The Enchanted April · Chapter
XIII explained
The four women at San Salvatore spend outwardly uneventful days, but inwardly each is deeply stirred.
What happens
The four women at San Salvatore spend outwardly uneventful days, but inwardly each is deeply stirred. Rose Arbuthnot struggles with suppressed yearnings for her husband Frederick and the child she lost, feeling her carefully built semblance of happiness crumble. Mrs. Fisher experiences an uncharacteristic restlessness, trotting in and out and unable to read. Lotty Wilkins, in contrast, dives into the beauty of the place with joy. Lady Caroline begins to feel a conscience pressing on her. The servants observe the stillness and lack of male visitors with puzzlement.
Themes in this chapter
Self-Discovery and Transformation
Each woman undergoes an internal shift: Rose confronts long-suppressed desires, Mrs. Fisher experiences unaccustomed restlessness, and Lady Caroline feels a new conscience.
Beauty and Nature
The April beauty of San Salvatore—the golden light, fragrance, and serene hills—profoundly affects the visitors, contrasting with their London lives.
Religion and Spirituality
Rose, who prayed constantly at home, finds she cannot pray here; she clings to her religion as 'better than nothing' while yearning for tangible love.
Characters to notice
- Mrs. Arbuthnot
Sits alone among the rocks, yearning for Frederick and her dead baby, unable to pray, and feeling her past happiness stripped away by San Salvatore.
- Mrs. Fisher
Finds herself restless, trotting in and out without her stick, unable to read, and puzzled by her own behavior.
- Mrs. Wilkins
Responds instantly to the beauty of San Salvatore, diving into glory with rapture, and returns to dinner full of sunshine and contagious spirits.
- Scrap
Lies alone in the top garden, begins to feel a conscience pressing on her, and shows interest in Rose's letter to Frederick.
Key passages
“Rose felt right down at her very roots that if you have once thoroughly bored somebody it is next to impossible to unbore him.”
Rose deeply believed that once you have completely bored someone, you can never make them find you interesting again.
Reflects Rose's fear that Frederick is permanently bored with her.
“There was something about San Salvatore that made her feel all bosom.”
San Salvatore awakened in Rose a powerful maternal, nurturing longing.
Highlights the transformative effect of the place on Rose's suppressed emotions.
“She went back to tea dejected as she had not been for years. San Salvatore had taken her carefully built-up semblance of happiness away from her, and given her nothing in exchange.”
Rose returned to tea more dejected than she had been in years; San Salvatore had stripped away her fragile happiness and left her empty.
Shows the painful side of self-discovery at San Salvatore.