You seem to have a worse impression of the archdeacon than I do, themary. I wonder if you could be specific about where you saw him as disingenuous. I don't think of him as manipulative, in the sense that, though he certainly wants people to do what he wants them to do, he is quite forthright about bullying them into line (whereas I think of 'manipulative' as indicating a certain sneakiness as far as keeping the true goal hidden while you maneuver people there without their knowledge).themary wrote:The archdeacon is as manipulative and disingenuous as I suspected him to be.
So it seems that Eleanor Harding's outward mettle was not a true reflection of her inner feelings. We're told that she isn't quite as sure she was in the right as she pretended to be, i.e., that perhaps she isn't quite justified in rejecting Mr. Bold (and his lawsuit) in the way she did. I think she is certainly justified in reacting emotionally as she did, regardless of whether or not Mr. Bold is in any way to be faulted for pursuing the lawsuit.
It didn't improve my opinion of Mr. Bold to be told that he felt elation upon seeing the newspaper article, in spite of the awareness he must have had, of how hurtful it must be to Mr. Harding.
I was somewhat annoyed at the portrait of the Grantly children, with each of the boys meriting paragraphs of praise and the two girls dismissed as uninteresting. But perhaps all but the most extraordinary girls were stifled into dullness in those days?
I was also surprised at the portrait of Dr. Grantly reading his morning away while taking pains to make it appear that he was working! I wouldn't have expected such furtive behavior from him -- but then, he's so very conscious of his image (to use modern parlance). We're so lucky to have Mrs. Grantly -- she really humanizes the archdeacon.
Regarding the will and Sir Abraham's opinion, there is no interest in engaging the opposition on the meat of the matter (the intent of the will), but rather, they hope to defeat them by technicalities, there being sufficient of these to exhaust the other side's resources before they should ever get close to making a sound case? Hardly a satisfying approach for poor Mr. Harding, who really wants to know if he has been doing wrong all these years.