Martin Eden · Chapter
XLIV explained
Martin Eden is now celebrated and receives numerous dinner invitations, including from Mr.
What happens
Martin Eden is now celebrated and receives numerous dinner invitations, including from Mr. Morse and Bernard Higginbotham, who had previously rejected him. He reflects bitterly on the hypocrisy of society, which now values him for his fame and money rather than for his work itself. He recalls how he starved and was shunned when he needed support, and he struggles with the realization that people are feeding him not for his art but because it is fashionable. He helps his sister Marian and her husband Hermann von Schmidt financially, despite his contempt for their opportunism. The chapter explores Martin's growing disillusionment with bourgeois values and his obsession with the phrase 'work performed.'
Themes in this chapter
Success and Disillusionment
Martin achieves fame and wealth but becomes increasingly disillusioned with the hypocrisy of society, which values him only for his reputation and not his work.
Social Class and Mobility
The chapter explores how bourgeois society measures worth by fame and money, as seen in the Morses and Higginbothams suddenly seeking Martin's company.
Art vs. Commerce
Martin's work is now commercially successful, but he feels that the public and his family value the fame and profit over the artistic merit of his writing.
Characters to notice
- Martin Eden
Martin is now famous and inundated with dinner invitations, but he is deeply disillusioned and obsessed with the hypocrisy of those who ignored him when he was starving.
- Mr. Morse
Mr. Morse invites Martin to dinner, having previously forbidden him the house and broken off the engagement, highlighting the bourgeois valuation of fame over merit.
- Bernard Higginbotham
Bernard invites Martin to dinner and accepts his financial help for Marian, revealing his opportunistic nature.
- Hermann von Schmidt
Hermann exploits Martin's fame to advance his business, securing a bicycle store agency and planning for an automobile garage, while privately dismissing Martin's work.
- Marian
Marian expresses love for Martin at parting, though Martin senses her apology for her earlier lack of faith in him.
- Ruth Morse
Martin speaks of Ruth without emotional turmoil, reflecting on how she valued bourgeois standards over his work.
Key passages
“When he wanted dinners, no one gave them to him, and now that he could buy a hundred thousand dinners and was losing his appetite, dinners were thrust upon him right and left.”
When Martin was starving, no one offered him food; now that he is wealthy and has lost his appetite, people constantly invite him to dinner.
Martin reflects on the irony of society's delayed recognition.
“You are feeding me now because you are herd animals; because you are part of the mob; because the one blind, automatic thought in the mob-mind just now is to feed me.”
You are feeding me now only because it is the current trend among the crowd to do so.
Martin's bitter realization that his fame is a fad, not a genuine appreciation of his work.
“It was work performed. And now you feed me, when then you let me starve, forbade me your house, and damned me because I wouldn't get a job.”
My work was the same then as now, yet you starved me and rejected me; now you feed me only because of my fame.
Martin's internal accusation against Bernard Higginbotham and society.