Ceirra Dixon is an English Education major, with an expected graduation date of spring 2021. She began her education at Prince George’s Community College and transferred to Bowie State University in the fall of 2019 with an Associates in English. Her favorite hobbies include dancing and spending time with her son. She’s an optimistic, hard-working young lady who aspires to become an English Educator in PG County.
Sorrow:
Sorrow is an 11-year-old orphan girl who was found half dead on a river bank. She was a captain’s daughter, and spent her childhood on the ship until it was wrecked. Sorrow proved that she was incapable of performing certain tasks: “The Sawyer’s wife named her Sorrow, for good reason, thought Lina, and following a winter of feeding the daft girl who kept wandering off getting lost, who knew nothing and worked less, a strange melancholy girl to whom her sons were paying very close attention, the sawyer’s wife asked her husband to get quit of her” (51). Although Sorrow didn’t know how to complete a lot of tasks, Mistress taught her how to sew and she became good at it.
When she gave birth to her first child, Lina told her that the baby was stillborn, and sent the baby off in the river. “Sorrow’s birthing came too soon…Although Sorrow thought she saw her own newborn yawn, Lina wrapped it in a piece of sacking and set it a-sail in the widest part of the stream ad far below the beavers dam” (page 123). Twin is the name of the imaginary friend that she became very acquainted with until she becomes pregnant with her second child that is by a Deacon. “She didn’t mind when they called her Sorrow so long as Twin kept using her real name” (116). Once Will and Scully help her deliver her second child, she renamed herself as “Complete”. Sorrow becomes complete because she no longer needs “Twin” to feel her empty void, she has her precious baby to fulfill that need.
Mistress:
Mistress (Rebekka Vaark) is the wife of Sir (Jacob Vaark), who owns a farm. “…Rebekka was ideal. There was not a shrewish bone in her body. She never raised her voice in anger. Saw to his needs, made the tenderest dumplings, took chores in a land completely strange to her with enthusiasm and invention, cheerful as a bluebird” (20). Her parents are religious, but they don’t display compassion towards Rebekka. At the age of 16, Rebekka’s father wanted her to be with Jacob so that he wouldn’t be responsible for her upkeep. “Rebekka’s mother objected to the sale –she called it that because the prospective groom had stressed reimbursement for clothing, expenses and a few supplies—not for love or need of her daughter…” (74). She oversees the farm while her husband goes to handle business (trade). Another fact about Rebekka is that she is distant from her local church, because they wouldn’t christen her children.
Rebekka had a few babies who have died at the infancy stage, except for one who lived until the age of 5. “Three dead infants in a row, followed by the accidental death of Patrician, their five-year-old, had unleavened her” (21). The death of their daughter Patrician saddens her; their daughter died by being kick in the head by a Horse. Her husband Jacob becomes ill and dies of smallpox, then she becomes ill. Rebekka doesn’t die from the illness; but since her husband died from the illness, she sends Florens on a journey to find the blacksmith to ensure her survival. There was a turning point near the end of the novel for Mistress, she thanked God when she became well. “On her knees, her head bowed, she seemed completely alone in the world…Thank you my Lord for the saving grace you have shown me” (129-130).
Psychoanalysis:
Psychoanalysis is a theory that involves the examining of people’s conscious and unconscious mind. Sigmund Freud teaches us that there are three levels of consciousness: Conscious, Subconscious, and Unconscious. Also, psychoanalysis is supposed to help to cure people’s mental disorders that may be caused from traumatic events in their past. Some people experience mental issues because they’re experiencing repressed fears; this is when a person develops a fear that can be triggered based off a past event. Both Sorrow and Rebekka are good examples for psychoanalysis because their backgrounds contribute to how they slowly develop into something positive.
Sorrow had a mental disorder and exercised her unconscious mind when she interacted with her imaginary friend, “Twin”. Twin is a person that Sorrow’s mind automatically created to fulfil her interest in having someone for comfort. Therefore, Twin disappears before Sorrow has her second baby and she can rename herself, because she no longer needs her imaginary friend. Rebekka has repressed memories of her daughter, Patrician’s death. “A moose moves through the trees at the edge of the clearing…Her eyes are big and stare. Her face loses its blood…Still Mistress trembles as though a wicked thing has come” (70). She is distraught because the moose reminds her of how her daughter died, and it triggered her fears. Although both had mental conflicts, they were able to move forward with their lives.
References:
Hill, Sarah & Buss, David. (2010). “The Evolutionary Psychology of Envy. Envy: Theory
and Research.” 60-70. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327953.003.0004.
Leary, Mark R. “Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection.” Dialogues in clinical
neuroscience vol. 17,4 (2015): 435-41.