The Female Quixote

Arabella is a young woman who suffers many tragedies at an early age. Her father, disgraced from the royal court and living in self-imposed exile, raises her alone after her mother’s death. She grows up in seclusion, raised by a man who has little idea of how to raise her and no support network to help him. Nevertheless, Arabella emerges as a very intelligent young woman. She cannot hide her alienation, however, as the world into which she emerges has marked her life by tragedy. This early experience of alienation and tragedy explains why she is so fascinated by French romantic novels. They provide her with an understanding, comforting place in which to exist. She can ignore the travails and tragedies of her life and disappear into a world that makes sense to her. The little girl who lost her mother and has very few friends finds comfort in a fictional world that operates according to the rules of good versus evil. Rather than the chaos and tragedy of reality, she prefers the comfort of her delusion, where the villains are punished and the heroes are rewarded. This is why Arabella turns to her books at difficult moments in her life, as she seeks the comfort and security provided by such a clear moral