North and South · Chapter
Out of Tune explained
Mr.
What happens
Mr. Bell visits the Hales and engages in spirited debate with Margaret about commerce versus academia. Mr. Hale mentions that Mr. Thornton is coming to tea. Thornton, still tormented by his feelings for Margaret, resolves to see her without avoidance. Mr. Bell notices signs of a possible attachment between Thornton and Margaret, but Mr. Hale dismisses the idea. After Mr. Bell leaves, the Hales settle into a quiet routine, with Margaret helping the Boucher orphans.
Themes in this chapter
Industrialization and Progress
Margaret defends commerce and progress against Mr. Bell's nostalgic preference for a slower, agrarian life.
Pride and Prejudice
Thornton's pride and inner conflict over his feelings for Margaret, and Mr. Bell's prejudiced view of Milton versus Oxford.
Love and Marriage
Mr. Bell's observation of a possible tendresse between Thornton and Margaret, and Thornton's tortured love for her.
Characters to notice
- Margaret Hale
Engages in lively debate with Mr. Bell about commerce and progress; shows calm composure when Mr. Bell suggests a tendresse between her and Thornton.
- John Thornton
Struggles with his lingering love for Margaret despite his jealousy and blame; resolves to neither seek nor avoid her company.
- Mr. Hale
Hosts Mr. Bell and later dismisses the idea of a romantic attachment between Margaret and Thornton, though he lies awake troubled by the thought.
- Mr. Bell
Visits the Hales, debates with Margaret, and suggests to Mr. Hale that Thornton and Margaret may have a tendresse; offers to be Margaret's protector.
- Mrs. Thornton
Mentioned indirectly as Thornton refrains from asking her about her conversation with Margaret regarding impropriety.
- Mary Higgins
Cares for the Boucher orphans with Margaret's help.
Key passages
“I have no wrong, where I can claim no right, Naught ta'en me fro, where I have nothing had, Yet of my woe I cannot so be quite; Namely, since that another may be glad With that, that thus in sorrow makes me sad.”
I have suffered no injustice where I have no claim, and nothing has been taken from me that I ever possessed, yet I cannot escape my sorrow, especially because someone else may be happy with what causes me such grief.
The epigraph from Wyatt captures Thornton's emotional state: he feels he has no right to Margaret, yet her potential happiness with another torments him.
“He dreamt of her; he dreamt she came dancing towards him with outspread arms, and with a lightness and gaiety which made him loathe her, even while it allured him.”
He dreamed that Margaret approached him joyfully with open arms, but her frivolity repelled him even as it attracted him.
Thornton's dream reveals his conflicted feelings: he is both drawn to and repelled by a distorted image of Margaret.