New Grub Street · Chapter
XXX: Waiting on Destiny explained
Marian and Jasper discuss her potential to write fiction for money, leading to tension when Jasper's blunt advice wounds her.
What happens
Marian and Jasper discuss her potential to write fiction for money, leading to tension when Jasper's blunt advice wounds her. Jasper learns of the loss of Marian's inheritance and reacts with frustration, worrying about his own prospects and his sisters' living situation. Marian's father, Alfred Yule, reveals he is going blind, adding to the family's despair. The chapter explores the strain on Marian and Jasper's relationship as financial realities and emotional vulnerabilities surface.
Themes in this chapter
Marriage and Money
The chapter highlights how financial instability threatens Jasper and Marian's engagement, with Jasper explicitly stating marriage must be postponed due to lost inheritance.
Ambition and Failure
Jasper's frustration at his thwarted plans and his determination to avoid backward steps reflect the theme of ambition clashing with harsh realities.
Gender Roles and Women's Position
Marian's discomfort with Jasper's suggestion that she write love-scenes for money underscores societal expectations of women's roles in literature and relationships.
Characters to notice
- Marian Yule
Struggles with Jasper's suggestion to write fiction for money, feels her love is undervalued, and learns of her father's impending blindness.
- Jasper Milvain
Frustrated by the loss of Marian's inheritance, vents his anger, and questions the viability of their marriage.
- Dora Milvain
Shows concern about the financial situation and the possibility of moving back to poorer lodgings.
- Maud Milvain
Reacts with dark humor to Jasper's predicament, questioning his remarks to Marian.
- Alfred Yule
Reveals he is going blind and speaks of despair, affecting the household.
- Mrs. Edmund Yule
Distressed by the family's troubles, conveys Alfred's news to Marian, and struggles to maintain household order.
Key passages
““I’m afraid I could do nothing worth doing.” “That isn’t exactly the question. Could you do anything that would sell? With very moderate success in fiction you might make three times as much as you ever will by magazine potboilers.””
Marian doubts her ability to write fiction, but Jasper reframes the question in terms of marketability, suggesting she could earn more from novels than from magazine articles.
Highlights the commercial pressures on writers and the tension between artistic worth and financial gain.
““It simply means,” pursued Jasper, seating himself and crossing his legs, “that I must move heaven and earth to improve my position. ... I don’t see much hope of our being able to marry for a year or two under the most favourable circumstances.””
Jasper concludes that their marriage must be delayed for at least a year or two while he works to improve his financial standing.
Illustrates the theme of marriage and money, as financial security dictates the timeline of their relationship.
““Your father has asked to see you when you come down,” Mrs. Yule whispered. “I’ll go to him.” Marian entered the study. Her father was not in his place at the writing-table, nor yet seated in the chair which he used when he had leisure to draw up to the fireside; he”
Mrs. Yule tells Marian that her father wants to see her, and Marian finds him not at his usual spots, indicating his distress.
Foreshadows Alfred Yule's revelation about his blindness and the family's deepening crisis.
