I cut her some slack on the Soames front, because he's clearly kind of a lunatic, and she did warn him that she might end up hating him and want to leave. It's a weasel's move, but you could argue that her mother forced her into the marriage.
However, here is the rest of her track record:
1. Break up your best friend's engagement (meanwhile cheating on your husband).
2. Drive the ex-fiancé to suicide.
3. Take up with husband's cousin, thus forcing the divorce.
4. Raise a milquetoast mama's boy.
5. Manipulate the mama's boy into not marrying the woman he loves by invoking the memory of his dead father in a particularly repellent way.
The whole time, everyone (except Soames) just lets her get away with everything, because of her compelling beauty. Even though she's a truly terrible person. And not only is she terrible, but she refuses to take any responsibility for any of her destructive and cruel actions. Never was anyone less aptly named. Your irony is staggering, Mr. Galsworthy.
6 comments:
Let me kiss the ground under your legs oh you soul full of hate! I also hate Irene she is a biatch. Thank you for writing this.
Im from Finland dont mind the typos :)
I hate her too
I also hate her. I didn't read the novels but I did watch the movie and turned it off after watching half of it because I couldn't stand Irene and the artist (soames cousin).
I finally gave up watching because I couldn't stand looking at the baleful sheep face of that total witch. The first thing I did was Google "I hate Irene Forsyte," so glad others felt the same way. If she's going to be the main character, shouldn't she have at lease one redeeming quality to make us sympathetic toward her? Maybe she's better on the books...
I AM SOOOO WITH YOU ALL!!! I hate her guts...I know Soames was trash but he didn't seem to always but he obviously was obsessed with her. I think she's deceitful and I don't understand why all the adult-er and adulteresses ended up on top with no remorse...It sickens me. I haven't finished watching part 2 of the series but I am sick of it completely and I'm not sure If I can get through the rest of it...
Thank god for the internet!!! I too hate Irene Forsyte, so bad that i also googled I hate Irene Forsyte the moment I finished watching the box set. And like you said, with the exception of Soames, they all let her get away with her despicable behaviour because she was beautiful. June in particular annoys me, how she can defend the woman who stole her fiance with total disregard for the effect it would have on her, and oppose her own cousin, who despite his shortcomings, genuinely loved Irene. It hurt so much that not once in the series did anyone point out that Irene was a vile backstabbing amoral hypocritical self serving bitch, who chose to marry a man she knew she didn't love because she was poor and had no skills, a man whose every expectation was that they would have a happy marriage and who tried as best as he knew how to make her happy. Not one did someone say she did wrong by shutting him out, depriving him of intimacy and any kind of relationship. He didnt force her to marry him, he was already on his way out of her life when she accosted him and basically propositioned him for her own convenience, to get herself out of poverty. How dreadful. What a totally despicable character, made all the more loathsome by the fact that the author clearly expects our sympathies to lie with her. Say what you will about Soames, but he was devoted and faithful and only wanted to love her and wanted her to love him back in return. Throughout the series this woman goes from one hateful act to another without conscience, and seemingly without consequence. Even Soames' great sin of raping her, though unfortunate, I find myself sympathising with him. How easy is it to be married to a woman who blatantly refuses to sleep with you and unilaterally decides to move into a separate room, and unilaterally and deceptively decides to make sure that she does not conceive the child you so desperately want, and takes a lover and pratically flaunt him in your face. Never in the history of my tv watching career have i encountered such a thoroughly hateful and despicable character. Needless to say, I HATE IRENE FORSYTE!!!!
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