INSTITUTIONAL IDEALISM
Institution of marriage and courting?
Maude Clare: "Your father thirty years ago had just your tale to tell" (analepsis, transgenerality)
memorialisation, death & commemoration
gender and feminine ideals
Reality:
Remember: "When you can no longer hold me by the hand", "You tell me of our future that you plann'd" - unwelcome restraint and imbalance of power
Maude Clare: Thomas, Nell and Maude Clare all described as "pale" - unifies by pallour and discontent that the traditions of the institution of marriage impose
"He's my Lord for better and worse" - Nell submitting and prolonging/upholding a corrupt institution
Twice: "It is still ripe. Better wait awhile...Till the corn grows brown." (commodification of women)
Posits a metaphorical marriage to God/faith, "All that I have I bring, All that I am I give"