#because the narrative is very interested in examining the conditions surrounding gideon's death

[gideonisms]

I think I tend to read htn as muir playing with tropes commonly used in tragedies to examine what we think is a tragedy/what tragedy even looks like when death isn't the end. That's the most shakespearian thing about her writing imo. I know I am constantly on about how htn is basically a shakespeare play but it IS and that's because she is doing a similar thing with her stories within the story. She is throwing out potential endings left and right and then subverting all of them. That's why I don't think everyone's encouragement to harrow to give up on keeping gideon safe really can be taken at face value. It's like. To use one example (but you literally could insert 5 different plays here) it's like when Isabella thinks her brother is dead. It's forcing the audience to think about the consequences for that but the terrible part is more that there was someone in power who could easily order a death or stop it on a whim. The point is not that harrow needs to learn to let gideon go for moral or self-actualization reasons imo. The point is that the death is a site of potential for harrow to either be manipulated into upholding john's goals or for her to reject the whole premise behind them by deciding gideon's life is more important

#when i finally write my harrow measure for measure henry viii manifesto. then you will see!! #i think where i disagree with many htn readings is that #i don't think it's a story about learning to let go of people/let things die #or at least 'stopping' as cytherea put it is not equivalent to accepting other people's deaths that's not the same thing #letting go of power over someone is not the same thing as letting them die. that's a very simplistic way to put it and it's not exactly the #main point i am getting at here. but it approaches that point #the aus are doing something too. it's like. story within a story within a story #is this how it happens? but for gideon's death #the people in harrow's life are trying to get her to accept her loss but i don't think that's what the narrative itself is doing #because the narrative is very interested in examining the conditions surrounding gideon's death #and whether it would have been possible to do things differently #with cristabel alfred & loveday it's like. this is how the story usually goes #but i don't think that's the only way it ever goes bc she is poking around at different ways to subvert that tragedy #tlt isn't a tragedy at least not a classic one. that's just not the structure #that is the structure of its 15 fakeout endings but they're there for flavor. once again thank u shakespeare