Gmail / 22.-2 The character sketch of Lilian Matfield
.docThe character sketch of Lilian Matfield
At
the very beginning of the book M.makes an impression of a snooty
(высокомерный) and condescending (снисходительный)
secretary,
indifferent to what is
going
on in T &D, possessing neither outstanding appearance not
character, just a usual out-of-the-crowd woman.
She
is supported by her father’s monthly payments
and lives in
a
residential club for girls from middle-class homes in the country
compelled
by economic conditions to live in London as cheaply as possible. The
place is so unbearable
and
the
institution atmosphere so oppressive that the only thing M.M. wants
is to get away.
She never ceases to curse the place where she has to share life with
all kinds of shadow and
inferior people: young naive girls
and old
spinsters. The whole sight seems too depressive and cheerless and
resembles a cage for Miss M. dreams and fantasies. She wasn't pretty,
but her voice,
manners, all pointed to that she nursed some huge overwhelming
grievance (недовольство) against her life,
but though she gave tongue
to
a thousand little grievances every day,
she
never
mentioned.
The idea of a man warms strongly her secret heart. If she married him she might want to domasticate in a beautiful old country house in which she has spent so many imaginary Christmases. She longs for love and attention, looking forward to start a new life, tired of dullness and shabbiness of everyday life and office routine. She hates it and wants to run away from it all to a deserted island and spend the rest of her life in isolation with a handsome man from her fantasies. She wants to evade reality and escape from her secretly imaginary world. Her feelings have already been hurt by a "monster and it's immensely difficult for her to revive faith in love and romance.
Miss M. is a young, energetic, good-looking woman, deeply dissatisfied with her present life and oppressed by the surrounding atmosphere and people waiting for her savior, her prince. As soon as the first candidate turns up, Lillian readily jumps at the chance, no matter how improper (неподходящий) and indecent it seems to look like. She creates an idealistic image of Mr. G. and falls in love.
For sure
she has doubts about her relationships but now it’s too late. She
patiently waits at the station
for her man, full of hopes and expectations and inevitably gets
disillusioned. Finally when
Lillian realizes that it's all in vain and that her savoir
isn't going to come,
she feels uncomfortable, foolish and develops disdain (презрение)
towards herself; her dreams and her imaginary world.