Summary: Jane's Relationship With Her Father

Jane’s estranged relationship with her father is further explored by Hunter through Jane’s relationship with William, who is established to be Henri’s character foil. The involvement of Jane in music is also used by Hunter as a tool to connect and compare Jane’s relationship with both Henri and William. The gap in the paternal relationship between Jane and Henri paved the way for William’s entry into Jane’s life. “The father-daughter relationship is generally the first significant relationship a girl will have with someone of the opposite sex” (Haaz, et al. 172), and through Henri’s lack of paternal involvement, Jane has developed a youthful attraction to William who supplements Jane’s paternal expectations. Playing the cello demonstrates Jane’s …show more content…
Jane’s dwindling self-confidence encompasses the theme of the novel and the concepts from the studies explaining the correlation of paternal-involvement to self-confidence, self-definition, and subsequent romantic relationships. Hunter uses the traumatic experience of losing Lily to highlight Jane’s alienation from Henri and William showing its effect on her self-perception, thinking that losing Lily is the only “bit of evidence that defined” (Hunter 94) her. With fear of being defined only by the incident of losing Lily, she set out pursue being an archivist, but it had later on been revealed that she did it because William is also an archivist himself. Jane’s recurring unconscious mimicry of other people illustrates insecurities and lack of self-concept, which has been discussed by Schaick & Stolberg as some of the results of decreased paternal-involvement (101). And to further explore the effects of Jane’s broken relationship with her father, Hunter uses Jane’s romantic relationships. Jane settles on a seemingly disconnected relationship with Ben, a relationship where eyes don’t even meet when they make love. The perception Ben has of Jane has been established primarily on the fact that she is a “renowned” (Hunter 250) Standen. The relationship with Ben illustrates Jane’s lack of self-confidence and self-concept, thinking that it’s all she deserves. Jane settling with Ben, and her abrupt decision to end the relationship also reveals that Jane demonstrates “proximity-seeking” (Haaz, et al. 167), and that she lacks “the appropriate skills with which to develop positive, meaningful, and lasting relationship” (Schaick & Stolberg 101). Hunter uses Blake to contrast Ben’s character to show a restoration in Jane’s self-confidence. Upon meeting Blake, Jane is hesitant of Blake’s