The Luck of Barry Lyndon · Chapter
My Pedigree and Family—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion explained
Barry Lyndon introduces his noble lineage, the Barrys of Barryogue, and recounts how the family lost its vast Irish estates through treachery involving a woman.
What happens
Barry Lyndon introduces his noble lineage, the Barrys of Barryogue, and recounts how the family lost its vast Irish estates through treachery involving a woman. He describes his mother, Mrs. Barry, a proud and beautiful widow who maintains genteel pretensions despite poverty, and their life at Castle Brady under the grudging hospitality of his uncle Michael Brady and his ill-natured wife. The chapter establishes Barry's early vanity, his mother's ambitions for him, and the family's fall from grace.
Themes in this chapter
Class and Pedigree
Barry's extensive boast about his noble lineage and the family's lost estates underscores the importance of birth and social standing.
Deception and Self-Delusion
Mrs. Barry's pretensions to gentility and her idealized memory of her husband contrast sharply with the family's actual poverty and scandal.
Marriage as Transaction
The story of the Barry daughter betraying her family for love of an English soldier, and Mrs. Barry's hopes to marry Lord Bagwig, illustrate marriage as a means of social or economic gain.
Characters to notice
- Barry Lyndon
Narrates his family history and early life, showing pride in his lineage and vanity in his appearance.
- Mrs. Barry
The proud, beautiful widow who maintains dignity and fashion despite poverty, devoted to her son and her late husband's memory.
- Michael Brady
Barry's uncle, who provides lodging for the widow and son at Castle Brady but is dominated by his wife.
- Mrs. Brady
The ill-natured lady of Castle Brady, who resents Mrs. Barry's pretensions and eventually forces her to leave.
- Roaring Harry Barry
Barry's deceased father, a spendthrift and bankrupt, remembered by Mrs. Barry as a 'saint' but by others as a sinner.
- Lord Bagwig
Barry's godfather and a nobleman who provides a small rent-charge to the widow; his marriage ends Mrs. Barry's hopes of advancement.
Key passages
“Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this world but a woman has been at the bottom of it.”
Women are the root cause of most troubles in history.
Barry opens with a misogynistic aphorism, blaming women for the family's downfall.
“I would assume the Irish crown over my coat-of-arms, but that there are so many silly pretenders to that distinction who bear it and render it common.”
I would claim the Irish crown in my crest, but too many others do so, cheapening the symbol.
Barry's pride in his lineage is tempered by disdain for false claimants.
“But they had let a woman into their plot, and this was the Barry's daughter. She was in love with the English Lyndon, and broke the whole secret to him;”
The conspiracy was betrayed by Barry's daughter, who was in love with the Englishman Lyndon.
A woman's romantic attachment leads to the family's betrayal and loss of lands.