Hard Times · Chapter
XIII: Rachael explained
Stephen returns home to find Rachael tending to his sick and injured wife.
What happens
Stephen returns home to find Rachael tending to his sick and injured wife. Despite the woman's degradation, Rachael shows compassion and nurses her. Stephen, tormented by guilt and despair, experiences a hallucinatory nightmare in which he is condemned to eternal separation from Rachael. He wakes to see his wife reaching for a bottle of poison, but Rachael wakes in time to prevent the suicide. After the crisis, Rachael leaves, and Stephen is left with a profound sense of her goodness.
Themes in this chapter
Compassion and Human Connection
Rachael's selfless care for Stephen's wife, despite the woman's past, exemplifies unconditional compassion and the power of human connection to transcend suffering.
Hypocrisy and Self-Deception
Stephen's nightmare reflects his internal guilt and the societal condemnation of his wife, contrasting with Rachael's non-judgmental mercy.
Social Class and Inequality
The chapter contrasts the unequal distribution of death and suffering, highlighting the disparity between the rich and the poor.
Characters to notice
- Stephen Blackpool
Returns home to find Rachael tending his wife; experiences a nightmare of guilt and condemnation; watches his wife nearly poison herself; is left in awe of Rachael's compassion.
- Rachael
Nurses Stephen's wife with kindness and skill; quotes scripture to comfort Stephen; prevents the wife from drinking poison; leaves Stephen with a promise of future peace.
- Signor Jupe
Mentioned in Stephen's nightmare as part of the circus troupe that abhors him.
- Sissy Jupe
Mentioned in Stephen's nightmare as part of the circus troupe that abhors him.
- Mr. Sleary
Mentioned in Stephen's nightmare as part of the circus troupe that abhors him.
Key passages
“The inequality of birth was nothing to it. For, say that the child of a king and the child of a weaver were born tonight in the same moment, what was that disparity, to the death of any human creature who was serviceable to, or beloved by, another, while this abandoned woman lived on!”
The difference between being born rich or poor is insignificant compared to the injustice of death, which takes the useful and loved while leaving the worthless alive.
Stephen reflects on the unfairness of death, contrasting it with social inequality.
“Thou knowest who said, ‘Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her!’ There have been plenty to do that. Thou art not the man to cast the last stone, Stephen, when she is brought so low.”
You know the biblical teaching that only the sinless should judge. Many have condemned her, but you are not the one to deliver the final blow when she is at her lowest.
Rachael quotes Jesus to remind Stephen not to judge his wife harshly.
“As the shining stars were to the heavy candle in the window, so was Rachael, in the rugged fancy of this man, to the common experiences of his life.”
In Stephen's rough imagination, Rachael was as superior to the ordinary people and events of his life as the bright stars are to a dim candle.
The narrator compares Rachael's purity and goodness to the stars, contrasting with the mundane and dark aspects of Stephen's life.