The Uncalled · Chapter
II explained
Margaret Brent's funeral is held in a cold, fireless room.
What happens
Margaret Brent's funeral is held in a cold, fireless room. The community gathers, mostly women, and engages in gossip and judgment about her life and backsliding. The Rev. Mr. Simpson preaches a noisy, inconsequential sermon, and Brother Hodges offers a tender prayer. After the service, the coffin is borne to the graveyard, and Mrs. Warren stays behind to search for valuables, taking the crape and covering from the mirror.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Religion
The congregation gossips about Margaret's backsliding and the propriety of her funeral, while the preacher delivers a noisy, inconsequential sermon that manipulates emotions.
Community and Gossip
The women engage in a hive-like drone of conversation, speculating about the preacher, Margaret's life, and her salvation, revealing the community's judgmental nature.
Social Class and Judgment
Margaret's poverty is evident in the cheap pine coffin and the county's rushed burial; Mrs. Warren's scavenging after the funeral underscores the harsh realities of class.
Characters to notice
- Fred Brent
The motherless boy, referred to as 'little Freddie,' is led forward by Mrs. Davis to view his mother's face and follows the funeral procession.
- Miss Hester Prime
Moves about the death chamber with solemn face and quiet tread, arranging things with maidenly neatness; attends the funeral in the procession.
- Eliphalet Hodges
Brother Hodges enters with the minister, offers a tender and childlike prayer, and rides in front of the funeral procession.
- Mr. Simpson
The Rev. Mr. Simpson, a tall, gaunt former carpenter, preaches the funeral sermon in a harsh, unmusical voice, and leads the procession.
- Mrs. Davis
Leads the weeping child Freddie forward to view his mother's face, and rides in the funeral procession behind the hearse.
- Mrs. Warren
Remains behind after the funeral to search the house for valuables, taking the crape and covering from the mirror, claiming entitlement to Margaret's belongings.
Key passages
“I wonder who’s a-goin’ to preach the funeral”
Someone asks who will officiate the funeral service.
Reflects the community's curiosity and gossip about the proceedings.
“It’s a-puttin’ yore hand to the ploughshare an’ then turnin’ back.”
It's like starting a task and then abandoning it.
A biblical allusion used to criticize Margaret's backsliding from faith.
“Well, I don’t think he kin preach her into hell, neither. After a woman has gone through all that pore Margar’t has, it seems to me that the Lord ought to give her some consideration, even if men don’t.”
I don't believe the preacher can condemn her to hell either; given her suffering, God should show her mercy, even if people don't.
Seely Matthews expresses a dissenting, compassionate view against the harsh judgment of others.