# Old Letters explained — Cranford > Chapter companion for Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. ## What happens Miss Matty and Mary Smith sort through old family letters, revealing the romantic correspondence between Miss Matty's parents before their marriage, as well as letters from the rector and his mother. The chapter explores Miss Matty's small economies, particularly her careful use of candles, and the emotional weight of reading and burning the letters. ## Themes in this chapter ### Change vs. Tradition The act of burning old letters symbolizes the tension between preserving the past and moving forward, as Miss Matty reluctantly destroys the tangible remnants of her parents' lives. ### Death and Mortality The letters evoke a vivid sense of the present that has passed, and the narrator reflects on the melancholy of reading words from those who are now dead. ### Poverty and Economy Miss Matty's careful candle economy and the narrator's own foible for saving string illustrate the small economies that define daily life in Cranford. ## Character check-ins ### Miss Matty Jenkyns Miss Matty sorts through and burns old family letters, showing her sentimental and economical nature. ### Mary Smith The narrator assists Miss Matty in reading and destroying the letters, reflecting on the sadness of the task. ### Miss Deborah Jenkyns Mentioned as the docketing hand on the letters, and remembered as grey, withered, and wrinkled. ### Martha Brings in the lighted candle and tea, interrupting Miss Matty's sleep. ## Key lines > I have often noticed that almost everyone has his own individual small economies—careful habits of saving fractions of pennies in some one peculiar direction—any disturbance of which annoys him more than spending shillings or pounds on some real extravagance. People often have quirky little ways of saving tiny amounts, and they get more upset when those habits are disrupted than when they waste larger sums. _The narrator introduces the theme of personal economies, using Miss Matty's candle-saving as a prime example._ > The letters were as happy as letters could be—at least those early letters were. There was in them a vivid and intense sense of the present time, which seemed so strong and full, as if it could never pass away, and as if the warm, living hearts that so expressed themselves could never die, and be as nothing to the sunny earth. The early letters were full of joy and a powerful feeling of the moment, as if the writers would live forever, which made reading them all the more sad. _The narrator reflects on the poignant contrast between the letters' vitality and the reality of death._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cranford_se/chapters/v-old-letters - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cranford_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cranford_se/chapters