1080). Editha wants to turn George into someone just like herself, who shares her same passion, beliefs, and patriotism -- someone who wouldn't hesitate to go off to war. As Bellamy (1979) states, Editha's commitment to marry him is "contingent upon his enlistment" (p. 283). Unless George becomes like her, she intends to cut of her engagement to him, exhibiting power over the relationship and expressing and asserting her own ideals. Once George commits and enlists, he becomes someone Editha can idolize: "I've been thinking, and worshipping you….I've followed you every step from your old theories and opinions'" (p. 1085). In her letters she includes what "she imagined he could have wished, glorifying and supporting him" (p. 1086). What she imagines are the things she would want to hear about herself. George has become someone she would like to be. After George's death in battle, his mother tells Editha directly that he died living out Editha's desires: "I suppose you would have been glad to die, such a brave person as you! I don't believe he was glad to die. He was always a timid boy, that way" (p. 1087). Although the gender roles of the time are reversed in Editha and George's relationship, there's an irony here. Editha influences George to go to war through her feminine wiles. Editha realizes that something besides her "reasoning" is working on George when she decides to turn him into "her hero": "her nature pulling upon his nature, her womanhood upon his manhood, without her knowing the means she was using to the end she was willing" (p. 1080). She may not consciously understand how she is using her
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