The Rector and The Doctor’s Family · Chapter
The Morning After explained
Nettie Underwood, having retrieved Fred Rider's drowned body from the canal, brings it home and lays it in her own parlour.
What happens
Nettie Underwood, having retrieved Fred Rider's drowned body from the canal, brings it home and lays it in her own parlour. She sends for Dr. Edward Rider, who arrives to assist. Nettie struggles with her duties, her remorse, and the practical necessities of the situation, while managing the alarmed Smiths and preparing to break the news to her sister Susan.
Themes in this chapter
Family Obligation and Sacrifice
Nettie shoulders the burden of Fred's death and its aftermath out of duty to her sister and the children, despite her own exhaustion and lack of affection for Fred.
Failure and Self-Doubt
Nettie experiences remorse and a cry for pardon, questioning whether she failed Fred in his final hours.
Gender Roles and Independence
Nettie acts with remarkable independence and capability, managing the crisis and directing men, while still feeling the weight of her womanly duties.
Characters to notice
- Nettie Underwood
Takes charge of the aftermath of Fred's drowning, retrieves his body, and manages the household with resolute courage.
- Dr. Edward Rider
Arrives at Nettie's summons, torn between his feelings for Nettie and his duty to his dead brother.
- Fred Rider
Found drowned in the canal; his body is brought home and laid in Nettie's parlour.
- Susan Rider
Asleep and unaware of her husband's death; Nettie dreads waking her.
- Mrs. Smith
The landlady, anxious about the impact of the death on her lodgings and business.
Key passages
“Nettie had an instinctive consciousness even of Mrs. Smith’s grievance. She knew this dismal association would ruin 'the lodgings,' and felt that here was another bond upon her to remain at St. Roque’s, however much she might long to escape and flee away.”
Nettie understood Mrs. Smith's worry that the death would harm her rental business, and realized this added another reason she must stay at St. Roque's, despite her desire to leave.
Highlights Nettie's awareness of practical consequences and her sense of obligation.
“She took her little purse out and emptied it of its few silver coins among them.”
Nettie paid the men who helped carry Fred's body with the small amount of money she had.
Shows Nettie's practical generosity and limited resources.
“The soul of that confused and tremulous outcry was Pardon! pardon! What love was ever so true, what tenderness so constant and unfailing, that did not instinctively utter that cry when the watched life had ended, and pardon could no longer come from those sealed lips?”
Nettie's cry was for forgiveness, a universal human impulse to seek pardon from the dead when it is too late to receive it.
Captures Nettie's remorse and the theme of failure and self-doubt.