Short Fiction · Chapter
Chapter VIII explained
Barnet receives news of his wife's sudden death, which initially brings him relief and thoughts of a future with Lucy Savile.
What happens
Barnet receives news of his wife's sudden death, which initially brings him relief and thoughts of a future with Lucy Savile. However, he then receives a letter from Downe announcing that Downe and Lucy are to be married that morning. Devastated, Barnet destroys the wallpaper patterns he had been selecting for his new house. Months later, Barnet learns that Lucy is still planning to go to India. He attends the wedding of Downe and Lucy, then helps fill a grave in the churchyard. Afterwards, he burns his personal papers, sells all his property, and disappears from Port-Bredy forever.
Themes in this chapter
Isolation and Longing
Barnet's profound loneliness and longing for Lucy are underscored by his reaction to her marriage and his subsequent disappearance.
Fate and Coincidence
The cruel timing of Mrs. Barnet's death and Downe's wedding letter arriving on the same morning highlights the whimsical cruelty of fate.
Sacrifice and Duty
Barnet's earlier sacrifice in restoring his wife to life is rendered meaningless, and he ultimately sacrifices his place in the community.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Barnet
Receives news of his wife's death, then learns Lucy Savile is marrying Downe; later attends their wedding, burns his papers, and disappears.
- Lucy Savile
Marries Downe in a private ceremony; had previously planned to go to India.
- Mrs. Downe
Downe's late wife, whose tomb is reduced to a common headstone.
- Emily Hanning
Downe's first wife, Emily, who died twelve months, two weeks, and three days before Downe's remarriage.
Key passages
“Barnet looked vaguely round the empty hall, at the blank walls, out of the doorway. Drawing a long palpitating breath, and with eyes downcast, he turned and climbed the stairs slowly, like a man who doubted their stability.”
Barnet stared blankly at the empty hall and walls, then took a deep, shaky breath and climbed the stairs slowly, as if unsure they would hold him.
Barnet's shock and disorientation upon learning of his wife's death.
“Turning eventually to the wallpapers, which he had been at such pains to select, he deliberately tore them into halves and quarters, and threw them into the empty fireplace.”
He then tore the carefully chosen wallpaper samples into pieces and tossed them into the empty fireplace.
Barnet's symbolic destruction of his hopes for a future with Lucy.
“The events that had, as it were, dashed themselves together into one half-hour of this day showed that curious refinement of cruelty in their arrangement which often proceeds from the bosom of the whimsical”
The way these events all converged in a single half-hour displayed a peculiar, refined cruelty that seems to come from a capricious fate.
Narrator's reflection on the cruel timing of the day's events.