Another Struggle explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Marital Jealousy and Possessiveness

  Trevelyan's hiring of a detective to watch his wife and his continued hostility exemplify destructive jealousy.

• Gender Roles and Power in Marriage

  Emily's powerlessness—unable to reconcile or even see her child without her husband's consent—illustrates the legal and social subordination of wives.

• Family Loyalty and Sacrifice

  Nora's determination to marry Hugh despite poverty and Emily's willingness to humiliate herself for her son's sake show familial devotion.

Characters to notice

• Emily Trevelyan

  Despairs over her husband's hostility and the impossibility of reconciliation; fears being forced to return to the Islands without her son.

• Nora Rowley

  Resolves to marry Hugh Stanbury despite poverty; reflects on her past rejection of Mr. Glascock and her changed views on life.

• Louis Trevelyan

  Arrives at the parsonage, seeking to see his wife; his presence causes consternation.

• Mr. Outhouse

  Refuses to see Trevelyan and instructs his wife to tell him to leave the house.

• Mrs. Outhouse

  Reluctantly acts as intermediary, conveying her husband's demand that Trevelyan leave.

Key passages

• “He did not scold them. He never threw it in Mrs. Trevelyan’s teeth that she had been separated from her husband by her own fault; he did not tell them of his own discomfort. But he showed it in every gesture, and spoke of it in every tone of his voice;⁠—so that Mrs. Trevelyan could not refrain from apologising for the misfortune of her presence.”

  Mr. Outhouse never directly blamed the sisters, but his silent resentment made Emily feel compelled to apologize for being there.

  Illustrates the oppressive atmosphere at the parsonage and Emily's sense of being a burden.

• “If he wheeled a barrow of turnips about the street, I’d marry him tomorrow, she said to her sister one afternoon as they were sitting together in the room which ought to have been their uncle’s study.”

  Nora declared she would marry Hugh Stanbury even if he were a street vendor selling turnips.

  Shows Nora's unwavering commitment to Hugh despite poverty.

• “How am I to go back to him? What am I to do to make him take me back? ... In very truth I do believe that he is mad.”

  Emily questioned how she could possibly return to a husband she believes is insane.

  Highlights Emily's despair and her perception of Trevelyan's irrationality.