The Character of Prince Gabriel

Mariana is Victor Daltry former mistress, it means that Mariana is from the lower class. It is the reason why Mariana does not care toward upper class‟ strict rules. She acts arbitrarily as long as she gets what she wants. The example is when she found out that Victoria is pregnant with Lord Dimsdale‟s child, she gets no trouble about that as long as Dimsdale wants to marry her. She thinks that Victoria‟s pregnancy is a good way to encourage Dimsdale proposal: K ate knew quite well that the household was on her side. They couldn’t help it; it was bred into the bones of the best servants. They were trained to serve ladies and gentlemen, not those of their own class. Obviously they had sensed that Mariana’s origins were not genteel. For her part, Kate had imagined that her stepmother was a shopkeeper’s daughter, who had married a colonel. She hadn’t thought she was— What she was. A fallen woman. Her father’s mistress. A trollop, by any other name. No wonder poor Victoria found herself with child. Her mother was hardly qualified to steer her through the season. James, 2010: 29 Not only that, Mariana also refused to heir a proper chaperone for Victoria. “I told you to hire a chaperone, Mariana. She could have had anyone.” Mariana turned back to her glass without a comment ” James, 2010: 15. That kind of act is just not fit with the upper class society‟s high moral standard. Mariana and Victor Daltry have a daughter named Victoria. Victoria was born out of the wedlock. Victoria was born when her mother, Mariana, is just Victor Daltry‟s mistress. The story about Victoria‟s real father is a family secret because Mariana make up a story that she was married to a former colonel who died in the battlefield. It is the way to protect Mariana‟s honor and Victoria‟s status in the society. Mariana is not good landlady. Mariana does not care about her servants also tenants. She treats the tenants as she wish. She also likes to buy some expensive clothes and jewelries then do not care about the manor‟ expenditure. Mariana preferred to avoid all the people working on the estate or in the village, except on the rare occasions when she developed a sudden taste for playing the lady of the manor. Then she would put on an ensemble extravagantly calculated to offend country folk, descend from her carriage, and decipher in her tenants’ startled expressions their shiftless and foolish natures. Finally she would instruct Kate to jettison them from their homes. James, 2010: 8 Mariana Daltry is a manipulative woman. When she wants Kate to do something she will threaten a servant or tenant, so Kate will do everything she wants. When Mariana wants Kate to go to the Prince to substitute Victoria, she threaten one of the tenants, Mrs. Crabtree just to makes Kate agree to go: You will go to Pomeroy Castle, Katherine, because your sister is carrying a child and needs the approval of the prince. You will dress as your sister, you will take the bloody mongrels with you, and you will make this work.” Mariana looked tough, and more tired than she usually did. “In that case, you will keep the Crabtrees in their cottage,” Kate stated. Her stepmother shrugged. She didn’t really give a damn either way, Kate realized. She had launched the Crabtrees into the situation just in case the plea of blood relations failed. James, 2010: 25 Mariana is a prodigal woman. Mariana likes to spruce herself and Victoria. She bought many expensive clothes and jewelries though never gives Kate any proper clothes. Mariana obsession is to marry Victoria to aristocrats that already fulfilled since Victoria betrothed to Algernon Bennett, Viscount Dimsdale.