mcpa1597 wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2026 9:35 pm
2. I forgot to mention that one reason I would like to know Victoria's reaction is that in Chapter 2-Part 2, Eleanor genuinely seemed to believe her mother would blame her for her own assault.
That is true. But to me that is part of the fun writing in third person limited. You get Eleanor's perspective, not the truth told by an omniscient narrator. To give you a concrete example where you know as a reader that Eleanor is wrong, look at this paragraph from chapter 2 part 1 after she just entered Robertson's office:
Claire wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 5:18 pm
For a moment, she didn’t know what to do next. Robertson looked at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read. Irritated? Unsure? Nervous? She couldn’t put her finger on it. During orientation, upper-year students had told her a lot about him, mostly praise. And after attending his lecture for a while, she could confirm most of it. But there was one thing she couldn’t agree with: He didn’t seem like the confident man she had been told about. On the contrary, he often looked shy and nervous to her. Like he was struggling with imposter syndrome, unable to hide the unease of a man who wasn’t convinced he deserved the elevated position he held.
You as the reader know why her impression of Robertson is so different from what everybody else tells her. He is not confident and nervous when she sees him because she is there. But Eleanor - reasonably I would say - never even considers the idea that her own presence might be the reason why he seems so nervous and insecure to her. She just thinks she has a different read of the man from what she has been told.
So what ever Eleanor's thoughts reveal about her mother is a filtered perspective as well. And you can see that in chapter 5 part 2 very clearly if you look a little deeper. Victoria comes across as very cold and cruel even. But I find it interesting to look at that call from Victoria's perspective.
Victoria expects a congressman to arrive for an important meeting within a minute or so. Her daughter knows that she is a busy CEO of a large firm who works probably 80 to 100 hours every week and regularly has meetings with important people. She sees her daughter calling. What does she do? Despite their recent falling out, she picks up the phone immediately. She trusts Eleanor that she'd only call if this was important. More than that, Victoria explicitly says she only picked up because she saw that it was Eleanor calling, meaning she wouldn't do that for just anybody.
Then Eleanor tries to ask her about a professor who might know her from somewhere. Victoria wonders: "Why can't this wait until tomorrow or at least until I'm done with work today?" That is not an unreasonable question from her perspective. Can you imagine the CEO of General Motors getting a call from their adult daughter minutes before an important meeting and her asking them about some old friend from their school days? That's essentially what's happening here from Victoria's perspective.
Victoria then dismisses what Eleanor wants to ask as gossip. But even then she doesn't just hang up. She asks if there is anything else Eleanor wants. Then Eleanor explodes in her face. And instead of getting offended, she validates Eleanor by giving her what she asked, presumably because she likes to see Eleanor standing up for herself and being persistent.
I'm not saying Victoria is a great mother. She could have said: "Sweetie, I'm really busy right now. Can we talk about your professor after I'm done with work?" But if you look at what Victoria actually does and less at how she expresses herself, then I think it becomes pretty clear that she cares deeply about her daughter. But Eleanor's pov never acknowledges that. When Victoria says:
“I know. I can see who’s calling. I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise.”
Then we get Eleanor's pov narration:
Eleanor suppressed a frustrated sigh.
And we don't see Eleanor thinking: "As difficult as their relationship was, she knew that she could always rely on her mother picking up the phone when she called." No, Eleanor is just frustrasted that her mother doesn't say: "Hey sweetie, how are you?"
To bring it back to your original question: I don't think Victoria engages in victim blaming. I would suspect that she values accountability and would know clearly who is to blame here, especially as a woman herself who had to navigate powerful men.
mcpa1597 wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2026 9:35 pm
I was wondering how she would feel if she knew her daughter felt that way. She probably is self-aware of how cold she is, but I don't think she'd ever believed Eleanor would think of her in such a manner.
I wonder whether Eleanor would repeat that thought in a less stressful moment. She literally had that thought while being raped. I'd assume your mind is not inclined to be fair in its judgment of other people during that moment. :/
If I ever write another scene between Victoria and Eleanor, I would bring Eleanor's belief from chapter 3 part 2 to the forefront where she thinks that her mother never forgave her for picking her father when she was 6.
