Democracy · Chapter
V explained
Madeleine Lee reflects on the burdens and disappointments of political life after studying the lives of American Presidents.
What happens
Madeleine Lee reflects on the burdens and disappointments of political life after studying the lives of American Presidents. She attends a White House reception where she is struck by the mechanical, dehumanizing nature of the event. Ratcliffe later confesses to her his role in election fraud during the war, justifying it as necessary to save the Union. Baron Jacobi openly mocks Ratcliffe's ignorance of literature and history. Carrington, who secretly loves Madeleine, grows anxious as Ratcliffe's influence over her increases. A tense exchange occurs between Ratcliffe and Madeleine over Darwin's theory of evolution, revealing Ratcliffe's intolerance and Madeleine's wit.
Themes in this chapter
Power and Ambition
Ratcliffe openly states that the pleasure of politics lies in the possession of power, and he intends to be President.
Disillusionment with American Life
Madeleine finds the lives of American Presidents a 'melancholy spectacle' of thwarted hopes and insults, and the White House reception strikes her as shockingly mechanical.
Corruption in Democracy
Ratcliffe's detailed confession of manipulating election returns in Illinois illustrates the willingness to subvert democratic processes for political ends.
Social Class and Snobbery
Baron Jacobi's contempt for Ratcliffe as a type combines European aristocratic snobbery with disdain for American provincialism.
Characters to notice
- Madeleine Lee
Reflects on the melancholy of presidential lives, attends the White House reception, and engages in intellectual sparring with Ratcliffe.
- The Honourable Silas P. Ratcliffe
Confesses to election fraud, expresses his love of power and ambition, and clashes with Madeleine over Darwin.
- Mr. Carrington
Observes Ratcliffe's advances on Madeleine with anxiety, and subtly challenges Ratcliffe on his past corruption.
- Old Baron Jacobi
Delights in exposing Ratcliffe's ignorance, particularly by confusing Molière with Voltaire.
- Mr. C. C. French
Accompanies Madeleine to the White House reception and makes uncouth jokes.
- Sybil Ross
Refuses to attend the White House reception, preferring to stay home.
Key passages
“To tie a prominent statesman to her train and to lead him about like a tame bear, is for a young and vivacious woman a more certain amusement than to tie herself to him and to be dragged about like an Indian squaw.”
Madeleine discovers that it is more entertaining to control a powerful man than to be controlled by him.
This insight is described as Madeleine's first great political discovery in Washington.
“What a melancholy spectacle it was, from George Washington down to the last incumbent; what vexations, what disappointments, what grievous mistakes, what very objectionable manners!”
Madeleine finds the history of American Presidents to be a depressing series of failures and poor behavior.
Reflects her growing disillusionment with political life.
“The man who has committed a murder for his country, is a patriot and not an assassin, even when he receives a seat in the Senate as his share of the plunder.”
A person who commits a crime for patriotic reasons is celebrated as a hero, not condemned as a criminal.
Narrator's ironic commentary on Ratcliffe's justification of election fraud.
“Such books disgrace our civilization; they degrade and stultify our divine nature; they are only suited for Asiatic despotisms where men are reduced to the level of brutes.”
Ratcliffe condemns Darwin's work as degrading and incompatible with American values.
Shows Ratcliffe's intellectual narrowness and his tendency to equate scientific ideas with political threats.
