# XXXII explained — Melmoth the Wanderer > Chapter companion for Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Robert Maturin. ## What happens Elinor returns to Yorkshire after her aunt's death, visits her grave, and lives a secluded life. She receives a letter from Margaret Mortimer, who is in childbirth and requests her presence. Elinor goes to the Castle, where Margaret gives birth to stillborn twins and dies. John Sandal is devastated. Later, a clergyman recounts his acquaintance with Melmoth, who sought forbidden knowledge and died under mysterious circumstances. Elinor cares for the now-insane John Sandal, and a stranger begins to observe them. ## Themes in this chapter ### Love and Sacrifice Elinor's unwavering devotion to John Sandal after Margaret's death, caring for him despite his madness and her own grief. ### Knowledge and Curiosity Melmoth's pursuit of forbidden knowledge and occult arts, leading to his diabolical delusions and mysterious death. ## Character check-ins ### Elinor Mortimer Grieves her aunt, lives in seclusion, attends Margaret in childbirth, and later cares for the insane John Sandal. ### Margaret Mortimer Dies after giving birth to stillborn twins; her death devastates John Sandal. ### John Sandal Margaret's husband, driven to madness by her death, now cared for by Elinor. ### Juan di Monçada Narrates the story to Aliaga, including the clergyman's account of Melmoth. ### Francisco di Aliaga Listener to Monçada's narrative, interjects with a comment about a profane comparison. ## Key lines > Fuimus, non sumus. We have been, but we are no more. _Opening line reflecting on mortality and loss._ > The purity of her feelings had formed an impenetrable barrier between her heart and its object—and she apprehended no more danger from the presence of one who was wedded, and wedded to her relative, than from that of her own brother. Elinor's pure feelings made her feel safe in the presence of John Sandal, now married to her relative, as if he were her brother. _Elinor's emotional state and lack of romantic threat._ > Mine was the great angelic sin—pride and intellectual glorying! It was the first mortal sin—a boundless aspiration after forbidden knowledge! Melmoth confesses that his sin was pride and the pursuit of forbidden knowledge, like the sin of Lucifer. _Melmoth's dying confession about his intellectual hubris._ > She has one consolation. When a short interval of recollection returns—when his speech becomes articulate—he utters her name, not that of Margaret, and a beam of early hope dances on her heart as she hears it, but fades away as fast as the rare and wandering ray of intellect from the lost mind of the sufferer! Elinor finds solace when John Sandal briefly recognizes her and speaks her name, but the hope quickly fades as his madness returns. _Elinor's bittersweet consolation in caring for John Sandal._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/melmoth_the_wanderer_se/chapters/xxxii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/melmoth_the_wanderer_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/melmoth_the_wanderer_se/chapters