XLIII: Mrs. Marsham explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Duty vs. Desire

  Lady Glencora struggles between her duty as a wife to Plantagenet Palliser and her desire for romantic freedom with Burgo Fitzgerald.

• Female Autonomy and Identity

  Lady Glencora rebels against being controlled by her husband and Mrs. Marsham, asserting her right to choose her own companions and activities.

• Betrayal and Forgiveness

  Mrs. Marsham's manipulative actions and Lady Glencora's sense of betrayal by her husband's lack of sympathy highlight themes of trust and deception.

Characters to notice

• Lady Glencora Palliser

  Rebels against her husband's request to have Mrs. Marsham as a companion, feeling trapped in a loveless marriage and longing for Burgo Fitzgerald.

• Plantagenet Palliser

  Makes a request for Mrs. Marsham to be invited, but is mild and unsuspecting, failing to understand his wife's emotional needs.

• Alice Vavasor

  Invited by Lady Glencora for support, she becomes an enemy of Mrs. Marsham and feels the coldness of the Palliser household.

• Mrs. Marsham

  Acts as a duenna and watchdog over Lady Glencora, manipulating situations to assert control and viewing Alice as a bad influence.

• Burgo Fitzgerald

  Mentioned in Lady Glencora's romantic fantasies as the ideal lover she could have married.

Key passages

• “It seemed to her to be so intolerably cruel, this demand of his, that she should be made to pass the whole of her first evening in town with an old woman for whom it was impossible that she should entertain the slightest regard, that she resolved upon rebellion.”

  Lady Glencora found her husband's request to spend her first evening in London with Mrs. Marsham unbearably cruel, leading her to decide to defy him.

  Highlights Lady Glencora's resentment and her decision to rebel against her husband's wishes.

• “Had he positively ordered Mrs. Marsham, she would have sent for that lady, and have contented herself with enduring her presence in disdainful silence; but Mr. Palliser had not given any order. He had made a request, and a request, from its very nature, admits of no obedience.”

  If Mr. Palliser had given a direct order, Lady Glencora would have obeyed, but since he only made a request, she felt free to refuse compliance.

  Explains Lady Glencora's reasoning for rebellion, distinguishing between orders and requests.

• “She sat smiling at the absurdity of the thing as she thought of the beauty of Burgo’s eyes, of the softness of his touch, of the loving, almost worshipping, tones of his voice. Would it not even be better to be beaten by him than to have politics explained to her at one o’clock at night by such a husband as Plantagenet Palliser?”

  Lady Glencora romanticizes Burgo Fitzgerald, imagining that even physical abuse from him would be preferable to her husband's tedious political lectures.

  Reveals Lady Glencora's deep dissatisfaction with her marriage and her idealization of Burgo.

• “She was hard-hearted, and capable of pursuing an object without much regard to the injury she might do. She would not flatter wealth or fawn before a title, but she was not above any artifice by which she might ingratiate herself with those whom it suited her purpose to conciliate.”

  Mrs. Marsham is described as ruthless and manipulative, willing to use any means to achieve her goals, though she avoids obvious flattery.

  Characterizes Mrs. Marsham as a cunning and determined woman.

• “When a woman knows that she is guarded by a watchdog, she is bound to deceive her Cerberus, if it be possible, and is usually not ill-disposed to deceive also the owner of Cerberus.”

  A woman who feels she is being watched will naturally try to deceive her guardian, and may also deceive the person who set the guardian over her.

  Explains Lady Glencora's motivation to deceive both Mrs. Marsham and her husband.