Thursday: My Dear Bessie
We listened to the letters written between a British women named Bessie and a man named Chris she met at a post office right before the war. They barley know each other. Bessie seemed to have been with someone else before talking to Chris. Originally, they seemed to just be writing as friends, but once they were single, things quickly escalated. Chris’ responses seemed to be more in depth than Bessie’s letters. Chris seemed to be very much in love with Bessie fairly quickly. Bessie plays with his feelings by calling him friend and keeping her letters very brief. I love how Chris quoted Oscar Wilde. He seems to keep his letters very lighthearted and full of love. He never really seems to write about his experiences at war. He seems to be much more interested in learning about Bessie and everything about her. I wish we were able to hear more of Bessie’s side because Chris is asking her a lot of questions and I want to hear her views on everything she is saying. She agreed to marry him, despite not really knowing him and just writing to him for months on end. In track 6, we learn that Chris had to destroy Bessie’s letters. It was probably forced upon by the people higher up where Chris is. He’s a little bit of a freak. I guess it’s working for him though since Bessie keeps writing to him and agreed to marry him. While Chris was in Athens, things started to escalate. We got to hear one of the first letters from Bessie. She is worried about him and puts her own inputs on the war. The only thing she can think about is Chris coming home to her, safely. Bessie keeps track of the news to feel more connected to him. Chris was eventually of prisoner of war in Greece. 2 months later, she received a telegram saying that hr was alive. Due to this, Chris was able to return to England. I find it so weird how Chris was the one who thought of the marriage, but decided to wait on it. I also find it interesting how Bessie is so subjective to him, I guess love really does blind people because If I were Bessie, I would be a little weirded out by Chris. After meeting in person, Chris seemed to have been regretful of the way they spent their time. He realized just how precious time was and started to overthink everything. I wonder if in that moment, he thought he would never return home. However, eventually he realized that he will not be going to battle and will be heading home to marry Bessie soon. Once they got married on October 26th, Chris had to leave to go back to the army, but eventually that may, he was going home for good. Plot twist!! The narrator was Chris and Bessie’s granddaughter. It is so nice to hear how some relationships from war did work out.