Short Fiction · Chapter
VIII explained
Agnes, left alone in the wise woman's cottage, begins to tidy and dust, but soon her old conceited disposition returns.
What happens
Agnes, left alone in the wise woman's cottage, begins to tidy and dust, but soon her old conceited disposition returns. She becomes captivated by a picture of a grand palace and a king's proclamation offering refuge to stray children, which she mistakes for a real scene. Disdaining her own humble home, she resolves to run away to the palace, ignoring the wise woman's lessons. After a storm, she sets off toward the distant city, convinced she is escaping slavery, unaware that her inner ugliness remains.
Themes in this chapter
Vanity and Self-Conceit
Agnes's pride and self-regard grow as she does her duty only occasionally, leading her to think herself 'Somebody' and disdain her humble origins.
Reality vs. Illusion
Agnes mistakes the framed picture for a real city and palace, illustrating her inability to distinguish between illusion and reality, driven by her ambition.
Moral Growth and Redemption
Agnes fails to learn from the wise woman's lessons, instead resolving to become a hypocrite, showing her rejection of moral growth.
Characters to notice
- Agnes
Agnes's pride and self-conceit resurface as she neglects her duties, becomes obsessed with the palace picture, and decides to run away, rejecting the wise woman's teachings.
- Rosamond
Mentioned in comparison: the wise woman had given Rosamond a terrible lesson, but Agnes is now worse than the princess ever was.
Key passages
“To be conceited of doing one's duty is then a sign of how little one does it, and how little one sees what a contemptible thing it is not to do it.”
Being proud of doing your duty shows you rarely do it and don't realize how shameful it is to neglect it.
The narrator reflects on Agnes's self-conceit after she tidies the cottage.
“The ugly creature whose presence had made her so miserable had indeed crept out of sight and mind too—but where was she? Nestling in her very heart, where most of all she had her company, and least of all could see her.”
The hideous inner self that had tormented Agnes had hidden from her view, but it was still inside her heart, where it was most present and least visible.
Describes how Agnes's inner ugliness remains hidden within her after the wise woman's lesson.
“She was resolving to be a hypocrite as well as a self-worshipper.”
She decided to pretend to be good while still worshipping herself.
Agnes's response to the wise woman's counsel: she chooses hypocrisy over genuine change.