The first episode of the second season of Wolf Hall, based on Hilary Mantel’s novel, has, like any adaptation, its strengths and weaknesses. I understand the reasoning behind certain changes and adjustments, and I’m optimistic that most of these choices will pay off as the story unfolds.
Although I’ve read the first third of The Mirror and the Light (the third book in Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy) at least four times for various reasons, I had almost forgotten the scene between Cromwell and Lady Mary (Princess Mary). In it, she does something surprisingly intimate in the presence of this grown man who isn’t a member of her family. The novel describes the moment this way:
“She has turned her back. In the sunlight that filters through the royal arms, through the tawny hide of glass lions, she raises her arms, and fumbles with her cap, and then lifts it free. Head dropping, she rubs her temples and forehead, then reaches up and pulls her hair from its pins.”
Cromwell realizes the situation, and according the narrator, who always knows what is in the protagonist’s mind:
“He stares at her, dumbstruck. He cannot remember watching a woman do this, except in one circumstance. Even then, he has known a woman of business signal the start of proceedings by knotting her hair more firmly, and pinning it on top of her head.”
Later in the text, he reflects on how innocent Mary truly is. She wasn’t trying to seduce him by letting down her long hair (however her feelings toward him seem a bit ambiguous). Her gesture simply shows how comfortable she feels in Cromwell’s presence.
I’m glad the adaptation included this subtle scene; these nuanced reminders of the differences between life in the past and our own times add depth to a story set in historical circumstances.
Even modern audience can understand that with the gesture Mary communicates something what it’s not her intention. The seductive nature of the gensture is obvious. But we can hardly imagine what surprised could anyone have been whena king’s daughter allows herself something like this.