Vivie Warren:
Today I received a letter from Reverend Samuel in the mail. I have yet to speak to him since the day I learned of the truth about his relationship with my mother. I do not think I can bear to see his face again after learning that he is my father. Never in my life have I felt more betrayed than I did that night. For my entire life, I have had to wonder who my father is and what happened to him. I am very grateful for what my mother has sacrificed for my upbringing, and my life would not have been much different with a father in it. However, it hurts now to know that my father was a man that has been in my life but never accepted responsibility for the paternal role like he should have. This man was not present in my upbringing and was never my father, and I cannot accept that he wants to fulfill that role in my life now. However, what disgusts me the most is that both my mother and Reverend Samuel neglected to tell me the truth, knowing that Frank and I are half-siblings. Frank has continuously and openly expressed romantic interest in me, and the thought of an intimate relationship with my own blood-related sibling repulses me. Although I feel sympathetic after reading the letter, I simply cannot find it in my heart to forgive Reverend Samuel for a lie that my mother and him sustained for over 20 years.
Researcher:
After the latest analysis of Vivie's scrapbook entries, some light can finally be shed on her family life. The item that Vivie pasted into her scrapbook is a letter from a man known as Reverend Samuel. It is essentially a letter apologizing for deceiving her by not telling her that he was her father, and asking for her forgiveness as well. In her entry, surprisingly, Vivie says that she is grateful for what her mother has sacrificed for her upbringing. In all her previous journal entries, she speaks as though she loathes her mother and has no affection for her at all. She also says that her upbringing would not have been significantly different with a father in her life. This is due to the social norms of marriage in the Victorian era. "The tasks of parenting, that is, feeding, nurturing, and training, fell to women and were associated with mothering, a distinction embedded in poor law relief by the end of the nineteenth century. In contrast, father practices were grounded in earning sufficient wages to support the family economy" (Strange 1008). In short, the mother takes care of the children and the father brings home the money. As a result, the mother has a much greater influence and stronger connection with the kids than the father, so it is understandable that Vivie's upbringing would not have been greatly affected with the presence of a father. Overall, it seems as though Vivie is more enraged with the fact that Reverend Samuel and Mrs. Warren have been lying to her for her whole life, rather than the fact that she could have had a father figure in her life.
Works Cited:
STRANGE, J.-M. (2012). FATHERHOOD, PROVIDING, AND ATTACHMENT IN LATE VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN WORKING-CLASS FAMILIES. The Historical Journal, 55(4), 1007–1027. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23352188
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT. https://chat.openai.com/