MovieChat Forums > North and South (1985) Discussion > Question *Possible Spoilers*

Question Possible Spoilers

posted 10 years ago by jomccallister
1 reply | jump to latest

For those of you who have read the novel- Does it ever mention if Madeline ever becomes pregnant by Justin?
Obviously, there was no birth control and he had his way with her when he wanted. So odd she never became pregnant by him, but did with Orry.
Could be that Justin was the issue and couldn't produce children.
Or are we to believe that she knew where to take Ashton for her procedure b/c she had previously been there before?
Just always found it odd that she never got pregnant til then.
Thanks

[–] rikajessie 10 years ago

No, Madeline never became pregnant by any man in the books.

It was hinted that Justin may have impregnated a slave but she lost the baby.

As for Madeline, she did not conceive with Orry either and she wondered if Justin was right that it was "her fault" that they never had children.

There are a lot of cases of infertility in these books, and it's always the woman who is to "blame". I talked about this in my misogyny topic on this board if you would like to read the various cases of couples unable to have children and always the woman is the one who can't reproduce, never the man.

Now maybe male infertility wasn't as known about when Jakes' wrote these books, and he was under the false impression that when a couple can't have children, it's always because of the woman.