posted
May I draw on the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the Fathers in this forum for a bit?
As a father, you have arranged the marriage of your only daughter. Her husband is murdered and she is kidnapped on her wedding night, and you were not there when it happened. The man that took her is notorious, and has been evading the law for a decade.
how do you react? what do you do? Do you abandon your life in the search for her? Do you ever return home?
There is more to this question, but I'm going to wait to see what the initial response is going to be, before I add to it at all. If you do answer this, please check back every now and then for the second part. It would really mean a lot to me.
posted
The answer is "I'd do whatever I had to to get her back," but that could be nuanced by other things: is she my only child? How old are my other children? Is my wife healthy, dying, etc?
Can I get a little bit more about the family circumstances?
posted
I am a Father of an ONLY daughter, I have to sahy It would take an act of God to keep me from her wedding (although you said night, no I don't want to be threre). that being said I'd go ape shit, my baby kidnapped! are you kidding I'd do anything including kill to have here safe. Yes I would spend the rest of my life in prison for murder if that was the only way to keep her safe. I can't think of anything I would not do (I'm sure Oliver will be able to think of something except kill an innocent 3rd party. Do I abandon my life, no, once she is kidnapped I have no other life, I have no other existance beyond her safe return. I'm not sure what you mean by 'do I return home'. where else would I be, out looking for her? If I have any inclination as to where to look then I am out looking, if I don't know where to look then I have no other choice but to go home and wait and pray. by the way waiting and praying would be the harder, by far, of the two. Having nothing to do would be worse than wearing myself out looking. A man would want to DO SOMETHING, being impotant would be the hardest thing on a man. If I'm the king I throw the entire kingdom at the offending land. I break laws and traditions, I send assasins, whatever I can do.
OliverHouse mentioned 'my wife'. I can speak for my wife in this instance with total confidence. She would also give her life and/or health and would be mortified if she thought I was not doing everything to bring home our baby (even of marragable age she is still our baby) even at the cost of her health or life.
Our lives, at least for a few years, are totally dedicated to our daughter's well being, education, health and happiness.
quote:OliverHouse mentioned 'my wife'. I can speak for my wife in this instance with total confidence. She would also give her life and/or health and would be mortified if she thought I was not doing everything to bring home our baby (even of marragable age she is still our baby) even at the cost of her health or life.
Don't get me wrong -- my wife would be, too. There are ways in which a father could be put into a terrible pickle on something like this. If we're poor, and my daughter is the eldest of eight children, and when I leave they'll have no breadwinner, then I'm consigning them to destitution and possibly even death. Now my actions depend much more on (say) how powerful the kidnapper is, or how likely my success is: am I foolishly destroying my other children's lives by going off on a quixotic quest?
If I were the father of one daughter and no sons, I think it's a no-brainer. That's the easy case, though.
posted
As a father I would part Heaven and Earth to help my daughter, but it also sounds like you are writing in a different time. I personally would never arrange a marriage for my daughter, and notorious criminals are rarely at large anymore, and if they are (like Osama) people come to them they don't swash buckle in to. Int eh context of the time that fit, a daughter may or may not be considered more then a obligation. This could be factored by a lot of things like the status of the family. The richer or more connected the worse off she would be, I would think.
Posts: 119 | Registered: Jan 2007
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posted
The short answer is yes, only death would stop me from regaining her freedom.
The longer answer would involve additional information, namely, how grave of a situation would the rest of the family be in if I made the quest. Am I a single parent with two young sons that would be forced to fend for themselves (with little or no chance of survival) if I left them? Stuff like that.
posted
Oliver I agree. I was simply responding to her question she said specifically 'an only child' if as you say other kids involved then you are right on.
oh wait, no, I just re-re-read the orignial post, 'only daughter' isn't the same is it, I concede.
This daughter is your ONLY child. Your wife died when your daughter was 12 years old. This is a pre-industrial period where pistols and cannons are in use, but most combat is performed with swords and such. You live in a farming community in the middle of the country, and are not wealthy, but are more than well-off. You are not really a devout man, but you do firmly believe in God.
Your daughter was married in a distant, sea-side town, with the intention of spending her honeymoon on the road with her new husband, travelling through beautiful countryside. After her wedding, you and a family friend stay for a wedding dinner, and decide to get on the road so the newlyweds can totally focus on eachother. The next morning, you wake to see smoke rising from the town you'd just left, and you return to find the inn a smoking ruin, as well as a number of other buildings. you come to find out that your son-in-law was murdered, and your daughter was taken away by ship. the leader of he marauders is a notorious criminal with a long history of violence, but this is the first time he's ever taken a captive. The King has been hunting him for almost a decade, and cannot find him.
Take off with that, and after a few more responses, I'll add part two to this.
