On hearing about her father’s death, Tullia spends the night sobbing, but when Pito tries to comfort her the next morning, she tells him, “He wasn’t my father…He was King Sandro.” (pp. 234-235) What did you think of this scene? If, “From the moment of her birth, she had been a disappointment,” why do you suppose she mourned him?
She mourned him because he was her father and there is that connection. A father is a father!
Imagine what it would be like to have to call your father by his royal title!
This shows the distance between them, but I think Tullia is crying for what could have been. He is dead, so any hope she had for a future relationship with her dad is gone. Sad.
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She seemed to grieve not only the loss of her father, but also the unrealized possibility of a loving and nurturing relationship—one that might have existed had his identity as king not overshadowed his role as a parent.
So true! No matter how bad the father is, he’s still the father and the child wants to be loved and accepted by him and to feel that they made their father proud.
She mourned, I believe, more for what might have been than for the reality. He was first and foremost the king. At least from her perpspective. I think she most likely wished it could have been different.
David_D, I agree the mourning was not for the relationship she had but instead for what it could have been. It is the loss that with the King’s death, a loving, caring relationship is now impossible. I thought this was well written within a few sentences we know alot.
The king didn’t show Tullia love or support. He was all about being the ruler of the kingdom. His daughter’s well- being was simply not his concern.
She was grieving what might have been, not what was. Her father was KING, not a father in the sense that being there for her, offering his love and providing her with comfort. When he was alive she always could dream of it happening but when he died she realized her dream was gone.
In spite of feeling unloved by her father as good child she still loved him.
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I think she still mourned the fact that he was her father and she has lost him forever, along with any opportunity to make amends or for her to prove her worth to him and gain his acceptance.
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