Marta Pravica Trklja

Powerful Master and His Slave Bride Marta Pravica Trklja

The Powerful Master and His Slave Bride, concerns the harsh reality faced by white slave girls and women in the Republic of Dubrovnik and the Italian town of Bari, and how they endured their misfortunes in the 15th century. Furthermore, given the complexities of human nature, it demonstrates how even the relationship of powerful master and weak slave girl could be a profoundly complicated one. On her eighteenth birthday, Zlatomirka became a victim of circumstances two times within twenty-four hours. First, she couldn?t disobey her father by disgracing the covenant between him and an old land-owner, Milovanovic. When she heard that her father had given her hand in marriage to this old man, for an unimaginable amount of Dubrovnik?s, golden ducats in order to free him from all his debts. Zlatomirka considered committing suicide. But to commit suicide meant to commit a mortal sin. So she changed her mind and did what she thought to be the next best thing. Without thinking things through to decide where to go or what to do, she runs away from home in the middle of the night. Second, she accidentally falls into the hands of a group of slave traders. A dark, handsome and virile master, Lord Emanuel, purchases her at the slave market. Zlatomirka intends, to run away from him as well. However, during a brief confrontation, her master entangles himself with her and her first sexual encounter follows. When he discovers that she is still a virgin, Lord Emanuel believes that he had raped her and that was not his intention. Raping virgins was his accursed father?s way of dealing with slaves, not his. Lord Emanuel believes that he had wronged her in an uncontrollable moment of weakness; so he gives her freedom and two choices, to leave or to stay as a guest in his home. Even though she is free to go, she finds it difficult to leave when she discovers that the man who owns her is not an ordinary master.