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The narrative centres on Victor's increasing efforts to trap Frances into a relationship with him.
He participates in an "umngeni" where he challenges Benedict to a fight, passing his shirt to
Frances which makes him appear as her suitor.
Helmina later confines Frances to her room in punishment but she escapes and wonders down to the
river. There she finds Victor by accident -- and he forces himself upon her in a sensual kiss.
Walter returns from Mbokothwe to find that there has been a twist in the triangular relationship between
himself, Frances and Victor. Helmina Smythe fuels this twist by cunning half-truths and white lies to both
Walter and Frances.
VICTOR'S GROWING LUST
Victor is related to Frances only through marriage but they have been together since early childhood.
Indeed, Frances looks upon him as an older brother.
The isolation of the mission, however, sometimes draws disparate people towards each other.
Victor is about 21 while Frances is 18 years of age. Each are reaching the stage where sexual urges are
beginning to emerge. Frances is still innocent but the same cannot be said of Victor.
It quickly becomes evident that Victor has already had a sexual relationship with the former wheelwright's
daughter. Indeed, he was probably saved from an embarrassing marriage only by her father's assault on
Sonwabo and the family's dismissal from the mission.
The event, however, initiated Victor into the sexual world and he wants more. With the wheelwright's
daughter gone, there is no-one else on the mission except Frances.
Initially Walter was not perceived as a threat. When Victor catches Walter teaching Frances to play the
piano, however, he realises by the expression on both their faces that the missionary is indeed an
adversary.
The young man's manipulative skills are therefore stretched to the maximum. He must make an urgent
plan which will not only rid him of his adversary but will secure Frances to him for all time.
It is the moment for his greatest game which he dares not lose. His goal is Frances but in this game she
must lose her reputation forever.
She must become his -- and he will achieve this by forcing her to have sexual intercourse with him.
Thereafter her only salvation in a hostile Victorian world will be through marriage to him.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
CHAPTER 5:
"The irritation Frances had felt with Victor six months before was tempered with something else: her
own restlessness."
- Explain the meaning of this "restlessness" in Frances. (4)
[Need help?]
Frances is surely beginning to feel the first flutters of puberty, even though she is already about 18 years
of age.
She is, of course, totally unaware of what is happening to her because, back in Victorian times, nobody
would have taken the trouble to explain puberty to her.
Did you know that the age of puberty has been dropping steadily over the past few decades? About 100
years ago, a girl went into puberty only at about the age of 18.
With puberty, then, Frances is becoming sensually aware and, of course, the only male roughly her own
age is Victor -- not that she would even think of having sex with him because her moral norms would stop
her until she was at least engaged to him.
Nevertheless, she is beginning to become aware of his maleness -- and she finds it exciting.
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How would the following events at the "umngeni" have been viewed in a Victorian context, i.e. by
someone like Emily Farborough or Helmina Smythe?
- Victor shedding his shirt to fight Benedict. (2)
[Need help?]
It was considered ungentlemanly for a man to shed his shirt in front of a lady.
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- Frances holding Victor's shirt and watching the fight. (2)
[Need help?]
Accepting a man taking off his shirt and then holding it for him would have made him appear as a suitor.
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- Victor's outburst of temper upon losing the stick-fight with Benedict. (2)
[Need help?]
A fight was quite acceptable as long as it was conducted within the rules. If one lost a fight, one
surrendered with grace. To lose one's temper upon defeat, however, was not gentlemanly.
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"And Mr Brownley," said Helmina suddenly . . . "I believe he finds you very tiresome at times."
- Why did Helmina tell this blatant lie to Frances? (4)
[Need help?]
Helmina had been tutor to the children but they had now grown up. Very soon there would be no work for
her. Before long she might be forced off the mission -- and then find herself descending into working
class!
Walter offered her the chance of rescue. If he married her, she would become the wife of a missionary
which would have been a most honourable position for her. Indeed, Walter was her only chance of
salvation.
Initially she would not have perceived Frances as a danger because everyone believed Frances would
marry Victor. When Helmina realised that Frances was in fact becoming a rival, however, the result was
electrifying.
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- What effect does this lie have on Frances? (4)
[Need help?]
For Frances, Helmina's lies would have been devastating. After all, Frances trusted Walter. Indeed,
Walter was the only person in whom she could confide.
Although she did not fully believe Helmina, Frances nevertheless acts as though Helmina had told the
truth and she begins to give Walter the cold shoulder.
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When narrating the scene where Frances meets Victor at the river, the author only hints at what really
happens. She leaves the rest to the imagination and ingenuity of the reader.
- What does happen? How does Frances feel about what has happened? How does Victor feel about
what has happened? (6)
[Need help?]
Victor kissed her, did he not? A slow, sensuous kiss.
There's little question that Frances enjoyed being kissed while it was happening but later she would have
had a profound sense of guilt.
After all, she had been brought up within contemporary moral norms which viewed even kissing as
something to be done only after engagement.
And remember that Frances had a very fundamentalist view about the wrath of God which would be
unleashed at even minor infringements of the law.
It seems, on the other hand, that Victor had no sense of guilt whatever -- only delight in his conquest.
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CHAPTER 6:
"Did a spot of fishing . . . " God Almighty! What was there to fish for in that drought-raddled river?"
- What does Walter think happened between Victor and Frances at the river? What affect does this
knowledge have on Walter? (10)
[Need help?]
It's difficult to know exactly what Walter thinks.
It is possible that he thought Victor and Frances had had sexual intercourse -- but is it likely he would
think they had gone that far? After all, Victorian women did not have sex outside of marriage.
It is more probable that he believed that Frances and Victor were involved in deep, sensuous kissing.
That, however, still had serious implications because only engaged or married people kissed in that way.
If so, it would indicate that Frances and Victor had at least implicitly given themselves to each other, i.e.
they were regarding themselves as engaged.
It is clear that Walter is infatuated with Frances but, if she were indeed engaged, then he had to put her
out of his mind. A Victorian gentleman would never come between two people if they were seriously
becoming a couple.
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The author enlightens us with an explanation of many of the emotional difficulties which Benedict faces
at St Matthias Mission.
- Explain these difficulties. (5)
[Need help?]
In analysing this question, you need to explore the problems of a young man who is neither English nor
Xhosa.
If he had been accepted fully as a member of the Farborough family, there would have been no confusion
but that hadn't happened.
On the other hand, the Xhosa boys were going off to initiation and were coming back as men. In their
eyes, Benedict would be still a boy.
How could he adjust to such a situation without losing face -- and suffering daily humiliation?
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Why does Father Charles forbid the "umngeni"? (6)
[Need help?]
Father Charles (and Emily) saw initiation as depraved.
For Father Charles, it wasn't so much the circumcision ritual itself that was the problem but he intimated
that some form of mock sexuality went with it.
In other words, the boys were encouraged to participate in intercourse to prove their manhood, but
presumably without penetration of the women.
This act, however, naturally had its consequences because what young man is strong enough to withhold
himself at the last minute? The result was unwanted children.
In any case, the Victorians frowned upon sexuality in whatever form except within the marital union -- and
so the initiation's mock intercourse was seen as depraved and therefore intrinsically evil.
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