Mary & Elizabeth - Emily Purdy (43 page)

1.
Discuss the childhoods of Mary and Elizabeth. How were they different? How were they alike? How did their relationships with their parents, the loss of their mothers, the alternating periods of being in and out of their father’s favor, and their father’s multiple marriages affect and influence the women they grew up to be?

2.
Discuss Elizabeth’s dalliance with Thomas Seymour. What did she learn from it? Did it strengthen or weaken her? Did it make her wiser or leave her emotionally damaged? What do you think of Tom Seymour and his method of wooing women? Would you have fallen for him?

3.
If Edward VI had survived, how would Tudor England have been different? What would have happened to Mary and Elizabeth? Would they still be remembered today, or would they have been virtually forgotten, their names known only to serious historians of the period? And would Edward have spent his entire life imitating his father, or would he have eventually discovered himself and become his own person?

4.
Discuss the role virginity plays in Elizabeth’s life. What does it mean to her? Why does she emphasize it by adopting white dresses and pearls? Is it symbolic, psychological, or propaganda, or are the boundaries blurred among all three?

5.
Discuss the role Catholicism plays in Mary’s life. Why does she cling to her faith as a drowning person would to a life preserver? And why does she try to force her religion on her subjects even when they resist? She believes herself to be God’s instrument and that her life has been preserved to do His work; is this a sign of a delusional or unstable mind, or is she a sincerely devout person who means well but repeatedly makes bad decisions?

6.
Discuss Mary and Elizabeth’s relationship with each other and how it changes over the years. How are they alike and how are they different? Discuss the sources of friction in their relationship. Was there any way they could have gotten along and been loving sisters and friends, or were they doomed from the start to be rivals and adversaries?

7.
Discuss Mary’s relationship with her ardently Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey. Why does Mary condemn her to death? Do you think she was right to do so?

8.
Discuss Mary’s and Elizabeth’s beliefs about and experiences with love, sex, marriage, and childbirth. Are the decisions they make about these things the right ones? Why do they make the choices they do?

9.
Mary sees Philip as a dream come true—but is he? Discuss Philip’s character. Is the man himself as pretty as his picture? Despite her subjects’ heated protests, Mary marries him anyway; was this a good decision personally or politically? Is the marriage what Mary expected it would be? How does it affect her emotionally and mentally?

10.
Why does Elizabeth carry on a flirtation with Philip when she knows this will hurt and provoke her sister? Is there a genuinely amorous element to it, or is it a purely calculated act of self-preservation?

11.
By the book’s end Mary has either lost or failed at everything that matters to her and dies a lonely, broken woman. Do you pity her or do you believe she got what she deserved? What, if anything, could or should she have done differently to avert this tragedy?

12.
At their last meeting, Mary realizes that Elizabeth is the phoenix that will rise from the ashes of her disastrous reign. What qualities do you think made Elizabeth England’s greatest monarch? Why did she succeed and Mary fail?