The Italian Garden 4 (Chapter 3)

SPOILERS!!!

Joanna comes to understand that she will never be a proper artist as there are some areas where she will not be allowed because of her gender. Her uncle allows another of his apprentices to step up and attend the sessions to paint real life, and the fact that she is more talented doesn’t matter.

At the same time Gaetano becomes obsessed with her, and when during a visit to some nobleman he watches Joanna and Toby together, he gets jealous. It is obvious that there is attraction there, which Gaetano can see clearly. The next thing he does is to make a pass at her, and Joanna, who is depressed after realising her role as a woman, lets him touch her, and then they marry. I don’t think Joanna will be happy; she has only just accepted her role as a woman in the period, but Joanna is much more than the typical woman. I doubt she will be be as subservient and docile as she is expected to be. She is only fifteen, and I don’t think she will be happy in this marriage, and I doubt she will make Gaetano happy either.

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