# LIV: Lizzie explained — The Prime Minister

> Chapter companion for The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope.

## What happens

Ferdinand Lopez, unhappy in his marriage and financial troubles, contemplates various desperate schemes including seeking money from his father-in-law, investing in the Guatemala mine, or even suicide. He turns to Lady Eustace, a wealthy widow with a taste for speculation, and proposes that she run away with him to Central America, but she rejects him as a fool.

## Themes in this chapter

### Deception and Self-Invention

Lopez lies to Sexty Parker about getting money from Mr. Wharton and presents himself to Lady Eustace as a romantic escape from conventional society.

### Wealth and Financial Insecurity

Lopez's desperate schemes to obtain money, his failed ventures with Sexty Parker, and Lady Eustace's careful management of her income.

### Marriage and Courtship

Lopez's unhappy marriage to Emily and his proposal to Lady Eustace to abandon his wife and elope.

## Character check-ins

### Ferdinand Lopez

Contemplates his unhappy marriage, financial ruin, and schemes to extract money from Mr. Wharton or Lady Eustace; proposes elopement to Lady Eustace.

### Lady Eustace

Wealthy widow living in a small May Fair street; flirts with Lopez and entertains his proposal but ultimately rejects him as a fool.

### Sexty Parker

Lopez's business partner, now drunk and violent, threatening revenge and exposing Lopez's schemes.

### Abel Wharton

Lopez's father-in-law, from whom Lopez hopes to extract £5,000.

### Mrs. Leslie

Lady Eustace's companion, who facilitates Lopez's visits and is bribed with presents.

## Key lines

> To give him his due, he did not know that he was a villain. When he was exhorting her to “get round her father” he was not aware that he was giving her lessons which must shock a well-conditioned girl.

Lopez is oblivious to his own moral failings, genuinely believing his requests for Emily to manipulate her father are reasonable.

_Highlights Lopez's self-deception and lack of self-awareness._

> “Mr. Lopez, I think you must be a fool.”

Lady Eustace dismisses Lopez's romantic proposal as absurd.

_Shows Lady Eustace's shrewdness and rejection of Lopez's scheme._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_prime_minister_se/chapters/liv-lizzie
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_prime_minister_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_prime_minister_se/chapters