IX: Showing How the Quarrel Progressed Again explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Marital Jealousy and Possessiveness

  Trevelyan's jealousy of Colonel Osborne intensifies, leading him to forbid Emily from seeing him and to storm out of the house.

• Pride and Stubbornness

  Both Trevelyan and Emily refuse to yield, with Trevelyan rejecting Stanbury's interference and Emily insisting on her right to choose her friends.

• Gender Roles and Power in Marriage

  Trevelyan asserts his authority by issuing orders, while Emily resists, highlighting the struggle for power within the marriage.

Characters to notice

• Hugh Stanbury

  Visits the Trevelyans to discuss his sister Dorothy's letter, but becomes entangled in the marital quarrel. Agrees to speak to Trevelyan, though he doubts his ability to help.

• Emily Trevelyan

  In tears after a quarrel with Louis. She recounts how Louis forbade her from seeing Colonel Osborne and expresses her frustration with the marriage.

• Nora Rowley

  Present during the visit, she tries to prevent Emily from discussing the quarrel with Stanbury, but is unsuccessful.

• Louis Trevelyan

  Leaves the house in a huff after finding Emily closeted with Colonel Osborne. Later, he rejects Stanbury's interference and resolves to confront his wife the next morning.

• Colonel Osborne

  Seen leaving the Trevelyans' house and later meets Stanbury in the street. He expresses his belief that Trevelyan bullies Emily and that the marriage cannot last.

Key passages

• “The truth is Trevelyan bullies her; and if he goes on with that he'll be sure to get the worst of it.”

  Colonel Osborne claims that Trevelyan is bullying Emily and will ultimately lose the conflict.

  Osborne's assessment of the marital dynamic, reflecting his bias.

• “I believe that no woman on earth could live with him. It was always the same with him—a desire for mastery, which he did not know how to use when he had obtained it.”

  Stanbury concludes that Trevelyan's need for control makes him impossible to live with, and that he would break Nora's heart if she were his wife.

  Stanbury's internal reflection on Trevelyan's character.

• “He determined that he would not go to her room tonight, but would see her as early as possible in the morning;—and would then talk to her with all the wisdom of which he was master. How many husbands have come to the same resolution; and how few of them have found the words of wisdom to be efficacious!”

  Trevelyan decides to postpone the confrontation until morning, hoping to speak wisely, but the narrator notes that such resolutions rarely succeed.

  Narrator's ironic commentary on the futility of such marital resolutions.