Poetry · Chapter
XXI explained
The brothers discover Lorenzo's love for their sister Isabel and her love for him, and they become bitter and angry that a servant should be happy in her love when they had planned to marry her to a wealthy nobleman.
What happens
The brothers discover Lorenzo's love for their sister Isabel and her love for him, and they become bitter and angry that a servant should be happy in her love when they had planned to marry her to a wealthy nobleman.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Loss
The brothers' discovery of Lorenzo and Isabel's love sets the stage for impending loss, as their bitterness threatens to tear the lovers apart.
Social Critique and Mortality
The brothers' disdain for a servant's love and their mercenary plans critique class hierarchies and the commodification of marriage, foreshadowing tragic consequences.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“These brethren having found by many signs What love Lorenzo for their sister had, And how she loved him too, each unconfines His bitter thoughts to other, well-nigh mad That he, the servant of their trade designs, Should in their sister’s love be blithe and glad, When ’twas their plan to coax her by degrees To some high noble and his olive-trees.”
The brothers, having discovered through various clues that Lorenzo loved their sister and that she loved him back, each vents his bitter thoughts to the others, nearly insane with anger that a mere servant in their business should be happy and cheerful in their sister's love, when they had planned to gradually persuade her to marry a wealthy nobleman with olive groves.
This passage reveals the brothers' discovery of the romance and their materialistic, class-conscious opposition to it.