Lorna Doone · Chapter
A Long Spring Month explained
John Ridd returns home troubled after Lorna's story, fearing their class difference.
What happens
John Ridd returns home troubled after Lorna's story, fearing their class difference. He finds young Squire Marwood de Whichehalse flirting with his sister Annie, and knocks him down. Marwood later apologizes and seeks reconciliation, but John resolves to keep him from Annie. The chapter also describes the beauty of spring and the hard farm work of hoeing.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Inequality
John worries that Lorna's noble lineage makes her unsuitable for him, a yeoman's son, highlighting class barriers.
Family and Loyalty
John defends his sister Annie's honor against Squire Marwood's advances, showing strong family loyalty.
Nature and the Rural World
The chapter vividly describes the beauty of spring in the valley and the hard labor of farming, emphasizing the rural setting.
Characters to notice
- John Ridd
Narrator and protagonist; returns home troubled by Lorna's story and class concerns, then intervenes to protect Annie's honor.
- Annie Ridd
John's sister; courted by Squire Marwood, she is shy and modest, and later seems frightened rather than grateful after John's intervention.
- Marwood de Whichehalse
Young squire who flirts with Annie; knocked down by John, but later sends a polite letter of apology.
- Lorna Doone
John's beloved; her story and noble lineage cause John anxiety about their class difference.
- Tom Faggus
Mentioned as having a possible romantic connection with Annie, though he is now respectable.
- John Fry
Farm worker; mentioned among those John struggles to keep in line during hoeing.
Key passages
“I gave him the flat of my hand on his head, and down he went in the thick of the milk-pans.”
John struck Squire Marwood with his open hand, knocking him into the milk pans.
John's physical intervention to protect Annie's honor.
“I had bitter fears, on account of her wondrous beauty, lest some young fellow of higher birth and finer parts, and finish, might steal in before poor me, and cut me out altogether.”
John feared that Lorna's beauty would attract a suitor of higher social standing who might win her away from him.
John's anxiety about class and competition for Lorna's affection.
“The spring was in our valley now; creeping first for shelter shyly in the pause of the blustering wind.”
Spring arrived gently in the valley, hiding at first from the wind before fully emerging.
Descriptive passage celebrating the arrival of spring.