The Cords of Vanity · Chapter
He Reviles Destiny and Climbs a Wall explained
The narrator, bored in Lichfield and longing for spring and romance, visits Peter Blagden at Gridlington.
What happens
The narrator, bored in Lichfield and longing for spring and romance, visits Peter Blagden at Gridlington. He tends a neglected garden and argues with Peter about gout and the heiress Margaret Hugonin. After climbing a wall onto private property, he encounters a young woman he believes to be the heiress.
Themes in this chapter
Vanity and Self-Deception
The narrator openly admits his good looks and wits, and schemes to marry an heiress for wealth, revealing his self-serving vanity and delusion about his own motives.
Romantic Idealism vs. Reality
The narrator's romantic longing for spring and love contrasts with his cynical plan to marry for money, and his encounter with the heiress is tinged with both idealization and practical calculation.
Social Class and Provincialism
The narrator's obsession with wealth, birth, and position, as well as his disdain for provincial life in Lichfield, highlight class consciousness and social climbing.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator is restless in spring, visits Peter Blagden, tends a garden, and later climbs a wall where he meets a young woman he assumes is the heiress.
- Peter Blagden
Now wealthy and gout-ridden, Peter hosts the narrator at Gridlington and argues with him about gardening and the heiress.
- Margaret Hugonin
The heiress of Selwoode, described as clever and beautiful, is the object of the narrator's scheming; he later encounters a young woman he believes to be her.
- Byam
The narrator's man, who acts as a spy at Selwoode to gather information about Margaret Hugonin.
Key passages
“I wanted to be in the open. I think I wanted to fall in love with somebody, and thereby somewhat to prolong the daily half-minute, immediately after awakening in the morning, during which I did not think about Elena Risby.”
The narrator feels a restless desire to be outdoors and to fall in love, hoping it will distract him from his morning thoughts of Elena Risby.
Reveals the narrator's lingering attachment to Elena and his use of romance as escapism.
“You have made of your stomach a god, Peter, and I am the one to suffer for it.”
The narrator accuses Peter of gluttony, which has caused his gout and prevented him from introducing the narrator to the heiress.
Shows the narrator's self-centered frustration and his tendency to blame others for his own lack of progress.
“She is, to a hair, the sort of woman I have always intended to make unhappy.”
The narrator declares that Margaret Hugonin is exactly the type of woman he plans to marry and then mistreat.
Highlights the narrator's cynical and predatory attitude toward marriage and wealth.