# XVII explained — Summer > Chapter companion for Summer by Edith Wharton. ## What happens Charity, having fled to the Mountain, spends a night in the Hyatt shanty and awakens to a cold, stark morning. She steals bread for her unborn child, leaves a chemise as payment, and walks toward the pinewood. Mr. Royall finds her on the trail, helps her into his buggy, and drives her to Hamblin, where they stop at Mrs. Hobart's for breakfast. He proposes they take the train from Creston, offering her a way out of North Dormer. ## Themes in this chapter ### Isolation and Escape Charity feels rootless and alone on the Mountain, her only reality the burden of her child; Mr. Royall's arrival offers a tangible escape from her isolation. ### Shame and Social Stigma Charity's thoughts of Julia Hawes and her own determination to hide her baby reflect the deep shame and social consequences of illegitimate pregnancy. ### Power and Dependency Charity is physically and emotionally dependent on Mr. Royall for rescue; his quiet authority and provision contrast with her helplessness. ## Character check-ins ### Charity Royall Awakens stiff and hungry in the Hyatt shanty, steals bread for her baby, leaves a chemise as payment, and walks toward the pinewood. She is found by Mr. Royall and driven to Hamblin. ### Lawyer Royall Drives his buggy to the Mountain to find Charity, brings her to Hamblin for breakfast, and proposes they take the train from Creston. ### Old Mrs. Hobart Provides hot breakfast to Charity and Mr. Royall at her home in Hamblin. ### Mary Hyatt Referenced as the dead mother whose funeral service took place in a tumbledown house; her grave is marked by a fresh mound under a thorn. ### Ally Hawes Referenced as the maker of the pretty chemise that Charity leaves on the table as payment for the bread. ### Julia Hawes Referenced in Charity's thoughts as a girl who went out to earn a living and have her child cared for. ## Key lines > She knew that girls of that kind sometimes made enough to have their children nicely cared for; and every other consideration disappeared in the vision of her baby, cleaned and combed and rosy, and hidden away somewhere where she could run in and kiss it, and bring it pretty things to wear. Charity imagines that women like Julia Hawes earn enough to have their babies well looked after, and she becomes fixated on the idea of her own child being clean, rosy, and secretly kept where she can visit and bring gifts. _Charity's desperate fantasy of a hidden, cared-for baby reflects her shame and her hope for a better life for her child._ > She felt herself a mere speck in the lonely circle of the sky. The events of the last two days seemed to have divided her forever from her short dream of bliss. Charity feels tiny and insignificant under the vast sky, and the recent events have permanently severed her from her brief happiness with Harney. _Charity's sense of isolation and loss is emphasized by the vast, indifferent landscape._ > Her child was like a load that held her down, and yet like a hand that pulled her to her feet. The pregnancy both weighs Charity down and gives her the strength to keep going. _The paradox of the child as both burden and motivation captures Charity's conflicted state._ > She felt a softness at her heart which no act of his had ever produced since he had brought her the Crimson Rambler because she had given up boarding-school to stay with him. Charity feels a rare tenderness toward Mr. Royall, recalling the only other time he moved her—when he gave her a rose after she chose to stay with him instead of going to boarding school. _This memory softens Charity's view of Mr. Royall and hints at a complex bond between them._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/summer_se/chapters/xvii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/summer_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/summer_se/chapters