Lavengro · Chapter
XLIV explained
The narrator sits with the old apple-woman on London Bridge past midwinter.
What happens
The narrator sits with the old apple-woman on London Bridge past midwinter. She offers him the book that had been her comfort, now distasteful to her. She recounts how learning to read led her to buy stolen goods and contributed to her son's thievery, and she now regrets literacy. The narrator philosophizes about necessity, existence, and morality. She expresses a desire for a Bible, and he offers to try to exchange her book for one. A mysterious customer in a blue mantle buys an apple and departs.
Themes in this chapter
Philology and Learning
The chapter explores the ambiguous value of literacy: the apple-woman attributes her moral decline to learning to read, while the narrator defends the book's deep morality.
Honor and Morality
The apple-woman's conscience is troubled by the commandment 'Thou shalt not steal' and her past dealings in stolen goods, raising questions about moral responsibility.
Religion and Priestcraft
The apple-woman's desire for a Bible and the narrator's offer to exchange her book for one highlight the role of religious texts in seeking moral guidance.
Characters to notice
- Lavengro
Sits with the apple-woman, reads the book, philosophizes about necessity and existence, and offers to exchange her book for a Bible.
- The Old Man
The apple-woman, who gives the narrator her book, regrets learning to read, and wishes for a Bible.
Key passages
“So here was a woman who attributed the vices and follies of her life to being able to read; her mother, she said, who could not read, lived respectably, and died in peace; and what was the essential difference between the mother and daughter, save that the latter could read?”
The apple-woman blames her moral failings on her literacy, noting that her illiterate mother lived an honest and peaceful life.
Highlights the theme of learning and its potential negative consequences.
“What is right? thought I; what is wrong? Do I exist? Does the world exist? if it does, every action is bound up with necessity.”
The narrator questions the nature of right and wrong, existence, and whether all actions are determined by necessity.
Reflects the narrator's philosophical musings on morality and determinism.
“I wish I had never learned to read, or, if I had, that I had only read the books I saw at school: the primer or the other.”
The apple-woman regrets learning to read and wishes she had only read the primer or the Bible.
Shows her longing for a simpler, morally safe form of literacy.