Popular Romance and Forbidden

The character that I plan on focusing from the novel, Forbidden is Eddy Carmichael. Back then in the 19^th century, women were expected to stay home, do housework, take care of the children, etc. whereas men would go out and make the money. Eddy challenged these traditional gender norms/roles. Because of the death of her parents, she had to make the money for herself and younger sister in order to survive back in Denver. It was hard for people of color to find decent paying jobs. They were usually given the lowest paying position but either way she was thankful “to still have employment, she’d swallowed her anger and scrubbed the floors until they shone.” (9). She was a cook until a new owner showed up and gave her the job to scrub the floors. She was always mistreated, her “boss” had “constantly found faults with her work and routinely docked her pay” (9-10). Eddy was willing to work hard and not go with the easy route that her sister had chosen. When she arrives in Virginia City, she meets Rhine who helps her find a place to stay to recover and a job until she feels better. She was mugged by a “priest” who gave her the choice to either sleep with him or give him all of her money. As she is a woman, she must have been seen as weak and easy to fool. The priest’s eyes were described as “mocking” (30). He claimed himself as a “healthy man who likes to prey on pretty little pigeons” (30) and apparently many have been fooled by him with his get-up playing a priest. Eddy though, wasn’t one of the many to be fooled by him, she chose to give him all of her money. She isn’t dependent on men, she does things that she wants to do. She has dreams and she will work hard for them hence she questions Rhine if he'll make her give up her dream or not before answering him about marriage. Many men were curious whether she had a “sweetheart” (155) or not. 

            Since she acts differently from the usual type of women, Rhine becomes intrigued. He wants to pursue her because of this. At the same time, although she may seem tough and strong, she is beautiful, kind, and is able to cook which he also loves about her. Natalie, Rhine’s fiancée did not respect Eddy but Eddy does her best to display, “good manners the previous woman obviously lacked” (163). Rhine who was present “admired the way she’d handled Natalie’s gracelessness” (170). Eddy always made him wonder many things, for example, “Who else would she be impacting?” (170) after learning that the fish monger had sold all of his fish to Eddy. Thanks to her, Rhine questions many things which brings him closer to himself. Eddy as a woman makes Rhine curious and intrigued which leads into many different kinds of events in the novel.