Godden's attitude toward men is somewhat ambivalent in The Peacock Spring. In earlier novels — and to some degree in The Peacock Spring — they serve to rescue women and children from insurmountable obstacles.
Their characters are hinted at rather than delineated. One is grateful, nonetheless, when they arrive. Sir Edward Gwithiam certainly fulfills this role in The Peacock Spring, but he is more than a rescuer. He is a noble person who, although deceived earlier by Alix's claim to a degree from the Sorbonne and by her concealment of her "raffish" Eurasian mother, nonetheless insists that his marriage to Alix will take place, chiefly one presumes because he still loves her.
Ravi, the young Brahmin poet, is dark and handsome and completely self-centered. He speedily releases Una from her troth when Sir Edward.....
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