Short Fiction · Chapter
Mrs. Brumby explained
The chapter introduces Mrs.
What happens
The chapter introduces Mrs. Brumby, a stern, ambitious, and unscrupulous woman who attempts to make a living as a writer despite a complete lack of literary talent. The narrator, an editor, describes her formidable appearance, her invalid husband Lieutenant Brumby, and her persistent, confrontational attempts to force the publication of her worthless essay on costume. The chapter culminates in a heated argument when the editor rejects her work, with Mrs. Brumby threatening legal action and refusing to leave.
Themes in this chapter
Gender Roles and Women's Agency
Mrs. Brumby's fierce ambition and lack of conventional femininity challenge Victorian gender norms, yet her gender closes most professional doors, forcing her into literature.
Ambition and Failure
Despite her intelligence and perseverance, Mrs. Brumby's complete lack of literary talent leads to her failure as a writer, illustrating the theme of ambition thwarted by innate limitation.
Morality and Hypocrisy
Mrs. Brumby is described as utterly unscrupulous, dishonest, and a liar, yet she is devoted to her husband; the narrator contrasts her good qualities with her moral failings.
Characters to notice
- Mrs. Brumby
The central figure of the chapter, a hateful, feared, and persistent woman of letters who lacks any writing ability but possesses immense energy, audacity, and unscrupulousness.
- The Major
The narrator-editor who recounts his miserable experiences with Mrs. Brumby, describing her as the most hateful and feared person he encountered.
Key passages
“She could not combine words so as to make sentences, or sentences so as to make paragraphs. She did not know what style meant.”
She was incapable of writing coherently or with any sense of style.
The narrator explains Mrs. Brumby's fundamental literary deficiency.
“She was utterly unscrupulous, dishonest, a liar, cruel, hard as a nether millstone to all the world except Lieutenant Brumby—harder to him than to all the world besides when he made any faintest attempt at rebellion—and as far as we could judge, absolutely without conscience.”
She was completely without scruples, dishonest, cruel, and merciless to everyone except her husband, whom she treated even more harshly if he resisted her.
A summary of Mrs. Brumby's moral character.
“Had she been a man and had circumstances favoured her, she might have been a prime minister, or an archbishop, or a chief justice.”
If she had been a man with the right opportunities, she could have risen to the highest positions in government or church.
The narrator reflects on the waste of her talents due to her gender.
“We told our Minerva very plainly that we must beg her to leave us. There is, however, nothing more difficult to achieve than the”
We asked her to leave, but it proved extremely difficult to make her go.
The narrator describes the difficulty of ending the confrontation with Mrs. Brumby.