Betrayal to Brokenness and Cruelness
“‘My life was meant to be happy,’ she whispers” (Ewing 247). This story is taken place in the future, that mixes old Victorian style with advanced technology. The Jewel is where the “Royalty” live. It seems like a nice place because the people get better food, clothing, and housing (compared to the Marsh), but it really is a place that has a lot of secrets and betraying. Each house of royalty in the Jewel buys a surrogate, which is someone who has powers called “Auguries” that can change the shape, color, and growth of an object. The Royalty cannot have children of their own, so they buy the surrogates and make them have their babies. The surrogates are able to control how the babies look and sometimes how…show more content… The Duchess was engaged to the Exetor since she was a month old. “‘ The Exetor and I. . . We were very close. It was a perfect match. A founding House and the future Exetor. My life was meant for greatness” (Ewing 247). The Exetor left the Duchess for someone else who later became the Electress. The Duchess became broken because she lost someone very important to her. So she keeps trying to do these things that’ll affect the Electress. She even murdered the Electress’s surrogate, “‘I’ve always found it...humbling, how one tiny drop of plant extract can completely destroy a human being..The Electress seems to have forgotten that I have been around much longer than she has. I am descended from one of four Founding Houses’” (Ewing 129). She’s trying to make the Electress’s life miserable since she took the guy the Duchess loved. The Duchess didn’t even stop to think that the surrogate is actually a human being and not just property of the…show more content… Violet is the Duchess’s surrogate, and most surrogates are treated like property. Violet really loves to play the cello, it reminds her of happier times. Violet was walking around the castle one day and saw a painting of the Duchess. She used the second Augury, which is color, and changed the color of the Duchess’s face to a hideous green “to make her as ugly as she acts.” But the Duchess finds it and comes into her room screaming at Violet. “The Duchess returns, holding my cello and a silver-headed hammer...I am weightless with shock. ‘Have you defaced any other pieces of my property?’ the Duchess asks again… ‘No,’ I say...I can’t take my eyes off the hammer. ‘No, my lady I swear I didn’t’...‘All right I believe you.’ Then she smashes the belly of my cello with the hammer(Ewing 234). The Duchess knew how much Violet loved to play cello, she knew it was important to her. She probably knew how big of a punishment it would be for Violet because the Duchess knows how it feels to lose something important. She was even going to hammer Violets hand as further punishment which really shows how broken the Duchess has become. The Duchess loves to teach people lessons. “And then she slaps me hard against the face with the back of her hand. Pain shoots through my cheekbone..The Duchess smiles, a bizarrely warm