I apologize for my delay in posting (I know you have all been waiting with bated breath for my next installment). I enjoyed my Labor Day weekend with a few Shipyard Pumpkinhead beers and then started school again!! I just began my Masters in Humanities at Arcadia University and had my first class Tuesday night. The course is an interdisciplinary course on the year 1859. A lot of cool things happened in 1859. Darwin’s Origin of Species was published, Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde was written, Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities, and John Stuart Mill wrote On Liberty. Big year.
So, firstly, I hate Dickens. I think reading his writing is a chore and I think he is an ass. That’s my scholarly opinion. Great Expectations was probably the most painful book I’ve ever forced myself through (I say that because there were a few books that I just put down that I dislike equally, but I actually completed Great Expectations). I am not looking forward to reading A Tale of Two Cities, but at least we’re dealing with Dickens first so it will be over quickly. Well, part of the course is to write a 3-5 page informal paper on some sub-category of our topic of conversation’s life. I chose to write on Catherine Dickens and Ellen Ternan. There is not much fact on what happened with Dickens and Ternan (his assumed mistress), but apparently there was enough to make a movie on it.
The Invisible Woman began for me as a supplement to an assignment and it ended as a spark to actually look forward to researching Dickens’ and Ternan’s relationship. It did not change my attitude on Dickens; he was a man who thought that grand gestures and charity would make up for him being a prick to his family. He separated from his wife because she got fat, well that’s okay, he donated a lot of money to a hospital! He’s a great man! DIckens was a celebrity and played the audience. He knew what image he needed to be successful and kept all of his dark and dirty secrets secluded in homes. Literally, he put Catherine in a secluded home and wouldn’t let their children see her and kept Ternan in a home and kept her secret so he wouldn’t ruin their reputation. Great guy. I don’t know, here’s a thought, don’t leave your wife who bore you all your children for a kid who isn’t fat yet. Guess what, she will be after popping out as many kids as Catherine did. Well, that never came to fruition because Dickens died and left Ternan to get married and have children of her own with her husband.
No one actually knows what really happened between Dickens and Ternan. Scholars argue that she was his mistress or that he just took care of her. Well, I’m going to be realistic and say that she was his mistress, obviously. She was a young kid who had a celebrity crush on Dickens; she was a fan of his writing. Guess what, if MIchael Weatherly (Tony from NCIS and my favorite slightly too old for me celebrity) asked me to be his mistress, I’d do it. So would Ternan. Funnily enough, the only actual accounts of their relationship are from Dickens’ children. I’m sure they’re unbiased. They claim that Ternan was pregnant, but lost the baby. That would be a quick way to get revenge on her by soiling her reputation, but it could also be true, who knows. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there is no written documentation because Ternan conveniently gave birth in Paris before a fire that wiped out most of the documents. I guess the world will never know.
This is supposed to be about the movie though. I get off on tangents so easily. Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones play Dickens and Ternan. It was a great movie. If anyone can make me like a character that is a bit unsavory it’s Fiennes (Voldemort anyone? or his character in Schindler’s List, which is arguable the most evil character in movie history). Now I am not comparing Dickens to a Nazi or Voldemort, that is a gross statement, I’m just saying that Dickens was your typical narcissistic asshat who thought his shit didn’t stink, but Fiennes makes him almost likable (probably due to Fiennes general attractiveness. It’s amazing what character flaws we will overlook for a pretty face). I really don’t like Dickens. Jones was excellent as Ternan, despite the fact that I couldn’t stop trying to place her the whole movie. Doctor Who. She was in an episode of Doctor Who. She’s been in other things, too, but I haven’t seen them. If the movie did anything, it made me interested. I immediately began researching, which is good considering I need to write a paper. Fortunately, I can give my opinion in said paper, which is what I do best!
Moral of the story: if you’re at Redbox and are considering movies, The Invisible Woman won’t disappoint.
That Flighty Temptress 