Her own mind or her parent's mind? (Elizabeth: A Love for Ross Poldark -Pt3)

"What I have done I have done willingly and of my own mind."
                                                                         Elizabeth Poldark

So far in the journey looking at Elizabeth's love for Ross Poldark it has been established that she did not keep the faith with him and that this was not because she believed he was dead before she chose to marry Francis. As to whether we should still believe that she truly loved him, parental pressure is a potential theory that may support this and explain why Elizabeth Chynoweth chose Francis Poldark instead of Ross. Was Elizabeth acting with her own mind or following the wishes of her parents? That is what is to be explored.

Did Elizabeth only marry Francis instead of Ross Poldark because of family pressure?

The theory which parental pressure is based around for Elizabeth is that her parents did not or would not have allowed her to marry Ross Poldark. If this is the case one might conclude that although she went with Francis she really did love Ross but was simply unable to follow her heart. This idea is certainly perpetuated by the latest TV adaption rather than the books. However whilst it is clear that her mother Mrs Chynoweth did not hold Ross in high esteem and would probably openly admit that she did not like him, there is actually nothing very conclusive and significant in the books to document that Elizabeth was firstly under intense parental pressure to marry Francis and reject Ross and secondly, whether it was intense or mild pressure, that she objected to their wishes and did not herself still want to marry Francis either way. It is therefore necessary to explore these points in order to understand if parental pressure was a real issue in this story. If so then again this could be the explanation for Elizabeth's decision rather than a lack of love for Ross.

What evidence is there of any significant pressure to marry Francis?  Mrs Chynoweth was not featured much in the entire Poldark saga but she was there at Francis and Elizabeth's engagement dinner. She is the person who gladly announced the engagement to an unsuspecting Ross. Much can be made of the fact that in both the latest TV adaption and the books she sent Elizabeth out of the room at the dinner in order for Elizabeth to fetch her shawl for her and then used this opportunity to tell Ross of the engagement news before Elizabeth returned back to the dinner room. The first thought might be that this was a sinister act and the first evidence of parental pressure. On the other hand it may well have been an act of parental kindness and protectiveness to spare her daughter the awkwardness of publicly facing her ex and his potentially angry and upset reaction in that environment and thus spoiling the dinner. It could not have been known whether following the shock of having been led to believe over two years at war that he would be returning for Elizabeth's hand and then to find out in this manner that this was not the case, that he might then have made a horrible scene. On reflection it was probably quite a sensible intervention by Mrs Chynoweth and the discomfort and hesitation of all the other parties there too, (including Verity), and their reluctance to deliver the bad news to him, supports this and gives Mrs Chynoweth some justification for her intervention.

The Good Husband In The Beginning Pt4 (The Real Francis Poldark)

To know the real Francis requires an understanding of both the good and bad aspects of his character and therefore this includes recognising the side of him that was a good husband as well as the times where he seemed to fail as a husband. Indeed Francis may often be wrongly given the sole blame for his and Elizabeth's unhappy years of marriage. The second post in 'The Real Francis Poldark' series called 'A bad and Unfaithful Husband' did document Francis's bad husbandry of Elizabeth during the middle period of this marriage where he wallowed in disappointment of it. Because of this disappointment he leant more excessively into his vices and into unfaithfulness too. No doubt for a period this established a kind of catch 22 scenario of ensuring a stalemate and no positive progress in the marriage for a while. However the blame is not necessarily one sided and therefore not solely resting on Francis's shoulders. In fact it is arguable that outside of the period of disillusionment Francis was probably more invested and put in more effort than Elizabeth did for the chance of an amicable married life. 

In the original story of the books not only is there narrative of Francis as set out in the last post in this series, whereby he was 'The Loving And Besotted Fiancé', but as was even recognised by Elizabeth there is also narrative of Francis as a good and loving husband in the first year of his marriage and a good and amiable one in the last couple years of it too. 

This post looks at the initial period at the start of Francis and Elizabeth's marriage. And so this is before that dark middle period where it deteriorated. Whilst it was in this first year where Francis showed promise as a 'good husband' and that because of this he was appealing to Elizabeth, a follow up post called 'The Good Husband In The End' will explore how after the deterioration and the unhappy times that came with that middle period of their marriage, Francis did remerge once again in the final years of the marriage to fulfil his initial promise.