IV explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Social Class and Nobility

  Elsa's internal conflict about a potential mésalliance with Reinhold highlights the rigid class distinctions of the era.

• Love and Sacrifice

  Reinhold's selfless concern for the ship and his resignation to parting from Elsa demonstrate themes of duty and unspoken love.

• Nature and the Storm

  The storm's violence and Reinhold's solitary walk through the dunes underscore the power of nature and its emotional resonance.

Characters to notice

• Elsa von Werben

  Takes charge of the situation at the farm, insists on moving to Golmberg, and reflects on her feelings for Reinhold while examining the compass.

• Reinhold Schmidt

  Leaves the farm to check on the steamer, worries about the ship, and contemplates saying farewell to Elsa.

• Frau Pölitz

  The farmer's wife, struggling with sick children and financial hardship, grateful for Elsa's consideration.

• Herr Pölitz

  The farmer, initially reluctant to let the guests leave but eventually agrees to arrange transport to Golmberg.

• The General

  Present at the farm, agrees to the plan to move to Golmberg.

Key passages

• “As if it were seeking Reinhold Schmidt! said Elsa; how faithful it is! And I would be faithful if I once loved, and would stand by my husband, and cherish and tend the children⁠—and in six years’ time look as faded and pale and worn, as the poor woman here, who must certainly have been a very pretty girl. Thank heaven that I am not in love!”

  Elsa muses that the compass needle seems to seek Reinhold, and she reflects on her own capacity for faithfulness in love, contrasting it with the worn appearance of Frau Pölitz, before declaring she is glad not to be in love.

  Elsa's internal conflict about her growing feelings for Reinhold, juxtaposed with the reality of marriage and hardship.

• “He had only now to return once more, and say, “Farewell!⁠—farewell!” He said it twice⁠—three times! He said it again and again as if it were the word that sounded in every wave that broke in thunder on the shore below him; the word that was whispered in the rough grass under his feet; the word that the wind moaned and wailed in long melancholy tones through the barren dunes; the word that sounded at every beat of his heart on which her glove lay, and on which he now kept his hand pressed close, as if the storm might tear his treasure from him, the only token that in future could say to him it was something more after all than a wild, delicious dream!”

  Reinhold repeats 'farewell' to himself, hearing it in the storm and feeling the weight of parting from Elsa, clutching her glove as a precious token.

  Reinhold's emotional farewell and the symbolic importance of the glove as a keepsake.

• “I must find that out before we part; I shall find an opportunity. And then I shall ask him to congratulate her from me, and to tell her that she will have a husband of whom she may be proud, of whom any girl might be proud. I mean a girl in his own station. For instance I⁠—absurd! one does not marry for a pair of honest eyes, particularly when disinheritance would be the result of such a mésalliance! It is a curious arrangement, but Schmidt is not a pretty name: Frau Schmidt!”

  Elsa plans to ask Reinhold about any distant love, then imagines congratulating her, but quickly dismisses the idea of marrying him herself due to class differences and the unappealing name 'Frau Schmidt'.

  Elsa's struggle with her attraction to Reinhold and the social barriers that prevent a union.