“She’s pushing at the edges of womanhood. She’s "obsessed with masculinity,” equating “maleness” to freedom. “She is a person who feels at odds with the way that she is read by the world. […] It’s like she has a doppelgänger. The doppelgänger is herself born male, who has access to all the things that she craves and feels to be hers. […] In some ways, they’re [of] the same fabric, and yet the rules are completely different [for them].”

“She is an unabashed agent of the patriarchy, “an incubator who’s been indoctrinated to be fine with it, and to know her place within the court,” Cooke says. “But that’s not to say that she’s not got agency, or power and intelligence – it’s just a really interesting amalgamation.”

Vincente Capobianchi | LE HÉRON FAMILIER , 1877 Jacques Clement Wagrez | Promenade médievale , 1899 Aimée Brune-Pagès | Young Lady with her Maid, 1853 Eugen von Blaas | Day dreamers , 1887 Anthony van Dyck | William II, Prince of Orange, and his Bride, Mary Stuart, 1641

What is honor compared to a woman’s love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms…

I have to believe, that in the end, honor and decency will prevail.