Framley Parsonage · Chapter
X: Lucy Robarts explained
Lucy Robarts arrives at the parsonage as a quiet, reserved young woman, contrasting with her demonstrative sister-in-law Fanny.
What happens
Lucy Robarts arrives at the parsonage as a quiet, reserved young woman, contrasting with her demonstrative sister-in-law Fanny. After her father's death, Lucy has matured into a woman with striking eyes and intelligence, though she is not conventionally beautiful like her sisters. Lady Lufton calls and invites Lucy to dinner, but Lucy is too shy to accept immediately.
Themes in this chapter
Social Ambition and Class
Lady Lufton's visit and invitation highlight the social hierarchy and the importance of forming connections with the local gentry.
Family and Loyalty
Fanny's desire to welcome Lucy into the family and Lucy's quiet integration into the parsonage household emphasize family bonds.
Characters to notice
- Lucy Robarts
Introduced as quiet and reserved, not demonstrative like Fanny; has fine eyes and is considered the cleverest of the Robarts children; shy about accepting Lady Lufton's dinner invitation.
- Fanny Robarts
Demonstrative and warm, disappointed that Lucy does not open up to her immediately; tries to throw Lucy and Lady Lufton together during the visit.
- Mark Robarts
Defends Lucy's quiet nature to Fanny, recalling that she was always quiet as a child.
- Lady Lufton
Calls at the parsonage to meet Lucy; shows woman-craft in not judging Lucy by her silence; invites Lucy to dinner at Framley Court.
Key passages
“For the most of us, if we do not talk of ourselves, or at any rate of the individual circles of which we are the centres, we can talk of nothing.”
Most people can only converse about themselves or their own immediate concerns.
The narrator reflects on the common human tendency to be self-centered in conversation.
“Nothing, perhaps, adds so much to womanhood, turns the child so quickly into a woman, as such deathbed scenes as these.”
Experiencing a parent's death is a rapid transition from childhood to womanhood.
Lucy's maturation is attributed to her father's deathbed.
“But what eyes she had! Mrs. Pole was right there. They flashed upon you—not always softly; indeed not often softly, if you were a stranger to her—but whether softly or savagely, with a brilliancy that dazzled you as you looked at them.”
Lucy's eyes were striking and brilliant, often intense rather than gentle, especially with strangers.
Description of Lucy's most notable physical feature.