Rebecca and Rowena: Rebecca

When Rebecca is captured along with the household of Cedric the Saxon, an invalid and her father, Isaac, she withstands a harrowing experience in the castle of their captors. Because of her nationality and faith, her very life is often at risk

As a Jewess in medieval England, Rebecca is despised on account of her rank in society, not withstanding her extraordinary beauty. She is the loyal daughter to her father, Isaac of York, a moneylender. When troubles rear up about her, she proves that although she is a pariah, she possesses a laudable amount of mettle. After being captured with her father, the wounded Ivanhoe and the whole of Cedric's household, she is separated from her father. Only by entreating an old resident of their prison is she able to attend to Ivanhoe. While doing so, she begins to fall in love with him, knowing that there is no hope because by all accounts in medieval England, he is above her ethnicity; when Ivanhoe discovers that his healer is a Jewess, he treats her with coldness inherent to his breeding and the culture of his land. Throughout the book, she shows that she is kind, ready to help and has a very humble nature.

Many readers and critics regard Rebecca as more interesting than Rowena. Perhaps it is because Scott develops her role and personality in the story, making her seem warmer and more inviting than her counterpart Rowena, who comes off as cold and pious. To amend the rather discouraging finale to the story (when Rowena marries Ivanhoe) another Victorian author, William Makepeace Thackeray even wrote a sequel entitled Rebecca and Rowena, in which Ivanhoe is remarried to Rebecca. I suppose that that is one of the advantages of fiction; you can find a way to change it if you don't happen to like the outcome of the story!

Rebecca and Rowena : Rowena

As the beautiful and delicate protagonist in Ivanhoe, Rowena is the ward of Cedric the Saxon and the lady-love of the heroic Wilfred of Ivanhoe. When she is captured along with her guardian's household, two Jews and a mysterious invalid, she hopes for Ivanhoe to rescue her, but will he be able to?

After being taken captive, she is imprisoned in a Norman lord's castle. The way even her captors treat her in contrast to the way her counterpart, Rebecca is treated is striking. Though only a Saxon woman in the power of Normans, her wealth and rank hold sway over their conduct toward her. They are respectful and treat her with a semblance of the way they would their own, whereas Rebecca is regarded as little more than a slave. Over the course of the book, however, she is shown to have a compassionate nature, even toward what was thought of as the dregs of society: the Jews.

It can be argued that she is much too frigid and perfect to make a satisfactory heroine and bride of the hero; even after she is kidnapped en masse with her guardian's household, the two refugee Jews and their patient, she remains (only figuratively), above the fray. I can not say what her deeper personality could have been, this facade that is discernible could possibly only be because Sir Walter Scott did not see fit to put her in circumstances that were as desperate as Rebecca's. Therefore, her personality remains what I, the reader chooses: the icy, pious angel or the rather quiet heroine, misinterpreted because of lack of personality.


The second installment to this two-part post--Rebecca-- is due out sometime by next week. Please check back.