# LXXVI explained — The Way of All Flesh

> Chapter companion for The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler.

## What happens

Ernest's winter has been devastating; he has sold his piano, his marriage to Ellen is miserable, and he is on the brink of destitution. While out buying secondhand clothes, he encounters John, his father's former coachman, who reveals that he married Ellen shortly after she left Battersby. The revelation shatters Ernest, who realizes his marriage to Ellen was bigamous, and he rushes to Mr. Overton for help.

## Themes in this chapter

### Money and Social Class

Ernest's descent into poverty and his work as a small shopkeeper highlight the precariousness of social standing and the shame of financial ruin.

### Self-Discovery and Authenticity

Ernest's encounter with John forces him to confront the truth about his marriage and his own misguided choices, leading to a potential turning point.

## Character check-ins

### Ernest Pontifex

Ernest is in deep despair, struggling financially and emotionally, and is shocked by John's revelation about Ellen.

### Ellen

Ellen is Ernest's wife, but their relationship is strained; John reveals he married her before Ernest did.

### John

John, the former coachman at Battersby, encounters Ernest and discloses his marriage to Ellen in 1851.

### Theobald Pontifex

Theobald is mentioned as Ernest's father, for whom John used to work.

### Mr. Overton

Ernest asks John to take him to Mr. Overton at the Temple for help.

## Key lines

> The remorseless, resistless hand of fate had caught him in its grip and was dragging him down, down, down.

Ernest feels utterly powerless, as if an inescapable destiny is pulling him into deeper misery.

_This captures Ernest's sense of hopelessness and fatalism during his financial and emotional collapse._

> I married her before the registrar at Letchbury on the 15th of August 1851.

John states that he legally wed Ellen in a civil ceremony on that date, before Ernest's own marriage.

_This revelation is the pivotal moment, exposing Ernest's marriage as bigamous and offering a path to freedom._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_way_of_all_flesh_se/chapters/lxxvi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_way_of_all_flesh_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_way_of_all_flesh_se/chapters