Catherine Called Birdy Sparknotes

"Will I then be forced into this marriage trap" (100). In the book Catherine Called Birdy, a journal written by a young girl in medieval tie mes, Catherine is troubled by her father, her fiance and her lady tasks. Catherine feels that her father is a cruel man who is just selling Catherine to Shaggy Beard for profit. At her brother's wedding she met an old disgusting man that goes by Shaggy Beard. After the service Shaggy Beard told Catherine's dad he would like to buy and wed Catherine. Catherine's father accepted this request and Catherine was set to marry Shaggy Beard. On a daily basis Catherine is forced to sew, hem, embroider, paint and clean when she wants to be free outside. She doesn't enjoy doing lady tasks and would rather go be a monk.
Catherine and her father never had a strong bond in the book, and when her father sold Catherine to Shaggy Beard she began to hate her father. "The beast my father roars especially ugly roars today" (35). Catherine and …show more content…
Shaggy Beard sent Catherine wedding gifts “He sent me a silver toothpick, a sewing kit, and a gauze headdress in a stinking green that is my least becoming color” (140). Catherine despised Shaggy Beards gifts and refused consent to marry him. She did not want to have to live with him and be his wife. For months Catherine pondered different ways to circumvent marriage “I am not Lady Shaggy beard yet" (123). Catherine consulted her good friend Perkin about possibly running away to be a nun. Fortunately for Catherine, Shaggy Beard was killed before the wedding in a fight over a tavern maid. Since Shaggy Beard was dead, his clean, polite son Stephan offered to wed Catherine. She was happy that she would be marrying someone young and kind. Catherine used determination to try to find a way to avoid the marriage. She showed courage by hitch-hiking to her aut Ethifritha’s house for