Mariella is named in part after her Aunt Isabella, partly after her mother, Maria. It seemed important to give my narrator a name which underlined her passive status – as daughter of the house, not even possessing an original name – at the beginning of the book, but which at the same time is unusual and rather powerful – which is Mariella at the end of the book.
Mariella’s character is heavily influenced by my understanding of Victorian women – the stereotype of the ideal Angel of the House – passive, acquiescent, sweet-natured, maternal. Mariella’s great gift is with the needle, a skill she learns from her dying Aunt Eppie for whom the stereotype has all gone wrong as she’s married a drunkard. But of course in the book Mariella’s ideal life is turned on its head, first by the demands of cousin Rosa, then by the discovery that the man she loves has possibly fallen for another woman. Mariella therefore has to find resources rather different to a love of the needle and the hearth.
But the irony is, and I discovered this rather to my surprise, that Mariella finds strength not in discarding her old ways, but by building on them. The needle, for instance, is extremely useful in the Crimea, where the army’s clothes are falling apart. And she has learned to be persistent and faithful. When the chips are down, Mariella survives in an extraordinarily harsh environment.
Rosa is in some ways the other side of Mariella. She’s a rebel, a dreamer; ambitious, wayward, sometimes strident. She is brought up in an adjoining valley to Florence Nightingale, who is her role model. Both are quite ruthless in pursuing their own goals. When Rosa’s stepfather dies she sees her chance and lands both herself and her permanently ailing mother on the Lingwoods of Clapham. Had she not acted swiftly, Rosa would have been doomed to the life of the spinster daughter of a sick mother.
Mariella, even as a little girl, finds Rosa dangerous. Rosa doesn’t stick to the rules, or the boundaries. She has fallen out with her stepfather because she sees with startling clarity what lies beneath his great fortune. Rosa is never content with half-truths, or with dabbling in life. She wants to make the world a better place but finds herself without a role or a skill. In the Crimea she becomes something of a legend because, unlike other British nurses, she travels right up to the front line and works among the soldiers.
Mariella’s assumption, for most of the book, is that she is weak while Rosa is strong. In fact Rosa recognises Mariella’s strength from the first, and is enchanted by it.
It’s significant that I gave Henry a rather tricky-to-say name – Thewell - and I think it reflects that fact that his is a very ambivalent character, and again rooted firmly in his time. One of the models for Henry is the poet John Keats, who was himself an apothecary, had consumption, and was the victim of an agonisingly unfulfilled love for his neighbour, Fanny Brawne.
Henry’s past is a tragic one; his father is a failed businessman and takes to drink, his mother dies of consumption. Fortunately for Henry, he is adopted by the Lingwood family and given an education. He rapidly becomes established as a doctor, and is thrilled to be asked to go to the Crimea to assess the medical facilities there.
But in some ways Henry is trapped both by his debt to the Lingwoods and by his profession. He loves Mariella and his future seems sure. He is astute enough to see dramatic changes ahead in medicine (particularly in anaesthetics and the control of infection). But in the end he is a tortured soul because he cannot escape the responsibility conferred on him by his knowledge, loyalty and education. In the Crimea he is confronted by chaos and is almost impotent in the face of so much carnage.
Max, being male, is able to live the life that his stepsister Rosa dreams about, and she is furious with him for wasting his opportunities. He knows that his home-life is corrupt and as a child is rebellious and refuses to be educated. The army becomes his surrogate home, and he excels there. But he has powerful loyalties to the ones he loves; Rosa, the maid Nora and his dead mother. It is not until the Crimea that these loyalties are tested.
Max is wild and delights in being unconventional. He terrifies Henry with his antics in the Crimea; holding races and exposing himself to unnecessary danger. But in the end, like every other character in the book, he too is looking for love.
