelza where Ross's love for her always seemed to overpower any anger directed to her regarding her errors of judgment, it would be raging anger that would eventually push Ross to violent reactions in the saga and in relation to disloyalty from Francis and Elizabeth Poldark.
What is also evident in the Ross and George story is that George would forever be consigned to bitterness against Ross but Ross did ultimately seek and reach out for peace with George or a 'live and let live' cease fire. Against his better wishes he would nevertheless find himself in an eternal battle with George that would last the full duration of the saga. Covering to the end of the second book this first blog journeys through this and sees how from a seed of enmity their hostile relationship built up gradually and grew into fruit of war.
Unfriendly School Days (Oil & Water)
It would be a misconception to think that George and Ross regarded themselves as clear enemies from the start of the Poldark story. The latest television adaption (2015-2019) inserted new story content that Ross bullied George in childhood and that at a point he even cruelly taunted him with frogs. This is not from the original and true Poldark story of the books. Instead it is still clear from the early school days that George and Ross were not close within a friendship circle. Agatha alluded to this when George visited Trenwith in the fourth book 'Warleggan'. Taking him down memory lane as he was on his way out of the Trenwith Estate from visiting Elizabeth, she told him "You were always Francis's friend. I remember, never Ross's."
As well as this Graham reflectively narrated in 'The Angry Tide' how Agatha had come to have a resentment for George but had suffered him only 'because he was a schoolfriend of Francis and '..she had witnessed his insignificance and gradual growth to significance.' Indeed Graham seemed to draw out George's insecurities and the wound that this period of 'insignificance' had instilled in George when in their 'Warleggan' conversation Agatha had gone on to mention that he had been nervous on his first visit to Trenwith as a child and did not have the wealth then that he had since acquired. Evidently hitting his sore spot George told her "You remind me of forgotten things, old Woman. Die soon,..." A couple of George's comments here and there give a better idea of his relationship with Ross in school. He once told Elizabeth in 'Jeremy Poldark' that it was something fundamental that he and Ross never saw "eye to eye" when they were at school and to his second wife Harriett Warleggan in the ninth book 'The Miller's Dance' he said "Ross and I...since the days we were at school together we have never found pleasure in each other's company...We are oil and water. There are few things he and I agree on..." But whilst it is clear they were far from best friends in the second book 'Demelza' Graham reported that 'These two had been inimical since their school days but had never come to an outright clash.'
