Dream of the Victorian Lovers
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In a town that separates its classes by left and right, with those on the left of the city, poor and wretched, never knowing the luxuries of life, and those on the right, the powerful, the privileged, those who cannot imagine a life without their decadence, sits those in the middle, not quite rich but certainly not poor.
And from this middle section, a father, who desires her to move on to the right in pursuit of the riches he could never attain himself, has his only daughter marry a Bachelor from the Right. Should she marry the bachelor from the right, all will be secured for his family's future and he can finally retired with riches beyond his wild imagination.
But alas, love comes at us at the strangest of places for the Bachelor of the Right meant nothing to her. No, it was rather for the Young Dashing Man of the middle. His position in life was no different than hers as he had an ordinary job that every layman has, but it was love at first sight when both met eye to eye on that faithful day. The more time they spent together, the more in love they became. She would go so far as to tell her father that she has no intention on marrying anyone other than the Young Dashing Man.
“Father, hear me, I do not wish to wed just any man.”
“What do you mean just 'any man'? Do you not understand that your marriage will secure your future for generations?”
“Money is all you talk about but I do not care about such a thing.”
“Such a thing, she says now. Are you not aware of the left, all those in that wretched hive? We are not secure in the middle. Only on the farthest of the right can we possibly claim security for our lives.”
“I would dive into the deepest darkest corner of the left to be with him, for I am in love.”
“In love with that commoner? Stop with the nonsense. You have just recently come of age and are now a woman, but you still act like a child. Do not tell me you will be producing offspring that are no better than the fools that do nothing but dance all day to street performers and drink their worries away.”
“Is that what you think of all commoners? Especially when you are one? Father, you are disillusioned with the idea of riches that it has blinded you.”
“Not another word. I do not care for your protest. You will marry the Bachelor from the Right and provide me, your father, with a good future, or so help me you will get such a punishment that you will wish you were never born.”
He had made it clear that nothing would convince him away from executing his plans. The Young Little Lady, in seeking comfort, tells her beloved about the situation.
“Is that so?” The Young Dashing Man says, “Your father refuses to change his plans.”
“All my father cares about is the untold wealth he wishes to acquire due to our marriage. As his dutiful daughter, I feel that I must follow his orders, but my heart aches knowing that we can never be together.”
“And my heart burns passionately for you. I will do anything to have your hand in marriage, and so I too will speak to your father about the matter.”
The Young Dashing Man arrives at the humble home of the hopeful-to-be-miser of an old fool.
“I made it clear,” the father spoke boldly, “she is to marry the Bachelor of the Right so I can secure a dowry enough for me to retire and live my days in comfort, never looking forward to a day of painful labor come forward thereafter.”
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“Be reasonable, sir. Your daughter has fallen in love with me, and I with her. Love has conquered our hearts.”
“Bedtime stories this early in the day? It is time to wake, young boy.”
“I am not a young boy. I am a young man. I know what I speak of.”
“You speak of inexperience. You know not how the world works as you are merely a young cobbler, working in a shoe repair business your late father passed on to you. You make nothing more than a few pennies a day. The left is coming to claim you, young man. Why approve of you when a suitable man for my daughter who has been blessed to a family with infinite fortune comes at my door and asks for her hand in marriage.”
“No, father,” the Young Little Lady finally spoke, “he was most rude and demanding. He will not take care of me. He just sees me as his toy. It is what I keep saying and what you keep ignoring.”
“Did I not act the same way, when you were on all fours as a tiny thing? He will be no different than I, your father, for that is what a woman is, but a child, and he a replacement father.”
“Sir, do not speak to her in such a manner,” the Dashing Young Man said, “for she is more than the sum of your own preconceived notions. She is a bright star in this dark world, full of wonder with a broad mind. If you only took the time to listen to her, you would hear her wisdom.”
“What wisdom comes from a woman? They know nothing of the real world, that is why men were created first before them as they take the brunt so that woman may take their leisure. All we ask is their devotion to their men, whether it be their father or husbands.“
“And what if I told you that I do not believe in such maxims? What if I told you that a woman can be as equal to men?”
“You have revealed yourself as a fool. You are one of those lunatics, are you not? Those mad men who speak about equality regardless of gender, class, or color. You must also believe that the filth on the left are as human as the one on the right.“
“But it is true. We are all made equally under Heaven.”
“I've heard enough. You are to stay away from my daughter, you loon. I will not have her mind poisoned by your crazy machinations.”
“Whose machinations are poisoning her? Your selfish delusions are forcing her into a marriage with a man she has no love for, while you brush away a good man who will love and take care of her needs.”
“Enough, or I will call the police.”
At this threat, the Young Little Lady stepped in and pleaded to the Young Dashing Man, “This has been all in vain. Father will not change his mind. There's nothing we can do.“
“I refuse to bend to his will,” proclaimed the Young Dashing Man. “I love you more than anything and to hear your father care more about a few coins so much so that he will sacrifice his daughter, it makes me most angry.”
“Leave now, you good for nothing cobbler,” the father said. “Your future is on the streets begging for the crumbs that come from the cake I shall have my fill whenever I wish. Leave now lest I call the authorities.”
“I will not back down. I now tired of being looked down upon. I tire of being used as nothing more than a stepping stool while the world passes me by. I will become something greater than what I am. Even far surpassing such judgmental people such as yourself. Why, you hardly have a penny to your name and yet claim you are superior than me. We are both of the middle, why do you treat me like an insect when you too live inside a wall with the rest of the cockroaches?”
“That is it, I had enough.”
With anger in their hearts and their blood boiling, the old man and the youthful young man clash in a great scuffle. The Young Little Lady tries to intervene but both men, so full of passion for their beliefs, wreck the shambled house further as windows break, tables crumble, walls succumbing to their thrashing, and the fight ultimately goes out into the street where a crowd circle around them by the easily entertained knaves who throw rocks and peanuts, egging on the two brute fighters. It was such a row that the constable had to call more men to pull them apart and take them away.
In the end of it all, the judge favored the old man, claiming that the young man's idea of a world where women and men were equal came from a mental illness and he was sent to a asylum to live the rest of his life in the shadows of society. The poor Young Little Lady was to be sent off to be wedded to the Bachelor of the Right, but no such thing would occur. Her love for the Young Dashing Man in the Middle was so great that his incarceration was unbearable and to live the life as another man's possession who only saw her as yet another toy for him to play propelled her to jump off the tallest cliff she could find. Upon hearing words of her demise, the Dashing Young Man had withered and rotted away in his cell.