my reaction to charlottes way of acting in chapters 9-15 was something along the lines of... WHAT IS SHE STUPID?!?! We don't live in a fairytail!! Not EVERYONE is going to make it out of this ALIVE!!! There is no 'and they lived happily ever after...' What do you think GUNS are for?!?!? The elegant craftminship?!?! Heck no thats what statues are for!! Guns = killing. And why does she think no one else is allowed to have a gun?!?! because the captain lets then take the guns whenever they wanted?!?! If THAT was the case, he'd be LONG DEAD. I mean if he was actually a GOOD captain, no one would think of shooting him down! Henceforth why none of them are allowed to have guns! Because Captain Jaggery is just THAT HORRIBLE. I mean if it was a family fight, sure, some dirty looks and some angry words, but hey, you have to hate someone ALOT to want to shoot them down. It's not "Hey give me back that teddy bear! I've got a gun right here and if you don't give me it back, YOU WON'T LIVE TO SEE A TOMORROW." Uh, no. It's got to be something more serious, more dangerous, more personal. And why does she think the crew would lie to her about what Captain Jaggery has done? Do they want anything from her? Do they necessarily think she'll earn them anything? Does she think that they care for a snotty, selfish, stupid girl that can't seem to open her eyes wide enough? No, they don't. So there is no reason that the crew would lie to her about Jaggery's past. It's not 'I'm jealous, why doesn't she like us more?!' I mean they're obviously trying to tell her something important!! I mean Charlotte is basically thinking 'if that dog is supposedly the most vicious, dangerous dog in the world, and it has a nice, fluffy brown coat and silky ears, they HEY, they must all be lying!! This is the sweetest dog in the world (and she goes to pet the dog and it bites her head off)' Which is basically what Captain Jaggery represents. Sure, he's got the broad shoulders, the fine clothes, the looks, but a murderer may have that too, (I just remembered HE'S a murderer, on second thought) and there's nothing that stops them from cutting off someone's head, broad shoulders or not. So I suppose you've figured out that I don't think her decisions are exactly.... wise? Yeah, actually the opposite. Try arrogant, blind, and lacking about a mountain of intelligence. Never mind that she went to school and had a governess. I don't think 'foolish' quite does it.
Evaluate and Connect...
I think the idiot Charlotte here (If you need evidence of how she's and idiot, please, look above. Oh, oh wait, you need textual evidence...) "'A rack of muskets. All loaded. But locked, the key secured. You have my word, Miss Doyle, there are no other guns aboard but mine." "I'm very glad, sir," I replied with a shiver." (pg 47) Everything is locked up for a reason. Sometimes so people won't steal it, and others to make sure whatever it is that's locked up is not used in the wrong way. So, why would Captain Jaggery lock up his guns? Because it's fun? Because he doesn't want a little boy accidentally coming in and shooting his himself? Well, considering this isn't day care camp and there are no little boys, it must be because he doesn't want anyone stealing the guns and using them. And there is no reason a crew member should shoot another. They barely have enough people as it is. It doesn't matter if you're a tad annoying. If you can work and do what you need to, then heck, welcome! So besides the crew... who else is there? Charlotte and Captain Jaggery. Since Charlotte hasn't done anything to put there lives in danger YET, then she's out. And who does that leave? Captain Jaggery. Which also explains why HE keeps the guns and not someone else. The victims need to protect themselves, like they say 'keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.' Just like Captain Jaggery, who's enemies are the guns and the crew, keeps the guns and has Charlotte spy on the crew. I think Charlotte was trying to befriend the captain because he was something she was accustomed to aboard this ship as the only lady among a very manly and not very gentlemen like crew. "And he--I saw it in a glance--was a gentlemen, the kind of man I was used to. A man to be trusted. In short, an man to whom I could talk and upon whom I could reply" (pg 29) (Yes, I know, a person can be dumb, but THAT dumb?) Also, she thinks he is the only one that can match up to her status, who she can talk to and rely on simply because he's a captain and dresses nice. Never mind what's on the inside. "Never had I met with such impertinence! That this Zachariah, my inferior, a cook, should tell such a slanderous tale of violence and cruelty regarding Captain Jaggery to me--as though it were a confidence--was deeply mortifying." (42) She thinks she is higher than all of them, that there is apparently a social status on this ship, and after Captain Jaggery, she is just one step below, and under that, a BILLION steps below, she can almost see the crew standing there, looking up at her. And despite the fact that she is centuries younger and has not experienced half of what they have, just because she's got the nice clothes and the manners, somehow that makes her better than them. "Though I desired to make it clear that the crew and I were on different levels......" (pg 68)
Also, she can't accept herself as something other than what people expect her to be. "Later on, I admit--I tried the garments on, finding them surprisingly comfortable until, shocked, I remembered myself. Hurriedly, I took them off, resolving not to stoop so low again." (pg 70) Even though she herself admitted they were very comfortable, she couldn't bring herself to wear it because it was 'unlady-like'.
I think Charlotte's decision to join the crew was partly because she had no one else that would accept her, "...the crew would have nothing but loathing for me who had so betrayed them.....And Captain Jaggery? Without intending to hadn't I done him a great wrong when i'd cut his face--albeit unintentionally--with the whip?" (pg 103) and if she had to pick between the crew and Jaggery, obviously she'd pick the crew because she had something to make up to the them (when she betrayed them). "Yet I told myself i must accept my responsibility so as to prove to those men that it had been my head that was wrong, not my heart." (pg 111-112) Also, I think she felt she owed it to Zachariah. But in addition to that, I think she was trying to run away from the Captain, to distance herself from him and his evil ways. "'I want nothing to do with him! I hate him!" (pg 107)
Picture is at...
http://files.clustershot.com/files/photos/large/441606.jpg
I chose this because it represents a hurricane in a way. The middle is bright and shining, just like how in the eye of a hurricane all is calm and relaxed, but when you leave the eye the world as you know it is once again thrown into chaos and confusion, like Charlotte was during the storm. It was the first time she experienced anything like that, and the first time so much depended on her. Also, she had to put her life in such a dangerous position. Even though she climbed the mast before, she never climbed it in a storm and certainly never in a HURRICANE. Also, the picture kind of looks like lightning that is swirling around, like the fearful, paniced emotions in the people on the boat. Also, lightning is hard to predict, and when it comes, it's deadly and dangerous, like a hurricane. You never know just how strong it can be until you land in the middle of it.
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