Dangerous Ages · Chapter
XI: That Which Remains explained
Neville suffers a nervous breakdown from overwork, confronting the onset of middle age and the loss of youth and beauty.
What happens
Neville suffers a nervous breakdown from overwork, confronting the onset of middle age and the loss of youth and beauty. She reflects on her ambitions, vanity, and the emptiness of her future roles as wife and mother. Meanwhile, she worries about Nan's reckless involvement with Stephen Lumley in Rome, suspects a tragic love triangle involving Barry and Gerda, and discusses with Pamela how to counter Rosalind's spreading scandal. Neville plans to visit Nan but falls ill with influenza before she can act.
Themes in this chapter
Aging and Mortality
Neville's confrontation with middle age, grey hair, wrinkles, and the loss of youth and beauty.
Ambition and Vanity
Neville's struggle with her desire to work and count, and her admission of vanity about mind and body.
Love, Marriage, and Freedom
Nan's possible desperate affair with Lumley, Barry's shifting affections, and Gerda's resistance to marriage.
Characters to notice
- Neville Bendish
Suffers a nervous breakdown, confronts middle age, vanity, and loss of purpose; worries about Nan and Gerda.
- Gerda
Recovering from a nervous breakdown, passive and depressed; Neville sees her as obstinate about marriage.
- Nan Hilary
In Rome with Stephen Lumley, possibly out of desperation; Neville fears she was hurt by Barry's shift to Gerda.
- Pamela Neville
Calm and detached; discusses Nan's situation and advises ignoring scandal; Neville envies her equanimity.
- Barry Briscoe
Now involved with Gerda; Neville speculates he may have rebounded from Nan.
- Rosalind Hilary
Spreading scandal about Nan; Neville dismisses her as unchanging and scum-like.
Key passages
“Middle age had begun. She would have off days in future, when she would look old and worn instead of always, as hitherto, looking charming.”
Neville realizes that her youth is ending and she will no longer consistently appear attractive.
Neville's acceptance of aging and loss of beauty.
“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity … and now the silver cord is going”
Neville reflects on her vanity and the approaching end of her vitality.
Biblical allusion to Ecclesiastes and the 'silver cord' from Ecclesiastes 12:6.
“Men were blind fools; men were fickle children.”
Neville thinks men are foolish and changeable, especially in love.
Neville's frustration with Barry's fickleness and the romantic entanglements.
“These family jobs—they still go on, they never cease, even when one is getting middle-aged and one’s brain has gone to pot. They remain, always, the jobs of the affections.”
Neville feels that caring for family members is a never-ending duty, even as she ages and loses her mental sharpness.
Neville's sense of ongoing responsibility despite her own breakdown.