In my opinion, the beatings that occur within the story tears the family apart in an interesting manner. The setting of the story reveals that Rose, her father, her brother, and Flo live in the impoverished section of Hanratty. Even though they aren’t dirt poor, they struggle to make a decent living. For their financial condition, Flo seems to handle it well, but she uses gossip to shield herself from the hard truth. On the other hand, Flo’s father is extremely introverted and exiles himself to his workshop for most of the day. When the beatings occur, they usually start out with Flo convincing the father that Rose has been acting out of line and needs to learn her lesson. Reluctantly, the father leaves his work and makes his way inside to punish his daughter. I believe the beatings act as a sort of communication method between the father and Flo. Their relationship is obviously disconnected in a communicative aspect, so I believe Flo uses the beatings as an excuse to get the father out of his workshop and to be with her for a brief amount of time. Flo knows the beatings are wrong, …show more content…
In Rose’s situation, her father is the head of the house and in charge of everything. He is the king of their home. His wrath and hatred could be compared to a vicious monarch who inflicts pain upon their enemies. Since Rose is her father’s enemy, he relives his emotions on her physically in the form of behavioral punishment. Another example would be the three men who beat Mr. Tyde. The three men believed they were above Mr. Tyde and accused him of raping his own daughter. So, they took matters into their own hands. While this fight was more gruesome than the one between Rose and her father, it still had the same over arching theme: superiority grants punishment. A “royal beating” doesn’t necessarily mean how bad the pain is, but rather who is inflicting