Alice Vavasor Becomes Troubled explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Love and Marriage

  Alice's broken engagement to John Grey and Kate's scheming to marry her to George highlight the complexities and societal pressures surrounding marriage.

• Betrayal and Forgiveness

  Kate betrays Alice's confidence by withholding part of her letter and plotting against her stated wishes, yet she is portrayed as unselfish in her motives.

• Female Autonomy and Identity

  Alice asserts her independence by breaking her engagement and resisting her father's and cousin's influence, though she is still subject to manipulation.

Characters to notice

• Alice Vavasor

  Alice tells her father she has broken her engagement with John Grey and later, during a visit from George, is trapped into revealing her changed plans for the future.

• Kate Vavasor

  Kate is revealed as a schemer who withheld part of Alice's letter from George and is determined to bring about a marriage between Alice and her brother.

• George Vavasor

  George visits Alice, discusses his political ambitions and his sister Kate's future, and cunningly leads Alice to reveal that she is no longer thinking of Nethercoats.

• Mr. John Vavasor

  Alice's father is deeply disturbed by her decision to break the engagement with John Grey and expresses his disapproval.

• John Grey

  Though not present, his broken engagement with Alice is the central subject of the chapter; Alice writes to him of her intention to go to Cheltenham.

Key passages

• “Kate Vavasor had sent to her brother only the first half of her cousin’s letter, that half in which Alice had attempted to describe what had taken place between her and Mr. Grey. In doing this, Kate had been a wicked traitor—a traitor to that feminine faith against which treason on the part of one woman is always unpardonable in the eyes of other women.”

  Kate deliberately sent George only the part of Alice's letter about breaking with Mr. Grey, betraying Alice's trust in a way that women would find unforgivable.

  Highlights Kate's betrayal and her selective sharing of information to manipulate events.

• “I can understand accurately the sort of way in which the interview went. Of course he had the best of it. I can see him so plainly as he stood up in unruffled self-possession, ignoring all that you said, suggesting that you were feverish or perhaps bilious, waving his hand over you a little, as though that might possibly do you some small good, and then taking his leave with an assurance that it would be all right as soon as the wind changed.”

  Kate imagines John Grey's calm, dismissive reaction to Alice's decision, portraying him as condescendingly certain that she would change her mind.

  Reveals Kate's biased view of John Grey and her support for Alice's broken engagement.

• “He had been very crafty and had laid a trap for her. He had laid a trap for her, and she had fallen into it. She had determined not to be induced to talk of herself; but he had brought the thing round so cunningly that the words were out of her mouth before she remembered whither they would lead her.”

  George cleverly manipulated the conversation so that Alice inadvertently revealed her changed plans, despite her intention to avoid discussing herself.

  Shows George's manipulative skill and Alice's vulnerability to his influence.