Amaryllis at the Fair · Chapter
II explained
Amaryllis returns indoors and is confronted by her mother, who criticizes her father's preoccupation with potatoes and old stories.
What happens
Amaryllis returns indoors and is confronted by her mother, who criticizes her father's preoccupation with potatoes and old stories. Amaryllis retreats to her room, where she examines her ankles, feeling ashamed after other girls called them thick, but she rationalizes they are well-shaped and strong. She considers using macassar oil on her hair but fears her father's disapproval and hides the bottle. At dinner, strict silence is enforced by Mr. Iden, who dominates the meal with his talk about the quality of the mutton and potatoes, while Amaryllis and Mrs. Iden avoid praising the food to prevent being forced to eat more.
Themes in this chapter
Family Conflict and Misunderstanding
Mrs. Iden openly criticizes Mr. Iden's agricultural preoccupations, and Amaryllis feels caught between her parents, highlighting familial tensions.
Gender Roles and Female Experience
Amaryllis's concern over her ankles and hair reflects societal pressures on female appearance, while the strict silence rule at dinner underscores women's subordination in the household.
Social Class and Money
Mr. Iden's pride in his self-grown potatoes and personally selected mutton contrasts with the perceived inferiority of wealthy villa dwellers' food, emphasizing class distinctions in food quality and self-sufficiency.
Characters to notice
- Amaryllis Iden
Amaryllis is ashamed of her ankles after being teased by other girls, but she defends their strength and proportion. She also desires to use macassar oil on her hair but hides it to avoid her father's satire.
- Mrs. Iden
Mrs. Iden angrily criticizes her husband's focus on potatoes and old stories, urging him to be more practical. She is also subject to the strict silence rule at dinner.
- Mr. Iden
Mr. Iden enforces absolute silence at meals, especially dinner, and dominates the conversation with praise of the mutton and potatoes he has personally selected and grown. He is deeply opposed to perfumes and oils.
Key passages
“Other girls had told her they were thick, and she was ashamed of them. Instead of the slender things which seem as if a sudden strain would snap them, and are nothing but mere bone, she had a pair of well-shaped ankles, justly proportioned to what would soon be a fine form; strong, but neither thick, nor coarse, nor heavy, ankles that would carry her many a mile without weariness, that ended good legs with plenty of flesh on them.”
Amaryllis felt embarrassed because other girls said her ankles were thick, but she realized they were actually strong and well-proportioned, not skinny and fragile, and would serve her well for walking.
Amaryllis reconsiders the criticism of her ankles, valuing strength over slenderness.
“No laws of the Medes and Persians were ever obeyed as was this law of silence in that house. Anything that disturbed the absolute calm of the dinner hour was worse than sacrilege; anything that threatened to disturb it was watched intently by that repressive eye.”
The rule of silence at dinner was enforced as strictly as ancient laws, and any disruption was treated as a serious offense, monitored closely by Mr. Iden.
The extreme strictness of the dinner silence rule is emphasized.