In short, it's mentally and emotionally taxing to grow up believing physical abuse is warranted, objectification of women is normal, and whatever a man says happened, happened. Thankfully, in later chapters, Celie slowly starts to become disabused of these ideas.

In A Lost Lady Mrs. Marian Forrester is an aristocrat. And, therefore, she is not subjected to some of the personal atrocities that Celie is subjected to (i.e., Mrs. Forrester's babies are stolen from her and presumably murdered by her stepfather). Nevertheless, like Celie, Mrs. Forrester lives in an era where men objectify women. Like Celie, she is something to be possessed.

"If she merely bowed to you, merely looked at you, it constituted a personal relation. Something about her took hold of one in a flash; one became acutely conscious of her, of her fragility and grace, of her mouth which could say so much without words; of her...
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