Week 4 Story- Marine: The Secret Woman
Marine: The Secret Woman
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| Marina being brought to the monastery by her father. Source: Wikimedia Commons. |
Marine watched as the other monks went about their day, doing various activities. Sometimes Marine wondered what it would be like to live in world outside of the monastery. But mostly, he wondered what it would be like to live his life as a woman. Because Marine in fact was a she, not a he.
A long time ago, Marine’s mother died and then her father entered a monastery and made Marine change her whole way of life. She was the only daughter but because they were to live in a monastery now, she had to pretend to be a boy. For 27 years, Marine kept up the charade. There were many, many days where she just wanted to scream out the truth, but for her father’s sake she kept quiet.
One night Marine went into the woods to get some wood for the fire. She went too far away from the monastery and ended up staying in this man’s house with his family.
Marine didn’t realize she would have consequences because of that one action.
One day Marine was called to talk to the head monk, the abbot, about something. When she went, there along with the abbot stood the man and his family that she stayed with that one night. They had made a complaint to the abbot that Marine had impregnated their daughter. “Excuse me, what?” thought Marine. Next thing she knew, they were yelling at her, accusing of her doing such a sin that she had enough.
“Stop! That is enough,” Marine exclaimed, anger evident in her voice. “I most certainly did not commit this sin. Do you want to know why? Because I am a woman! I have had to keep acting like a man for 27 long years. But no more, I am done. You can accuse me of lying and betraying you all for all of these years, but not for this.”
The abbot was so embarrassed that he had lived with a woman for years and that he had never even realized this fact. He immediately kicked Marine out of the monastery.
Marine on her way out of the monastery saw the man and woman yelling at their daughter for lying and she couldn’t help but think “why didn’t this happen earlier in my life? I could’ve left this place a long time ago.”
Author's Note: I read this story about Saint Marine and was just intrigued and shocked at how this woman had to pretend to be a man her entire life and had to go through so much because she kept quiet and didn't say anything. I thought it would be interesting to write a story about her with a different personality than her quiet one. In the story originally, they never find out that Marina is actually a women. After she is accused and kicked out, she stays by the monastery for three years and lives off a piece of bread everyday. And when the child is finally old enough, he is sent to Marine and she has to care for him as part of her punishment. I decided to omit all of that because I wanted Marine to finally speak out when she was being accused.
Bibliography:
Saint Marine. F.S. Ellis.
Tell: I love your Marine's feisty nature, especially when she snapped at everyone like, "I didn't get this girl pregnant. You know why? Because I'm a woman, and I am sick of pretending to be a man!"
ReplyDeleteAsk: Why did Marine's father want to go to the monastery. Was the monastery the only place they could find food or something? Was the daughter pregnant but didn't want her parents to know who the father was? Why did Marine stay at the monastery for so long? Couldn't she leave once she was an adult? Does Marine how a plan for how to survive after the monastery?
Give: Something that I think could benefit your story a lot is to give Marine motivation for why she needed to stay at the monastery for so long. Another part of the story I think you could elaborate on is why the daughter pretended that Marine had impregnated her. One suggestion I have for a plot point is that the daughter had a fling with another boy from the town. When she found out that she was pregnant, she pretended that Marine was a horrible monk who threatened her with eternal damnation so she would sleep with him. Maybe the authorities get involved, and Marine decides that jail is not worth keeping her gender a secret. Maybe then Marine meets someone who heard about her story and offered Marine a place to work/stay.
Hi Shivani,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your retelling of this story a lot! The author's note mentioned that the main character was quiet and didn't fight her accusers even though it was impossible. Giving her courage in the story to stand up for herself and leave the place that would not let her be herself was amazing! I also liked the element of Marine seeing the young woman getting scolded for lying to the abbot about what happened.
howdy,
ReplyDeleteThat is a very interesting story. I like how you emphasized the consequences that the one action had. I am left wanting to know more about what happened after she became a woman. Did she have troubles adjusting to her new identity or did it come with ease? where did she go after leaving the monastery and how did she begin her new life?
Tell: I really enjoyed reading the changes that you made to this story. I know that as a woman, it would be so difficult to completely shift who I was in order to live life as a man. The truth that was revealed was an interesting and well thought out change.
ReplyDeleteAsk: I wonder why she was the one accused of impregnating someone? Was there any sort of background information that could help explain the situation that she was in, or was there another change that you would have liked to add to the story?
Give: I am curious as to what happened in regards to the child in the story. Since the original story included Marine taking care of the child due to never speaking the truth, how might the story change if it was written your way in the first place? Maybe you could include something about how the actual father was found (or not) or even if Marine continued life as a woman or man.