Hi, Mark! Some general thoughts, which may or may not be helpful (probably not, but here they are):
Folk tales traditionally judge pretty girls harshly for spurning poor suitors and chasing after wealthy ones instead. But isn't the basis for the shepherd's "true love" — stated as her white arms, ruby lips, and hair like smoke — every bit as superficial as the basis for the scoundrel's temporary fling?
We never hear what the shepherd looked like. Why is appearance considered relevant to his attraction to her, but not relevant to her refusal of him?
If she was so cruel-hearted, wasn't the shepherd lucky NOT to have won her over, and therefore not to have spent a lifetime of misery, enduring her narcissistic little power games?
Perhaps she didn't actually choose the rich guy at all. Perhaps the entitled little snot raped her, and then left her to deal with the aftermath.
Did she even know that the obsessed but tongue-tied shepherd was stalking her for five months? Did he actually ever work up the nerve to speak to her, or did he just keep lurking at a distance?
If the latter, that would make the story far more interesting to me than if Nell was just a "cruel" beauty who deserved to die for having toyed with the faithful shepherd's affections.
Generally, pregnancies (unwed or not) are not mentioned outside one's family until they are undeniably "showing," yet the shepherd is said to have lurked for five months. Nell's mother does not hide the existence of a "babe" from him when reporting Nell's death, so I guess she assumes the shepherd knows all about it. Which suggests that maybe he had made an offer for her hand, to save her from "shame." But again, maybe she had understandable reasons for not accepting, which might include having to feel forever obligated to a husband she don't really love, but felt forced into marrying. (And would that really save her from shame, anyway, since everyone who could count to nine would still know that her firstborn child must have been conceived before the wedding day?)
If you left some of the details more ambiguous, we might be left to wonder if she died from an abortion, which she might have felt was a better option than being slut-shamed while having to be a single parent, or than having to stoop to marrying the shepherd if she truly had scorned him cruelly for years.
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