Introduction

Introduction to the tragic life of Mary Dickson

The Tragic Life Of Mary Dickson

I was inspired to write the “Tragic Life Of mary Dickson” during my period of isolation due the spread of the Coronavirus.

The central theme of the story is based on the life of someone who was very close to me but it also represents the story of many other unfortunate children and women, whose lives were destroyed because of sexual abuse.

.Most of the names of the characters in the book are fictitious

Mary Dickson who was biologically Mary Aris, was born in Jamaica in an era when rural plantocracy controlled the economic activities of the districts in Jamaica.

She was the daughter of a ruthless, racist, wealthy father who used money and power to get what he wanted.

Her mother Margaret Dickson was a beautiful young ambitious girl who became a docile woman living under the total dominance and control of a man who disrespected her and strippled her of her dignity and identity.

As a young girl Mary was sexually abused and raped by her father, she was also a victim of her father’s racism and wealth.

To some she was “Miss Mary” the pretty “fair skin girl” with “good hair” to others she was “the uppity, bastard daughter of a wicked man who believed that she was white and better than the poor black people”

Living in a community where ninety percent of the people were black, Mary was not allowed to be friends with dark skinned people.
Her only friend was Agatha Sharpe, the daughter of another mulatto plantation owner.

When she fell in love with Amarte Duncan, a brilliant young artist and aspiring scholar of the wrong colour, it almost cost him his life.
To end the relationship between Mary and Amarte, her father sent her away to school in America, where she graduated with a PhD in Comparative Religion and Psychology.

Amarte, after obtaining a PhD in Political Science in Jamaica, moved to America where he and Mary were able to consummate their love in an intensely passionate romance.

Mary was tormented and consumed by the unpleasant memories of the things her father did to her, she was not able to settle down with Amarte in New York.

She left him and went to the Orient and Europe where she spent twenty two years trying to pacify her mind.

When she returned to America, the relationship was strained but the bond between them was so strong they were able to rekindle their romance but it was short lived.

Though she loved Amarte she was still not able to settle down, she could not get away for the memories of the years of sexual abuse by her father.

While back in America Mary found out that her parents had been dead for over two years and she decided to return to Jamaica.

Returning to Jamaica only made the memories worse and she could not find any inner peace.

The moving love story of Amarte and Mary is captured in the many letters they wrote to each other after their final separation.

Mary was not able to overcome the painful memories from her childhood life, she succumbed to schizophrenia and died in the Bellevue Mental Institution

This is the story of The Tragic Life of Mary Dickson

Ken George-Dill