Lucas

Lucas Beaumanoir is a character in Sir Walter Scott’s 1829 classic medieval adventure novel, Ivanhoe. Lucas is the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Templar, the Christian sect that excelled on the battlefield during the Crusades. As such, they were the football stars of their day, but Lucas goes a step beyond. As is so often the case with religiously ordained cults, the members have begun to see themselves as all-important and godlike, fully deserving of any and all spoils from their ventures. Taking seriously his duty to maintain the peace and restore a semblance of order to his community, Lucas is determined to do the right thing at all times. Unfortunately, principal over person becomes his modus operandi. If this means burning the beauteous Rebecca at the stake for witchcraft, so be it. This is a romance, after all, so Rebecca will be saved and Lucas and his knights will be banished from the kingdom. A good case against the cult of the cult.

Charlotte is main character Elizabeth Bennett’s best friend in Jane Austen’s famous Pride and Prejudice. A quiet and good young woman, she sets out to marry the pompous and rather ridiculous Mr. Collins (whom Elizabeth has spurned). She is not beautiful and she is twenty-seven years old – on the brink of permanent spinsterhood. Often rejected by modern day feminists as a mealy-mouthed dependent who settles for less than second best, she is in fact a strong, intelligent and far-seeing individualist who knows the score. As a woman of her day, her prospects are slim indeed, and only marriage can assure her a position of security and respect. She is clearly aware of the shortcomings of her husband, but she takes on the challenge with a clear eye and steady hand, and attains her goal: “I ask only a comfortable home.” She gives as good as she gets, cheerfully and determinedly, and if there were a sequel, no doubt we should find the Collins growing old together in comfortable obscurity.