He says that Camilla was definitely interested in Richard and was into him until she began to spend time with Henry at the hotel where she subsequently fell in love with him. He said that Camilla and Richard were serious about their future together.
I completely disagree? I never got the sense that she was into Richard, perhaps interested but nothing serious at all. She was leading him on and Richard was never really her main option to begin with. Maybe she was a bit interested in him but she rarely initiated much with Richard and left him in the dark for much of the book. But his interest in her was surely amusing to Camilla.
What do you all think about the dynamics between Camilla and Richard? I feel really blindsided by the way my friend interpreted their relationship. Do you think Camilla felt strongly for Richard? Enough to consider a future?
by TokkiJK
19 Comments
I agree with you. >! If anything, it felt like an odd sort of parasocial relationship, almost. !<
Tbh Camilla and Richard dynamic weirdly reminded me so much of Daisy and Gatsby and she was definitely not into him, more into how he perceived her imo!
I believe Camilla only loved herself but enjoyed creating rivalry
I don’t think any of the group cared about Richard that much.
My perspective is that the group saw themselves as the “main characters” and anyone else was either an object (to their “subject”)
I mean, did they even see others as real people at all?
I think Camilla and the rest of that gang has really weird ways of interacting with each other. I think Camilla was either leading Richard on or she was just friendly with him but that friend group had some really weird dynamics to it and her interactions with Richard are an outcome of that. Maybe Camilla likes being emotionally intimate with Richard at points but isn’t interested in anything more?
I wonder if Richard stayed with those weirdos for so long because he liked Camilla. He did ask her to be with him when he was planning on going to grad school.
IDK. I’ve talked to women like that, where you think you’re clicking pretty well at school but they don’t want anything to do with you.
They definitely were not serious about a future together especially as a romantic couple, I’m not sure where that idea came from. He was infatuated with her and she seemed to encourage it just enough to keep his attention, but never to the point of it being something real.
None of the people in the group saw Richard as anything but an occasionally useful tool. He was in the group but not of it.
Also is nobody going to mention the, y’know….?
I don’t think Camilla had any real feelings for Richard. She did some things like finding him at the party and asking him to come with her to Francis’s place, but it was almost certainly to manipulate him and make him feel like part of the group so he wouldn’t only have allegiance to Bunny if Bunny talked. Also Richard is definitely an unreliable narrator and it’s clear that he often makes it seem like everyone in the group was closer with him than they really were.
That said, it really seemed ridiculous when he proposed to her at the end out of nowhere, so he must have genuinely thought there was something more.
I never thought Camilla was interested in Richard. She was nicer to him than the rest of the group because she was generally nice and because she realized that he had a crush on her.
Have you seen the show You on Netflix? With Love and Forty?
I think Camilla felt trapped by her brothers obsession with her, and she wanted some space from him, and she thought that a relationship with Richard might be a way to have some of that, but also her brother’s obsession with her wouldn’t completely unnerve Richard because they would still be friends. Like a marriage between 2.5 people.
And that eventually Richard would “handle it.”
Camilla never showed any real interest in Richard. Richard *thought* she might be into him because he liked her and was projecting.
It never seemed to me that Camilla was interested in Richard . She seemed attracted to Henry but he was the charismatic leader of the group. Her relationship with Charles was at the very least unhealthy and probably incestuous .
Richard had a crush on her so he wanted to believe she might return his feelings
I think because Richard is such an unreliable narrator at times it’s hard to say – I particularly remember changing a lot of how I think of him in the scene where he is suddenly hit with the desire to strangle/rape her
Richard, writing his account years later from the POV of a disappointing and aimless life, tried to give himself a bigger role in the only significant events he’s ever experienced. But he’s such a nobody that he comes across as a side-character in his own autobiography, despite all his pontification and romanticism. They barely remember he exists, he’s essentially their pet – I’ve often wondered if they didn’t see through his claims to wealth right away (we’ve all had that friend who everyone knows is a liar, but we just humour them because it’s harmless and there’s no point humiliating them). That’s what makes it so tragic, Camilla’s at most toying with him, and at the least it’s all in his head.
Camilla was Richard’s fantasy girl. But she did not reciprocate, no. she had, ya know, her deep dark secret thing going on with charles. henry was in on camilla and charles’ secret probably because camilla told him long ago, which makes me think camilla and henry had a thing going on well before richard came along.
so yeah richard came along thinking camilla was available but in fact she was deeply enmeshed in a complex entanglement with two highly unstable guys. richard’s just dumb.
I also think Camilla wasn’t into Richard at all. Maybe she was interested a little, just out of curiosity as they were in a small circle and Richard was a new face. As we read things from Richard’s perspective and that he wasn’t a reliable narrator, we mostly read things that he favors or in a way he prefers to see as. I find it kinda sad that how little we know about Camilla though in general.
I agree with you. I don’t think she ever liked Richard in that way. It was always Henry who I think she felt protected her and cared for her. I definitely don’t agree with your friend that she started out liking Richard and then switched to Henry. I think after Henry died she may have considered Richard as an option, but in the end I think she realized she didn’t love him the way she loved Henry and she was really just lonely.
I don’t think Camilla was interested in him at all. If anything, I got the sense that she thought his advances were nothing more than cute.
None of the group cared about Richard in any meaningful way.