“And there Eustace made a clean breast of it, announcing that they were engaged to be married. And although this was somewhat of an assumption, seeing that no actual words of troth had passed between them, Augusta stood there, never offering a word in contradiction… And she departed and left Augusta to her reflections, which were—well, not unpleasant ones.” (chpt 15)
In this novel, you can see the constant offering of decisions made for women in the era (specifically Augusta). Recently we saw the decision (mainly) being made for her to have the will tattooed onto her skin. Currently, the decision is being made to get married to Eustace. While she did not offer any dismay to his announcement of marriage and she wasn’t displeased with the announcement in her reflection, this decision was made for her without thought. Similarly to how she felt obligated to have the tattoo placed on her skin and the feeling of obligation towards Mr. Meeson (the obligation being enough to be okay with his will being tattooed onto her, when necessary – the survivors on the island were knowledgable enough to know how to make ink from nearby specimens could not also find another way to write it down whether by simply memory of many or tree bark or some other method, wood from the ship that had been beached possibly). She clearly had this obligation to Mr. Meeson enough to have the will written on her and now it seems this obligation to marry Eustace was continued. Augusta feels obligated to Eustace for the purposes of the will in order to maintain Mr. Meesons intended legacy about where he wanted his assets to go.
Is it possible Augusta felt that part of Mr. Meesons intended legacy was for her to be given to Eustace because she felt like she was the property of Mr. Meeson similar to his properties?
