# XXVII: “Like a Fair Lily” explained — Charlotte Temple

> Chapter companion for Charlotte Temple by Susanna Haswell Rowson.

## What happens

Charlotte, abandoned by Montraville for nearly three months, languishes in solitude and despair. Belcour visits, feigning friendship while harboring lustful intentions. He cruelly informs her that Montraville has married Julia Franklin and sailed for Eustatia. Charlotte collapses in a faint, falls into a fever, and is eventually abandoned by Belcour, who leaves her to die in poverty and sickness.

## Themes in this chapter

### Seduction and Betrayal

Belcour's manipulation and Montraville's marriage to another woman while Charlotte is pregnant exemplify the theme of seduction followed by cruel betrayal.

### Consequences of Imprudence

Charlotte's physical and emotional decline, her illness, and her abandonment are direct consequences of her earlier imprudent elopement and trust in Montraville.

### Female Virtue and Fall

Charlotte's fallen state—pale, weeping, and outcast—illustrates the 18th-century cautionary narrative of a woman's loss of virtue leading to social and physical ruin.

## Character check-ins

### Charlotte Temple

Charlotte is deeply melancholic, physically weakened by grief and weeping, and devastated by the news of Montraville's marriage. She expresses a desire to die and is left alone in sickness and penury.

### Belcour

Belcour visits Charlotte under the guise of friendship but schemes to seduce her. He cruelly reveals Montraville's marriage, then abandons her when she falls ill, pursuing a farmer's daughter instead.

### Montraville

Montraville is absent but central to the chapter; he has married Julia Franklin and sailed for Eustatia, having abandoned Charlotte without farewell or support.

### Mrs. Beauchamp

Mrs. Beauchamp is mentioned as having sent Charlotte one affectionate letter, and Charlotte longs for her consoling presence.

### Julia Franklin

Julia Franklin is named as the woman Montraville has married; she is described as a pleasing, lively girl with a large fortune.

## Key lines

> Pensive she mourn’d, and hung her languid head, Like a fair lily overcharg’d with dew.

Charlotte sits in sorrow, her head drooping like a lily heavy with dew.

_The epigraph and opening image compare Charlotte to a drooping lily, symbolizing her faded beauty and overwhelming grief._

> if I am no longer beloved, I will not be indebted to his pity to redress my injuries, but I would have knelt and entreated him not to forsake my poor unborn⁠—

Charlotte says she would not beg for herself, but would kneel to ask Montraville not to abandon their unborn child.

_This reveals Charlotte's selflessness and desperation, prioritizing her child over her own pride._

> Married⁠—gone⁠—say you? ... what, without a last farewell, without one thought on my unhappy situation!

Charlotte cries out in shock that Montraville married and left without any goodbye or concern for her.

_The news of Montraville's marriage is the final blow, causing Charlotte to faint and fall into a fever._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/charlotte_temple_se/chapters/volume-ii-xxvii-like-a-fair-lily
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/charlotte_temple_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/charlotte_temple_se/chapters