Idk bro

True. I think it might be that, bc she suffered more as a royal than when she was a slaved. She herself said, that it was her happiest time in life. Maybe that's why she doesn't mind being a slave yet again, as everything's better than how she lived as a royal.

Well, tbh she's not exactly bring treated as a slave, even though her title is "slave"... That might be why

being*

Yes, but the issue isn't with that, it's with the author who wrote it this way to romanticize slavery. I am not saying she doesn't deserve to be happy. I'm saying that she shouldn't be this happy or treated this well as a slave. The author should have chosen a different social status.

That's very true and I'm completely with you on that. What I meant was that in her eyes, she has a better life as a slave, making it somehow okay that she is considered property, cuz she had/ has nice owners.

Which then again is exactly what you said, romanticizing slavery; the owner who fell in love with his slave, despite their statuses and grants her a live she should have led in the first place - bc again, she is a human being.

If you're American you're probably thinking of the way slavery was in this country and how race was used to justify it. Not that slavery was ever an acceptable way of treating a human being, but the way it's depicted in this story is the older, more like in Rome times, way where prisoners of war and debtors were then indentured servants. It was not as violent and brutal as it happened in America. There were always violent and shitty ppl of course.
but as you see in this story she's basically treated as a maid (with lack of freedom/choice, but not chained, physically punished etc) but also slaves in this system could be freed or regain their freedom once their indentured period was over. I think if you think of it as "indentured servant" instead of "slave" it might help. Also I think it's the counterpoint to how horribly she was treated before, where she was ignored and used as a tool and not allowed any free choice/time (studly, I mean the Archduke's pretty liberal with her free time and others talk to her as a peer). That's also why hottie I mean the archduke is so surprised that she's happy... makes him start thinking of how miserable she must have been before. Just my opinion, of course. Also offering up a reason might not be much help with feelings :( sorry you feel bad about this story

I am American, but I am also Jewish. I am well aware of the different types of slavery, so I am also aware that they were still NEVER treated nearly as well as the people in this story. It is completely unrealistic and romanticizes any type of slavery you can possibly find. I understand Prisoners of War have generally been treated better than other slaves in the past, but none of this would happen, especially her being able to conceal her identity. Prisoners of War were kept tabs on very well, since they could be used as bargaining chips and were potentially dangerous. I am not saying that some cultures did not treat slaves better than others, but we also must keep in mind the culture and era this story is modeled after.

The way I think of it if I was her is that as a slave I could be traded away at any given moment. Just because I have the duke doting on me run does not mean that it will stay that way. The duke himself was sitting there scratching his head like why has she not asked for her freedom.

I mean I’m not just American. I’m African American and tho I recognize that she is being treated different then we were it still does not still right with me. They could have chose something different. I’m not so sensitive that I’m going to stop reading I just wanted to express my discomfort

This is a great explanation

I also agree with that. I would be constantly terrified by the thought of being traded to a worse "owner" no matter how my current "owner" cared for me if I made even a single mistake. The thought in the forefront of my mind in this situation wouldn't be "if he know who I am I will be killed" it would be "if I screw up even once, I could be sold or disposed of."

The construct of slavery in itself is terrifying, and the fact that people romanticize it honestly disgusts me. I am, however, the type of person who's curiosity will outweigh their discomfort, so I will continue reading.

My thoughts exactly, I was just too lazy to write

And that is why I read these on my laptop.

so you kinda contraddicted yourself a bit, saying first that they were NEVER treated as well as here, and then admitting that it's possible that other cultures might have treated slaves better than others... and hence couldn't it have been as she is treated here? If you read what I wrote I talked about Roman times (Caesar, Titus, Cicero etc..). Having had to study Latin and the culture of ancient Rome, literally translating paragraphs from Latin writers, I could see how in their culture there were often cases of slaves which had almost as much freedom as hired servants (of course some weren't some ppl were shitty, but it was counter to the main culture). As a matter of fact some writers were slaves that had regained their freedom. However that is specific to that time, and also we must remember that this is fictional. It's vaguely european/victorian era, but at that time they didn't have slavery, at least not enemies of war, they were usually "executed". Also it's through an Asian perspective of their own history, which I'm not familiar with so who knows what they intended. Still it's a horrible thing to "own" another human being and of course I also admitted that feeling upset about this is completely justified. Had they used "indentured servant" it would have been a bit better.

I fully agree that slavery is wrong and terrifying and it is a bit discomforting seeing it used in a romantic manner. But then again literature, even and mostly that considered "core" of ppl's education is chock full of horrible stuff. I still don't understand how ppl can go to a musical of Les Miserable and glorify it and think it's wonderful, having read the book it was simply awful, both on the ppl in the book and the writing ugh... gave me nightmares just thinking of reading it though I had to for school. But slap some snappy music to it, give it a dance number or two, and ppl have all sorts of romantic notions of it. THAT I don't get!! lol sorry I digress.

I think your explanation is pretty good and I agree

That is not a contradiction. It is two separate statements. A slave would never have been treated that well, and there are numerous accounts of slaves being treated better than the ones in America. I have also translated Latin writings, but they still couldn't go around as willy-nilly as she can.