# Marriage Again explained — Our Nig

> Chapter companion for Our Nig by Harriet E. Wilson.

## What happens

Frado, now a young woman, completes her servitude with the Bellmonts and leaves to work for others, struggling with poor health and loneliness. Jack returns with a wife, Jenny, whom Mrs. Bellmont torments, leading to conflict and eventual rescue by Jack. Frado later falls ill, is taken in by Mrs. Moore, learns straw bonnet-making, and begins to improve herself through reading and sewing.

## Themes in this chapter

### Gender and Vulnerability

Jenny's vulnerability as a wife under Mrs. Bellmont's control and Frado's struggles as a single, ill woman highlight the precarious position of women without male protection or economic independence.

### Class and Economic Exploitation

Mrs. Bellmont's disdain for Jenny's poverty and Frado's exploitation as a servant underscore the intersection of class and race in determining one's worth and treatment.

### Resilience and Survival

Frado's determination to educate herself, earn wages, and recover from illness despite her frail health and limited resources exemplifies her resilience.

## Character check-ins

### Frado

Frado helps Jenny send a letter to Jack, leaves the Bellmonts, works for Mrs. Moore and others, falls ill, and later learns straw bonnet-making while striving for self-improvement.

### Mrs. Bellmont

Mrs. Bellmont intercepts Jenny's letters, treats Jenny coldly, and tries to keep Frado from leaving by calling her ungrateful.

### Jack

Jack returns home with his wife Jenny and child, becomes alienated from his mother after she advises him to desert Jenny, and later rescues Jenny after Frado helps send a letter.

### Jenny

Jenny is Jack's wife, subjected to Mrs. Bellmont's cruelty and false accusations, writes to Jack for rescue, and is eventually taken away by Lewis.

### Mrs. Moore

Mrs. Moore employs Frado, offers her kindness and advice, and later takes her in when she is ill.

### Susan

Susan visits the Bellmonts with her child, encourages Frado's learning, and gives Frado a Bible.

## Key lines

> Many times would Frado steal up into Jenny’s room, when she knew she was tortured by her mistress’ malignity, and tell some of her own encounters with her, and tell her she might 'be sure it wouldn’t kill her, for she should have died long before at the same treatment.'

Frado often secretly visited Jenny to comfort her, sharing her own experiences with Mrs. Bellmont's cruelty and assuring Jenny that she would survive it, as Frado herself had.

_Frado's empathy and shared suffering with Jenny._

> Mrs. B. felt that she could not well spare one who could so well adapt herself to all departments⁠—man, boy, housekeeper, domestic, etc.

Mrs. Bellmont realized Frado was valuable because she could perform many roles: as a man, a boy, a housekeeper, and a domestic servant.

_Mrs. Bellmont's exploitative view of Frado's versatility._

> Poverty was to her a disgrace, and she could not associate with any thus dishonored.

Mrs. Bellmont considered poverty shameful and refused to associate with anyone who was poor.

_Mrs. Bellmont's class prejudice._

> She felt herself capable of elevation; she felt that this book information supplied an undefined dissatisfaction she had long felt, but could not express.

Frado realized she could improve herself, and reading books filled a longing she had always felt but could not name.

_Frado's awakening to self-improvement through reading._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_nig_se/chapters/xi-marriage-again
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_nig_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_nig_se/chapters