Brown on Resolution · Chapter
III explained
Agatha and Samarez's passionate affair unfolds over five days at Benjamin's Hotel.
What happens
Agatha and Samarez's passionate affair unfolds over five days at Benjamin's Hotel. Samarez proposes marriage out of a sense of duty, but Agatha refuses, recognizing the impracticality of the match. Their relationship shifts from physical passion to a calmer, maternal affection on Agatha's part. The chapter details their initial encounter in a cab, their decision to go to a hotel instead of Ealing, and the subsequent intimacy. Samarez is puzzled by Agatha's innocence and her refusal of gifts. The affair ends with a painful parting at Charing Cross, though Samarez later remembers it as a pleasant adventure.
Themes in this chapter
Class and Social Mobility
Agatha, a greengrocer's daughter, experiences a glimpse of upper-class life through Samarez—theatres, good food, leisure—but ultimately returns to her own sphere, highlighting class boundaries.
Duty and Self-Sacrifice
Samarez proposes marriage out of a sense of 'doing the right thing,' sacrificing his future comfort, while Agatha refuses, recognizing the unwisdom of the match and prioritizing practicality over passion.
Motherhood and Ambition
Agatha's maternal feelings towards Samarez during intimacy contrast with her lack of ambition for marriage, reflecting the tension between nurturing instincts and personal aspirations.
Characters to notice
- Agatha Brown
A 29-year-old woman of strict Wesleyan upbringing who experiences sudden passion with Samarez. She refuses his marriage proposal, feeling maternal towards him, and later returns home to economical housekeeping.
- Richard Saville-Samarez
A naval officer who proposes to Agatha out of duty despite believing marriage unsuitable for his career. He is puzzled by her innocence and refusal of gifts, and later recalls the affair as a pleasant encounter.
- Adeline Burton
Agatha's friend in Ealing whom she deceives with a letter about a fictitious domestic crisis to explain her postponed visit.
Key passages
“She saw the unwisdom of marrying a man whom one only loved as one might love a pet St. Bernard, and who would never be able to claim that entire devotion and subservience which Agatha, in accordance with the ideas of the time, thought she ought to give to her husband.”
Agatha realized it was unwise to marry a man she loved only like a loyal dog, as he could never command the complete devotion and submission she believed a wife should offer her husband according to contemporary standards.
Reflects Agatha's pragmatic view of marriage and the societal expectations of wifely duty.
“She felt fantastically motherly towards this tousle-headed boy even during his greediest caresses, and when he sighed out his content with his face upon her bosom she clasped him against it with the same gesture as she would have used to a child.”
Agatha felt a strong maternal instinct toward Samarez, even during their most intimate moments, holding him as she would a child.
Highlights the shift in Agatha's feelings from passion to a protective, motherly affection.
“The lies which Agatha wrote flowed so naturally from her pen that she did not give them a thought—to Agatha's mind the aged aunt suddenly stricken with mortal illness and demanding immediate nursing seemed to be an actual living character.”
Agatha lied so effortlessly in her letter to Adeline that the fictional dying aunt felt real to her.
Illustrates Agatha's ease with deception to conceal her affair.