Voice in the Wind, pp. 444-447<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, Julia. Julia, Julia, Julia.<\/p>\n Last week, Julia sent Hadassah to tell Atretes that he \u201cmust\u201d come to her because she needed him. Hadassah relayed this word for word and Atretes grew angry and declared that he would not see Julia again until he had a house of his own and could bring her into it has his wife. Julia, for very good reasons\u2014his anger problems and abusive behavior among them\u2014does not want to be Atretes\u2019 wife. She does, however, want to be his lover. And I think we can all see that now that he is free, that is not going to work out.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen glimpses of Julia beginning to mistreat Hadassah, but here it escalates. Hadassah returns with no Atretes, and Julia is enraged.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is he?\u201d Julia demanded when Hadassah returned to Primus\u2019 villa alone. \u201cDidn\u2019t you tell him I wanted to see him? You didn\u2019t, did you? What did you tell him?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI gave him your message, my lady, exactly as you said.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia slapped her. \u201cYou deceitful little Jew. You told him about Primus, didn\u2019t you?\u201d She slapped her again, harder.<\/p>\n Hadassah drew back from her, afraid. She put a trembling hand to her stinging cheek. \u201cI didn\u2019t, my lady.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you said nothing to him about Primus, he would be here!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe said he would send for you when he had a house and could take you into it as his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n Juli went still, her face blanching. She stared at Hadassah, then sank down onto her couch, suddenly unable to stand. She closed her eyes. She\u2019d know what to expect, but somehow hearing he had said it so openly made her weak inside, weak with confusion and longing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Julia is taking out her own pain and confusion on Hadassah. She desperately wants Atretes in her bed (they don\u2019t seem to get on otherwise), but she knows that she cannot marry him without repeating the traumatic experiences of her past two marriages\u2014she would lose her right to her own money and decisions, and be at his mercy. She\u2019s stuck, and somewhere inside it sounds like she realizes it\u2014but she\u2019s not handling it well.<\/p>\n She\u2019s taking out her frustration at the way her life is going at the hands of people she can\u2019t\u00a0control on the person she does<\/em> control\u2014Hadassah. This is where, for me, the story begins going downhill. I liked being able to root for Julia, but as she increasingly lashes out at Hadassah (albeit sometimes for very understandable reasons), I find myself\u00a0growing less able to do so.<\/p>\n In the hands of another author, I might\u00a0call this a complicated character. Rivers, though, doesn\u2019t realize she has written anything to root for into Julia\u2019s story. Rivers views the struggles Julia has faced not as limits and constraints\u00a0dished out by\u00a0a patriarchal society, but just rewards for her mistakes and her unwillingness to live the quiet, domestic, maternal life of her mother.<\/p>\n Hadassah knelt before her. \u201cPlease, Lady Julia. Return to the house of your father and mother and remain there until Atretes sends for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia felt a moment of uncertainty\u2014but then Calabah\u2019s warnings rose in her mind, clear and logical. If she married Atretes, he would take her into his house and never let her out again. He would be worse than Claudius and Caius put together.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For all of the compassion I do feel for Hadassah\u2014she\u2019s a slave,<\/em> for crying out loud\u2014it\u2019s bits like these that turn me off her as a character. Hadassah has seen Atretes\u2019 violent, controlling behavior. She knows what Julia suffered at Caius\u2019 hands. Surely she can see that marriage to Atretes would be profoundly unwise. And yet, that is what she is encouraging. She is trying to push Julia into the arms of another abuser.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I go back now, I\u2019ll look like a fool. And nothing would change. Marcus wouldn\u2019t approve of my relationship with Atretes any more than he approves of this one with Primus \u2026 Marcus might not even allow me to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMarcus wants you to be safe and happy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No, Hadassah. No, he does not.<\/p>\n Julia raised her brow at the familiar way Hadassah said her brother\u2019s name. She glared down at her for a long, still moment as the deep seed of jealousy, planted by Marcus himself, began to crow. \u201cYou only want to be close to my brother, don\u2019t you?\u201d she said coldly. \u201cYou\u2019re just like Bithia and all the rest.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Oh, Julia. No.<\/p>\n The problem here is part Julia\u2019s lack of observation, part Rivers\u2019 insistence on presenting Hadassah as in love with Marcus, despite his utter lack of any redeeming characters, and despite the fact that he tried to rape her and has sexually assaulted her several times. I want to fault Julia for her interpretation of the situation\u2014could she not see Marcus\u2019 predatory behavior?\u2014but Rivers has written in longing, such that Hadassah says Marcus name not with fear or disgust but with tenderness and desire, making Julia\u2019s failure to understand the situation more understandable.<\/p>\n But, Julia has a plan.<\/p>\n She would remind [Atretes] of how he had hated his slavery and demand if that was what he expected of her now. A wife was a slave, someone at the mercy of her husband. This way, they were both free. Nothing had to change between them. They would continue to be lovers as before. It would be even better. She wouldn\u2019t have to pay Sertes. Atretes could come whenever she sent him a message. But even if all her reasoning didn\u2019t work, she knew one thing that would make him listen.<\/p>\n She would tell him about the child she was carrying.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Oh boy. That will go so\u00a0great<\/em>.<\/p>\n In the hands of another author, this could be a complex, interesting exchange on varying forms of oppression. Atretes has been a slave, but he has always been a man. He may have hated his slavery\u2014but could he understand Julia\u2019s complaints? But this is Rivers, and I am left with a question\u2014does Rivers think Julia\u2019s arguments here have any merit? Or are we meant to see them as purely ridiculous?<\/p>\n Also\u2014if Julia has a child while living with Primus, that child will be Primus\u2019 child. How on earth does she think her pregnancy will make Atretes more likely to accept the unorthodox arrangement she is suggesting? From where I\u2019m sitting, I would rather think it would only make him pressure her further\u00a0to marry him<\/em>. Also, I\u2019m pretty sure none of this is how Ancient Rome\u00a0worked.<\/p>\n Hadassah, distraught, goes to John the Apostle. She is angry with herself because she has not yet talked to Julia about Jesus. John tells her that \u201cwe all know fear at some time\u201d\u2014which feels odd, remembering that Hadassah, and not John, has been\u00a0through the sacking of Jerusalem\u2014and then he says this:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they came and took the Lord away form the Garden\u00a0of Gethsemane, a Roman soldier grabbed for me, and I ran. He was left holding a linen sheet, which was the only thing covering my body, while I escaped, naked.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n