Lorna Doone · Chapter
A Boy and a Girl explained
John Ridd meets Lorna Doone in the Doone Valley after falling through a waterfall.
What happens
John Ridd meets Lorna Doone in the Doone Valley after falling through a waterfall. Despite their different social stations, they form a bond. When Doone men come searching for Lorna, John hides in the water while Lorna pretends to be asleep. She is carried away by one of the men, but waves goodbye to John. He escapes through a hidden niche in the cliff, nearly falling into a dark pool, but is saved by the sound of a robin.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Inequality
John reflects on the social gulf between himself as a yeoman's boy and Lorna as a born lady, noting that even generations of training could not give his family her natural noble bearing.
Love and Sacrifice
John risks his life by hiding in the freezing water to protect Lorna, and she in turn feigns sleep to divert the Doone men, showing early mutual care and sacrifice.
Characters to notice
- John Ridd
Narrator and protagonist; a yeoman's boy who meets Lorna in the Doone Valley and hides in the water to avoid detection.
- Lorna Doone
A young girl of noble birth, called 'queen' by the Doones; she befriends John and helps him hide, then is carried away by a Doone man.
Key passages
“For although she was not at all a proud child (at any rate in her countenance), yet I knew that she was by birth a thousand years in front of me.”
Though Lorna did not act haughty, John felt she was inherently superior to him due to her noble lineage.
Highlights the theme of social class and inequality.
“She shrank to me, and looked up at me, with such a power of weakness, that I at once made up my mind to save her or to die with her.”
Lorna's vulnerable look made John resolve to protect her at any cost, even his own life.
Illustrates the theme of love and sacrifice.