If you have read Ghormengast by Mervyn Peake please tell me...?

Do you think that Steerpike loved Fuchsia? Can you explain your feelings? It seems to be a controversial matter.





P.S. This seriously isn't a homework question. I just like the book.

If you have read Ghormengast by Mervyn Peake please tell me...?
As much has he could however his character was incapable of true love, much in the same vein as Hamlet and Ophelia





The dark rage that consumed him would always distort, destroy and eclipse any capacity for love





This is my number one all time book and I really need to read it again
Reply:If not a lover, then a villan I will prove to be





Richard 3rd Report It

Reply:Enter the world of Gormenghast...





http://www.mervynpeake.org/novelist.html
Reply:Fuschia seemed to be an impressive personality, whereas Steerpike is mercenary and Fuschia is just a stepping stone.His interest is ultimately selfish. I think.
Reply:great novel...





Mervyn Peake describes Steerpikeas follows:





If ever he had harboured a conscience in his tough narrow breast he had by now dug out and flung away the awkward thing - flung it so far away that were he ever to need it again he could never find it. High-shouldered to a degree little short of malformation, slender and adroit of limb and frame, his eyes close-set and the colour of dried blood, he is climbing the spiral staircase of the soul of Gormenghast, bound for some pinnacle of the itching fancy - some wild, invulnerable eyrie best known to himself; where he can watch the world spread out below him, and shake exultantly his clotted wings





Steerpike takes advantage of Fuchsia's romantic soul by convincing the lonely young woman that he is an adventurer. Fuchsia herself is initially disgusted by Steerpike's grubby appearance, but she is then awed when he tells her of an enigmatic "pavement in the sky." He uses her to quickly find himself work as Dr. Prunesquallor's manservant and dispensary clerk.





Over the course of the novels, Fuchsia falls in love with Steerpike. She is attracted by his swashbuckling persona and by the fact that he is different from anyone else she has ever met. It is feasible that Fuchsia also loves what Steerpike represents: the possibility for change. Since Steerpike himself started out as a lowly kitchen boy and advanced upwards through the society of Gormenghast, perhaps it is also possible for Fuchsia to change her own destiny. Unbeknownst to Fuchsia, Steerpike is responsible for the death of her father, an event that saddens the young woman deeply and adds to her feeling of being utterly alone.





Ultimately, the pair's love affair is doomed to fail. Fuchsia finally realizes that Steerpike is "evil" and untrustworthy, and is frightened by his lust for power.





Fuchsia's death, in chapter 75, is precipitated by "mounting melancholia" brought on by the revelation that she had loved a murderer. This eventually leads her to a situation in which she finds herself standing perilously on a windowsill above the waters that had flooded the Castle. Disturbed by someone knocking at the door, she slips and, knocked unconscious by her head striking the windowsill, drowns.





While nothing indicates Steerpike's involvement as an immediate cause of her death (he indirectly contributed by disturbing her always fragile mental equilibrium), Titus, upon hearing of her death, immediately blames Steerpike for it (chapter 76) and swears to kill him.

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