# Such Things Are explained — Charlotte Temple

> Chapter companion for Charlotte Temple by Susanna Haswell Rowson.

## What happens

This chapter describes Miss Weatherby, a spoiled heiress, and her pursuit of Henry Temple. Temple refuses her because he loves Lucy Eldridge, leading to his disinheritance by his father. Miss Weatherby then marries Temple's father, the Earl, out of spite. Temple, Lucy, and her father retire to a simple, happy cottage life, where they live in contentment and raise Charlotte Temple.

## Themes in this chapter

### Class and Money

Miss Weatherby's wealth and social status drive the plot, as her fortune tempts the Earl and contrasts with Temple's choice of modest happiness with Lucy.

### Parental Love and Grief

Henry Temple's love for his father is strained by the Earl's ambition, while Temple's own love for Lucy and their child Charlotte is portrayed as pure and nurturing.

## Character check-ins

### Henry Temple

Refuses Miss Weatherby's hand due to his love for Lucy Eldridge, is disinherited by his father, and marries Lucy, living a simple life.

### Lucy Eldridge

The beloved of Henry Temple; she agrees to marry him and they retire to a cottage with her father.

### Mr. Eldridge

Lucy's father, who retires with the couple to their cottage and lives peacefully.

### Miss Weatherby

A wealthy, spoiled heiress who pursues Henry Temple, is rejected, and then marries his father out of revenge.

### Charlotte Temple

The daughter of Henry and Lucy Temple, born after their happy retirement, and later sent to Madame Du Pont's school.

### Madame Du Pont

Runs the school where Charlotte Temple completes her education.

## Key lines

> The lovely maid whose form and face Nature has deck’d with ev’ry grace, But in whose breast no virtues glow, Whose heart ne’er felt another’s woe, Whose hand ne’er smooth’d the bed of pain, Or eas’d the captive’s galling chain; But like the tulip caught the eye, Born just to be admir’d and die; When gone, no one regrets its loss, Or scarce remembers that it was.

Miss Weatherby is beautiful on the outside but lacks inner virtue, compassion, or empathy; she is admired only for her appearance and quickly forgotten.

_This poetic description establishes Miss Weatherby's character as shallow and self-centered._

> We will purchase a little cottage, my Lucy, said he, and thither with your reverend father, we will retire; we will forget there are such things as splendor, profusion, and dissipation: we will have some cows, and you shall be queen of the dairy; in the morning, while I look after my garden, you shall take a basket on your arm, and sally forth to feed your poultry;

Henry Temple envisions a simple, self-sufficient life with Lucy and her father, free from luxury and social pressures.

_This idyllic vision contrasts with the worldly ambitions of Miss Weatherby and the Earl, highlighting Temple's values._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/charlotte_temple_se/chapters/volume-i-v-such-things-are
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/charlotte_temple_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/charlotte_temple_se/chapters