# VI explained — A Hazard of New Fortunes

> Chapter companion for A Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean Howells.

## What happens

Mrs. Horn and her niece Margaret Vance discuss the social implications of Margaret's desire to call upon the Dryfooses, a wealthy but socially isolated family. Mrs. Horn cautions Margaret about the potential consequences, drawing on their past experience with the Leightons. The chapter explores the transactional nature of society, where favors are expected to be reciprocated, and Margaret's idealistic impulses are tempered by her aunt's pragmatic worldview.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Class and Mobility

The chapter explores the barriers faced by the newly wealthy Dryfooses in gaining social acceptance, and the careful calculations involved in extending or withholding social recognition.

### Love and Marriage

Margaret is described as the kind of girl who might have fancies for artists and poets but might end up marrying a prosperous broker, highlighting the tension between romantic ideals and social expectations.

## Character check-ins

### Margaret Vance

Margaret discusses with her aunt the propriety of calling on the Dryfooses, showing her benevolent and idealistic nature, though she is aware of society's constraints.

### Mrs. Horn

Mrs. Horn advises her niece on social conventions, revealing her conventionality and belief in society's unwritten rules, while tolerating Margaret's originality.

### Angus Beaton

Beaton is mentioned as the source of Margaret's knowledge about the Dryfooses, though he discouraged her from calling on them.

## Key lines

> Society doesn't rest upon any such basis. It can't; it would go to pieces, if people acted from unselfish motives.

Society would collapse if people acted without expecting something in return.

_Mrs. Horn explains to Margaret that social interactions are fundamentally transactional, not altruistic._

> You get what you pay for. It's a matter of business.

Social favors are like commercial transactions; you receive only what you give.

_Mrs. Horn reduces social exchange to a business principle, reflecting the Gilded Age's commodification of relationships._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_hazard_of_new_fortunes_se/chapters/part-third-vi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_hazard_of_new_fortunes_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_hazard_of_new_fortunes_se/chapters