III explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Identity and Self-Perception

  Hannah reflects on her past and her sense of self, seeing her life as her only possession and maintaining a hopeful outlook despite limited prospects.

• Truth, Deception, and Moral Ambiguity

  Hannah plans to deceive Lilla about her recent experiences, considering truth as a relative good that must be adapted to the listener.

• Class and Social Mobility

  Hannah's education was a stretch for her father's resources, and she now navigates between different social spheres, from her humble origins to her current lodgings.

Characters to notice

• Miss Hannah Mole

  Reflects on her past, her education, and her current situation; visits Lilla and plans to deceive her about her stay with Mrs. Gibson.

• Lilla

  Hannah's cousin, whom she is visiting; Hannah recalls their school days and plans to deceive her.

• Mrs. Gibson

  Hannah's current landlady; she is kind and somewhat simple, and has taken Hannah in after the incident with Mr. Pilgrim.

• Mr. Blenkinsop

  A respectable lodger at Mrs. Gibson's who is upset about the recent events involving the basement tenant.

• Father

  Hannah's father, Farmer Mole, remembered for his frugality and the one impulsive act of sending Hannah to school.

Key passages

• “She refused to see it so: it would have been treachery to herself. Her life was almost her only possession and she was as tender with it as a mother with a defective child: there was no doubt it would improve, the big miracle would happen and, meanwhile, there were the smaller ones such as this chance to rove at her will through Upper Radstowe”

  Hannah refuses to view her life as disappointing, treating it with care and optimism, believing that better things are coming and finding joy in small freedoms like exploring Upper Radstowe.

  Hannah's resilient and hopeful outlook on her life.

• “It was the one impulsive action she remembered in a man as little given to eccentricity as one of his own turnips, but she had seen turnips grown to odd shapes and something comparable to these distortions had happened in the case of Farmer Mole.”

  Hannah recalls that her father's decision to send her to school was his only impulsive act, comparing it to a turnip growing in an unusual shape.

  Hannah's reflection on her father's rare and beneficial impulsiveness.

• “And truth, after all, was a relative good: it had to be adulterated and adapted, like a drug, to the constitution of each individual, and Hannah would describe neither her first nor her second visit to the house in Prince’s Road.”

  Hannah believes that truth must be adjusted for each person, so she plans to omit details of her visits to Mrs. Gibson's house when talking to Lilla.

  Hannah's pragmatic and flexible approach to truth-telling.