Appears to be disliked by several woman readers.
She seems to me beyond her time. An independent woman in the early nineteenth century. She doesn’t want to be subjugated to Stephen, doesn’t want to marry him when she is pregnant by someone else.
On the other hand, they have a respectful and loving relationship.
I was truly sad when O’Brien killed her off.
As I wrote in the other thread, Diana is one of my least favorite characters in the series. She, probably quite naturally for someone in her situation, trades on her beauty and sexuality to get ahead. While that’s understandable, I don’t find it particularly interesting or sympathetic. I also find her treatment of her daughter despicable. (I"ll admit that I haven’t read the book where she and Maturin apparently reconcile over this, though.)
I enjoy her character a lot: a beautiful, smart, flawed, woman of strong character, with a lot to both like and dislike.
Her treatment of her daughter is indeed bad, but I think PO’B means it also to be charged to Stephen, who has left her to cope with a problem she really can’t handle.
Her sacrifice of the diamond to (as she believed) buy Stephen’s and Jack’s freedom shows an essential big-heartedness that goes a long way to excuse other behavior.
It’s interesting to note that O’Brian abandoned his own family, including a disabled child.
I’m on my second pass of the books. I’ve just finished The Wine-Dark Sea, where Stephen has been writing ephemeral letters to Diana and looking forward to meeting his daughter. Both he and Jack get the feeling from their letters that something is wrong at home, but they can’t quite identify the problem.
It’s hard to view Diana objectively, because like Jack, I ache for Stephen’s heartbreak over the woman.
I know she doesn’t exactly encourage Stephen; she tries to drive him away, in fact. But even after she marries him, she runs away twice. The first time it’s over rumors of Stephen associating with another woman, and the second time it’s because of their daughter’s condition. In neither case does she wait to actually hear from Stephen. Of course, he is away at sea for years at a time, so maybe I’m being unreasonable.
I believe that has quite a bit to do with it; Stephen was of course turning the woman to be a British agent, so he couldn’t explain to Dianna.
It is interesting, though that he gives no credence to her alleged affair with Jiago (sp) while she leaves him over rumors.
Diana is portrayed as very much a man’s woman. It’s pretty clear that she doesn’t like most other women much. I wonder how much that affects how female readers react to her.
It’s interesting to contrast Diane with Sophie Aubrey. Although Sophie’s life is less interesting, I find her personality more admirable. She’s quietly courageous, strong, steadfast and loving. She’s the one left behind to deal with the messes Jack makes on shore. Sophie reminds me a lot of Anne Elliot, my favorite Austen character after Lizzie Bennet.
It seems to me–though it has been years since I read the series in a systematic way–that Dianna gets very little stage time in the series, especially after The Surgeon’s Mate. Most of her actions take place off-stage, and many of those actions appear random. A re-telling of the events of the series from her point of view might be possible, something like Wicked.
One of the other peculiarities of the story is that immediately after their marriage she seems to have more money than Stephen, even though in the earlier books she is broke. The way the characters go from broke to rich and back again is a problem for me, especially when I read the books in random order.