Cakes and Ale · Chapter
Chapter VIII explained
The weather turns cold and rainy, ending the narrator's excursions with the Driffields.
What happens
The weather turns cold and rainy, ending the narrator's excursions with the Driffields. The narrator is troubled by having witnessed Mrs. Driffield's intimate meeting with Lord George Kemp, imagining dark secrets and blackmail. He sees the Driffields once more before returning to school, where they see him off at the station. Later, during the Christmas holidays, he visits them and finds them entertaining the curate and Lord George, with Driffield singing comic songs. The narrator also encounters the 'New Woman' at a tea party, and reflects on the social attitudes of Blackstable.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Reputation
The narrator's uncle and the curate disapprove of the Driffields publicly but secretly associate with them, and the narrator hides his visits.
Social Class and Snobbery
The Driffields are considered 'common' by Blackstable society, and the narrator's uncle and curate look down on them despite their literary merits.
Love and Sexuality
The narrator's confusion and fascination with Mrs. Driffield's flirtatious behavior with Lord George, and his own budding romantic feelings.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Troubled by Mrs. Driffield's meeting with Lord George, imagines romantic rescue scenarios, and feels shy and embarrassed around her.
- Rosie Driffield
Shows a playful and affectionate side, laughs in a way that unsettles the narrator, and warmly welcomes him during his visit.
- Edward Driffield
Sings comic songs, jokes about his writing, and appears comfortable in the company of the curate and Lord George.
- Lord George Kemp
Fondles Mrs. Driffield in a way that shocks the narrator, and later joins in the singing at the Driffields' home.
- Mr. Galloway
The curate, who visits the Driffields secretly and advises the narrator to keep it from his uncle, showing a patronizing attitude.
- Mrs. Encombe
A 'New Woman' with short hair and a short skirt, who shocks the Blackstable society.
Key passages
“I was not so much shocked as astonished. I could not understand how it was possible for her to like being kissed by an old man, and the fantastic notion passed through my mind, filled with the novels I had read, that somehow Lord George held her in his power and forced her by his knowledge of some fearful secret to submit to his loathsome embraces.”
The narrator is more surprised than shocked, and his imagination, fueled by novels, conjures up dramatic scenarios of blackmail and secret crimes to explain Mrs. Driffield's behavior.
The narrator's youthful romanticism and tendency to dramatize.
“She looked at me with those soft blue eyes of hers in which there was a child’s playful naughtiness. She often held her mouth a little open, as though it were just going to break into a smile, and her lips were full and red. There was honesty and innocence in her face and an ingenuous frankness and though then I could not have expressed this, I felt it quite strongly.”
The narrator sees Mrs. Driffield as innocent and honest, contradicting his earlier suspicions, and is charmed by her childlike demeanor.
The narrator's conflicting perceptions of Mrs. Driffield's character.
“The patronizing manner in which my uncle’s curate spoke of one who has been now so long recognized as one of the greatest of the later Victorian novelists must arouse a smile; but it was the manner in which he was generally spoken of at Blackstable.”
The curate's condescending attitude toward Driffield, despite his later fame, reflects the general snobbery of Blackstable society.
Irony and social commentary on the perception of literary figures.
