"Royal Beatings" was a familiar tale to me. This was such a tragic story. It hit very close to home because I have experienced a similar situation (To clarify, no, I was NOT violently beaten and kicked around). It's so hard to have such a relationship, especially one so difficult. It's especially difficult when you know it's just going to repeat itself.
The relationship between Flo and Rose is incredibly strained. so strained, it's almost at the point where it's too painful to read. Flo and Rose seem to antagonize eachother to the point where Flo decides to take advantage of her relationship with Rose's father and convince him to beat her. Flo seems to regret this seeing as she quietly comments to her husband that he doesn't have to go too hard on her.
After her beating, Rose is sent to her room and she hears her parents' arguing, apparently going through the same stormy relations Flo and Rose have. This reveals it isn't just Flo and Rose who do not relate well, but also Flo and Rose's father.
Flo attempts to apologize by bring up peace offerings of cold cream and milk and cookies. At first, Rose rejects these tokens of apology but later gives in. Rose knows that these events will happen again and she seems to accept this.
Some years later, Rose is older and Flo was sent to live in a retirement home after she stopped talking. Flo seemed incoherent unless she bit one of the nurses of the home.
If I had to guess, this story suggests that history repeats itself. People pretend to learn their lesson from such painful experiences when in reality they simply do it all over again.
I may be way off here, but I couldn't help but notice the names "Rose" and "Flo", names often used as references to menstruating women. When women in close proximity spend a lot of time around each other, such as a stepdaughter and stepmother, things would tend to sync up. Let's be honest, two women are worst than one. What makes it even worse, is it will happen again.
It's a painful cycle (pardon the possible pun) for both Rose and Flo. I can't tell if this was Munro's intention, I could be completely off, but that is what I got from the story.
Thank you for your insight, they are very similar to what I thought about the story. The narrative was kind of convoluted and confusing, I needed more than one read to understand the whole story.
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