Mr.Mason.....ew
Just my thoughts about Mr.Mason in general...
It has been clearly pointed out in class that Mr.Mason triggered the people to burn down the mansion and hence is responsible for the death of Pierre and the madness of the mother. So I already hated him. But after reading last night's reading, I am simply unable to contain my absolute hatred towards this character. So here we go...
The first argument that people might make for Mr.Mason is that he treated Antoinette well even after her mother died. He gave her clothes, visited her, and even arranged a marriage for her so that she could be guaranteed a happy life (lol.) However I read this a bit differently. I am pretty sure that a main motive for Mr.Mason was to keep Antoinette happy and sane so that he could get her married, not because he really wants to see her happy, but so he could get a good deal with the Rochester family and build family connections through marriage. Even Aunt Cora tells Antoinette that she will still look fine on her wedding day, demonstrating that all Antoinette is useful for to her family is marriage.
Now the reason my hatred for Mr.Mason increased after this specific reading was because we heard the the full story about the mother from Antoinette and what Mr.Mason did to her after the fire. Just as Rochester locked Antoinette up in a tower, Mr.Mason paid a black couple to take care of Annette. The black couple are similar to Grace Poole except for that they are about 10 times worse. It seemed that it was common knowledge to anybody who knew anything about the black couple that Annette was sexually assaulted multiple times by the man and possibly other men. And yet Mr.Mason didn't do anything. One possibility was that Mr. Mason knew but still left Annette there (which makes him a monster), and the other possibility is that Mr.Mason did not know about Annette's situation (which makes him a monster for not caring enough to visit her or ask about her.) Either way, he's a monster.
In many ways Mr.Mason and Rochester treat their wives the similar manners: the husbands are the main cause for the insanity of their wives and then they choose to lock their wives away in a horrible place only to increase that insanity.
I never got good vibes from Mr. Mason either. He definitely seemed more concerned with his own well-being than anyone else's. I agree that his love for Antoinette seemed artificial, emphasized by the fact that he literally bought it with dresses and other gifts. He was never in tune to Antoinette's suffering like Christophine was, and definitely was not a mentor for her.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your feelings about Mr. Mason. The part that irked me the most about Mr. Mason was when he visited Antoinette the last time in the convent. It was the same feeling to me as in the Metamorphosis when the parents looked at Grete knowing full well she was going to be married. The exploitation of the children for personal gain I think was perhaps the most off-putting thing about Mr. Mason, and ultimately caused me to distrust him.
ReplyDeleteMr. Mason always seemed like a scumbag to me too. He makes it very clear that his financial interests take priority over just about everything else, he only marries in to the family to make a profit and uses Antoinette in a similar way. He's extremely racist and sexist, he ends up getting their house burned down and Pierre killed, and he treats Annette horribly. Even though he was a husband and father by law, in practice he was only ever a greedy businessman trying to make a profit by exploiting people who are disempowered.
ReplyDeleteI, too, thought Mason wasn't a father figure to Antoinette; he bought her love with gifts that not only weren't wanted but also weren't necessary or useful to her - showing that he had no interest in her actual needs. I also disliked him because of his elitist, colonial mindset. He constantly referred to his household workers as children and undermined the natives' skill, intelligence, and capacity for action. All in all, I've never bought his well-meaning but ill-informed persona which was lowkey pushed in our class because he had multiple opportunities to educate himself. Great work, Ayah!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree. I didn't really like Mr. Mason as a character in general or the way he treated Annette during their marriage.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, the first thing I thought when I read about how he kept bringing her gifts and commenting about her dancing was that he was going to marry her. . . :D
I also despise Mr. Mason as well. Not only was he extremely selfish and abusive towards Annette, but frustratingly oblivious to the family's situation as he was blinded by his English power.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that his visits to Antoinette weren't in the best of intentions. Not only were they exclusively for his own endeavors, but they also struck me as creepy at times.
I think the fact that Mr. Mason was so detached from Annette after the fire at Coulibri is illuminating of why he married her in the first place. His lack of care for her shows that he just wanted to marry her as an opportunity to get land and make money. This was presented as him "taking care "of a poor widow. Now he is similarly "taking care" or Antoinette by providing her with pretty clothes and a great choice of husband, but like you said he is really only looking for money and connections.
ReplyDelete