Did Sir Jean's mother help facilitate the rape?

Glad to hear I’m not the only one. I just can't figure out why neither Marguerite nor Jean seemed to even mildly suspect the mother’s possible involvement.

Honestly, a brief scene of the husband/wife simply and "reasonably" questioning the old lady after the whole incident had occurred could have been, at the very least, intriguing, if not brutally revealing.

While I appreciate your thoughts on the issue, I feel like I previously addressed several of the points you brought up in your objections. The possible outcome Jean’s mother may have been looking for? Like I said, she wanted an heir for her son, and a grandchild for herself. Marguerite seemed unable to provide that, hence the mother’s potential motive for wanting to remove Marguerite from the picture.

Regarding the absence of the servants, it seemed like more than a simple “power play.” There was an entire staff working the manor, yet the mother insisted on sending every one of them from the premises. Granted, it may be true that even if one or two servants had stayed behind, they would have still failed to take any action in the moment to stop the rape. However, their mere presence within the manor would have at least provided all-important witnesses to the event, who thus would have been able to collaborate Marguerite’s story.

More important than the missing servants, though—what about the mother herself? While Le Gris was aware that Jean would be absent at the time of his visit, surely he would have been concerned about the presence of Jean’s mother. Even if he simply figured the old woman would be unable to physically stop him, he certainly would have been worried that word of the event would have quickly gotten back to Jean. Unless, of course, he had some way of knowing that Jean’s mother would not object to Le Gris’ actions.

Honestly, even if Le Gris was too blind to realize that his assault of Marguerite was an obvious and unjustifiable rape, his intention for traveling to see her was clear from the very start. Why else would he be hiding out-of-sight near the locked door, only presenting himself after having his servant lie to Marguerite in order to convince her to open the door?

Had Le Gris’ motives been truly innocent (even if only in his own mind), why the pretense and trickery just to gain entrance into the house?

Finally, regarding the possible correspondence between Jean’s mother and Le Gris, there are a few things to consider. First, Jean and Le Gris were (originally) friends—I imagine the mother was at least acquainted with Le Gris to some extent, if not fairly close. As such, it’s possible they were merely conversing one day—perhaps causally—when Le Gris made a comment about Marguerite, complimenting her beauty, charm, etc. Jean’s mother may have then started on about her disdain for her daughter-in-law, saying how Jean would be much better off without her, etc, etc. Things could have easily escalated from there, eventually culminating with some “innocent” suggestion that Le Gris travel out to their manor to pay Marguerite a “friendly visit” at a time when the girl might just happen to be “very lonely”.

In other words, it didn’t have to begin as some plot of ultimate evil between Le Gris and Jean’s mother, with the two of them meeting in the shadows to finalize all the nefarious details of the rape. Rather, I imagine the whole agenda progressing in a much less sinister fashion.

If you recall, there’s actually a scene later in the film in which Jean’s mother expresses her general views on rape to Marguerite, even admitting that she herself had been victim to it in the past. Yet she nonetheless seemed to consider it a fairly “matter-of-fact” occurrence—not the hugely traumatic crime it’s viewed as today. With this in mind, the mother’s possible assistance to Le Gris in the matter is more understandable, and doesn’t necessarily indict her character as some villain of unspeakable evil. Rather, just a woman who realized a way for two people to accomplish a shared goal, in turn doing her part to possibly make that happen.

I think I understand your point, though I question how merely leaving Marguerite alone for the day is really much of a "fuck you" to her. Unless, of course, by doing so, the mother was knowingly placing her in some sort of danger.

If it's true the old lady just wanted to scare her a bit, and had no clue about Le Gris' plan, I'm almost forced to call the quality of writing into question. It's just such a massively unlikely coincidence for both the mother and Le Gris to choose the very same day to pull their respective stunts.

While I suppose stranger things have happened, to me it just seems more logical that there was some sort of coordination between the parties.