As the eldest princess in the royal family, Azalea spends a lot of time in Entwined thinking about marriage—after all, whomever she marries will be the future king of Eathesbury. Azalea hopes that her younger sisters will have it better than her, but this too is a frequent topic of discussion (coming from a not-rich family means small dowries, which could work against sisters like Bramble who are a little, er, abrasive).
And then there's the problem of getting acquainted with suitors while you're supposed to be in mourning, which the King manages to work around with the pretext of the invitation to solve the riddle of where the princesses dance. So we see a lot of fuss about meeting potential people to marry, but not a lot about actually being married… but c'mon, this is pretty much a fairy tale after all, and those don't tend to go into much detail about what follows the happily ever after.
Questions About Marriage
- What would you do if you were potentially faced with an arranged marriage?
- Why does Azalea think that maybe her sisters won't share her fate?
- How does the King find ways of checking in with Azalea about her preferences?
- Why do you think Mr. Bradford is a good match for Azalea?
Chew on This
Azalea's fears were unfounded—her father, no matter how strict he is, would have never made her go through with an arranged marriage.
Marrying someone pretty much means marrying their family, like it or not—and in Azalea's case, this means all of her sisters are in on the courtship process.