Emmeline is a study in the psychology of victimization, and of survival. Circumstances thrust its heroine into the path of overwhelming historical, social and finally personal forces that thwart any attempt on her part to shape her own destiny. Yet she is never completely broken. Oddly self-contained and passive, more at home in the world of nature than in human society, Emmeline is shielded by an inviolable innocence from fully realizing the implications of her actions and experiences….
What is odd about Emmeline is that she has strong desires, yet she considers herself powerless. Her parents' decision to send her to Lowell is only the first of many times that others determine her fate. The coachman who brings her to Lowell decides where she will board; Mrs. Bass places her in a mill; Mr. Maguire decides to notice her; Mr. Whitehead (another supervisor) sends her to Lynn; her aunt finds foster parents for her baby. Except in the last case, she never protests—and even then she submits. As her life slips increasingly out of her control, she withdraws further and further from its surface incidents.
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