Thank you so much for the posts so far. This helps A LOT!
posted
There's no question about what I'd do anymore. The only question is how I'd try to get her back. You could write the father as being completely over the top and still be believable.
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posted
all my time talent money and resources go to only one thing I become obsessed. I enlist the aid of other super villians like Survivor if I can, anything... Oliver is right on nothing would be over the top.
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posted
I would be completely enraged and the kind of person the police hate, nowadays. I would gather my weapons and my friends and catch him fast and kill him slow.
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posted
If it's my daughter, and she's old enough for me to let her get married, I'm not terribly worried about it. Sure, I'll try and track her down, see if I can do what a good dad ought. But realistically, that guy is toast. I'm just making sure that there's jam and butter available. Assuming her mother doesn't take too much umbrage at me spoiling my little girl.
posted
Survivor darling, that made no sense to me what-so-ever! LOL
Kathleen, I certainly hope the story isn't familiar! YIKES!!!
I appreciate the help guys!
Part Two:
You've gone all over the country, looking for clues as to where the kidnapper might be found. You've tried all the seedy taverns and such where the really bad element can usually be found. Several months later, you hear that she has somehow escaped, and gone into hiding. Her kidnapper is actively searching for her, and everyone knows it. The king sends out armies and navies to stop his rampage, and he disappears again.
Do you keep looking, or do you go home to wait for her to come back?
posted
Tougher question, and it depends on her personality as much as mine. If she's the type to try to find me, I'd make sure I could be found. That might mean being somewhat obvious about my own whereabouts, or getting in touch with all the people she'd get in touch with (although I'd be very careful about whom I trust), or going home.
That's if I believed the rumors that she had escaped. The safest thing might be to go after the kidnapper to make sure he's incapable of getting to her ever again.
What I think it reminds me of is something that happened in the book POPE JOAN, except that the father doesn't move heaven and earth to rescue the kidnapped daughter because she was kidnapped by vikings and he felt that there was nothing he could do for her. It all happened while he was off serving his king as one of the king's lords.
It's something that happens as the story follows the life of the woman who posed as a pope during the middle ages.
posted
it does have that feel, and like I said it depends on the era as to how hard a father would search. Personally though I will tell you this, if my daughter was kidnapped, and even returned to me I would not rest until this guy was found. He would do good to turn himself in.
I am a firm believer that habitual criminals do what they do because they either get away with it, or the punishment does not deter them enough. The punishment should deter the crime, not just fit it.
As a means of vengeance for my daughter, and to prevent others form doing the same to other daughters or sons, I would seek him out. It would be public and brutal, and I can assure you his punishment would give others some serious thought before they did something like this again.
Once he was dealt with, and being public my daughter would know it would be safe to come out of hiding. She might think me a monster afterwards, but in the end she would be safe.
I would explain the penance this man would pay but it might be to disturbing for the faint of heart. Not a good thing for this forum, and it may give people the wrong impression of me.
posted
I have a 9 month old girl. I was trying to put myself in the shoes of your character to give you an honest answer . . . . Unfortunately, I succeeded.
If I heard that she had escaped, and was being searched for by her kidnapper, I would send trusted friends home to take care of her in the event she made her way there. I would set up a contact system to help them get in touch with me if she comes home.
I would continue turning over every stone in the country trying to find her--and her abductor. If I found her, home to friends and protection. If I found him instead, I'd make sure he couldn't pursue her any more, on account of all the broken bones and damage to vital organs.
quote:Several months later, you hear that she has somehow escaped, and gone into hiding.
Kudos for the escape...but grave and fatherly disappointment (perhaps even a little suspicion) about the fact that her estwhile abductor is apparently still roaming about neither dead nor embarrassingly crippled. I would hope that she managed to kill and impersonate or at least blackmail and suborn the fellow...but I would have grave misgivings
After all, if she was going to get fancy she really should have let me in on it.
posted
My sincerest thanks to you all! This has been more helpful than I can say! Rest assured, the kidnapper gets his in the long run, and in the most appropriate way imaginable...but that is for me to know and you to read about! lol
Thank you again! MommaMuse
Pope Joan sounds like a good book. I'm going to have to look it up! Thanks, KDW. I was getting worried there for a minute! lol
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except kill an innocent 3rd party. Do I abandon my life, no, once she is kidnapped I have no other life, I have no other existance beyond her safe return. I'm not sure what you mean by 'do I return home'. where else would I be, out looking for her? If I have any inclination as to where to look then I am out looking, if I don't know where to look then I have no other choice but to go home and wait and pray. by the way waiting and praying would be the harder, by far, of the two. Having nothing to do would be worse than wearing myself out looking. A man would want to DO SOMETHING, being impotant would be the hardest thing on a man. If I'm the king I throw the entire kingdom at the offending land. I break laws and traditions, I send assasins, whatever I can do.
