Topaz is really a secondary character, and yet she strikes me as central to the mood of the book. what's your take on her and her role in the story?
(One of my favorite scenes with her is when Rose says she's going to walk the streets to make money and Topaz, in lieu of the moral indignation most mother figures would offer, merely assures her that she's not cut out for streetwalking, which is really quite demanding work).
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I found Topaz really quite charming at times, despite her affectations and "Topazisms" and her babying of Mortmain.
(I also loved the dialogue in that early kitchen scene. I was hooked by that scene.)
Topaz is great, despite everything. She is ridiculous and refreshing and, most importantly, not repressive.
She managed to take care of the family but NOT lose her individuality in a thankless maternal/domestic servant role. Her self-expression is often just silly, but it's HERS, and she conveys to the children the importance of having it and fostering it.
Did you ever think that her babying Mortmain was a kind of self-indulgence? Like her ego was wrapped up in the idea of being married to a tortured genius? The romance of that idea would surely appeal to her, even if the reality of it was hell.
Yes, Topaz clearly got something out of taking care of men and being their "muse." She even considers running off with Mr. Fox-Cotton because he hasn't yet reached his potential in his work and she thinks she could help him do that. I think she feels it's her calling in life to inspire greatness in men.
Right on Erin, which is why she so beside herself when Mrs Cotton turns out to be so stimulating to Mortmain. I diskliked him greatly at that point. He seemed so cruel to engage in hours of rapt conversation with the Cotton's and not have two words to say to his own wife.
I did think Topaz was entertaining, the image of her naked frolics and Cassandra's matter-of-fact descriptions of them were wonderful.
She seemed someone wonderfully self-assured, yet at time horribly foolish, as when Cassandra had to "trick" her into not divorcing Mortmain in London.
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