squashed cabbage leaves

i think his parents are some degree of separated. i don’t think his dad is abusive, but i think he was used to dealing with child-henry’s “fits” (read: early-1900s meltdowns) in the only way he knew how (read: physical restraint).

the sort of “last straw” episode which led to the separation in the first place (doubt he would have been any older than 6-7?) scared henry to the point of the intense, pseudo-freudian dependence on his mother that shaw talks about (his saviour!), which he obviously carries into his adult life as she continues to coddle him. he does not keep in touch with his father and, quite frankly, does not want to! he gets the occasional letter in the post and remarks very loudly that the house was in need of more kindling.

i also imagine henry very much perceives himself, sheltered rich boy he is, as abused to the highest and heaviest degree due to the nature of this restraint… which i guess isn’t technically wrong, but it’s an exaggeration, and a VERY silly one. he is absolutely the kind of jackass to try and go toe-to-toe with eliza “a-few-licks-of-the-strap” doolittle about it (hence his outrage when she accuses him of being capable of striking her), and on occasion (if he’s in a really terrible mood) pickering’s fucking war trauma, which is even sillier.

outside of that context, i think kid-henry was a little unsocialised freak. he got a name for himself amongst his mother’s servants by hiding in kitchen cupboards with heavy books every time guests came around. his friends were in youth as they are in adulthood (few and far between), and most potential friends were drawn away by his natural i’m-better-than-you attitude.

with his mother’s help, he managed to get exactly one date at the tender age of 16, during which the girl accidentally confused phonetics and linguistics, a mistake so egregious in henry’s eyes that it made him immediately walk out of the restaurant. his mother has tried multiple times since then to find a nice girl for her pathetic son, to no avail—though that’s probably a good thing, if we’re all being honest, that no girl would wind up forced to deal with him unprepared.