# My Pedigree and Family—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion explained — The Luck of Barry Lyndon > Chapter companion for The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. ## 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. ## Character check-ins ### 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 lines > 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._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/chapters/i-my-pedigree-and-family-undergo-the-influence-of-the-tender-passion - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/chapters