#oh its numbers
i don’t think you can argue it for all the ghosts (especially not robin), but i think there’s a pattern amongst the people who got the ghosts killed of upholding the status quo. i don’t think i need to explain how mary’s death leans towards that tendency, but we see the same pattern repeated, particularly in the female ghosts. assuming kitty was murdered by her sister, the implication would be that kitty was murdered in order to let a white women get ahead in life. in fanny’s case, it works on two levels: fanny is very literally silenced by her husband, and killing fanny ensures that people won’t discover george is gay. with the captain, pat, and julian, i think it’s less a case of other people following traditional values than it is them themselves acting like that, but my idea does work with humphrey. although his arranged marriage is rather unconventional in terms of the dynamic between him and sophie, sophie’s actions are anything but - overthrowing elizabeth specifically to instate mary queen of scots in england would have made england a catholic country like it had been for centuries. you can’t get much more traditional than that! as for thomas? i don’t know. perhaps you could argue that francis, who wishes to marry isabelle for her lands and fortune, and the officer, who derides mary shelley’s writing, are more traditional than thomas
