# XV: The Curate explained — The Wonderful Visit

> Chapter companion for The Wonderful Visit by H. G. Wells.

## What happens

The Vicar, already unsettled by the angel's presence, is confronted by his curate Mendham, who has come to demand an explanation after his wife reported seeing the Vicar with a scandalously dressed woman. The Vicar tries to explain that the figure is actually an angel, but Mendham is incredulous and accuses him of impropriety or madness. Despite the Vicar's pleas for Mendham to see the angel for himself, the curate refuses, insisting that angels do not exist as material beings and threatening to report the matter to the Bishop or Lunacy Commissioners.

## Themes in this chapter

### Faith, Doubt, and the Supernatural

The Vicar's desperate attempt to assert the reality of the angel clashes with the curate's rigid disbelief, highlighting the conflict between faith and empirical skepticism.

### Social Hypocrisy and Conformity

Mendham's outrage is rooted in social propriety and the appearance of scandal, rather than any genuine concern for truth, illustrating the village's preoccupation with reputation.

## Character check-ins

### The Vicar

Struggles to convince the skeptical curate of the angel's reality, growing desperate and uncertain of his own sanity.

### Mr. Hilyer

Addressed as 'Hilyer' by the curate; the Vicar's surname is revealed in this chapter.

### The Curate from Iping Hanger

Referred to as Mendham; he is outraged by what he perceives as the Vicar's scandalous behavior and refuses to accept the angel's existence.

### Doctor Crump

Passes the curate on his way out of the vicarage, briefly mentioned as having left just before Mendham's arrival.

## Key lines

> The world is getting so matter-of-fact, said the Vicar. The world, roared the Curate, grows blacker every day.

The Vicar laments the loss of wonder in the modern age, while the curate counters that the world is becoming morally darker.

_Highlights the philosophical divide between the two men regarding the nature of reality and morality._

> I thought this was a case for the Bishop. I find it is a case for the Lunacy Commissioners.

Mendham initially believed the Vicar's behavior warranted ecclesiastical discipline, but now suspects it is a matter of mental illness.

_Shows the curate's refusal to entertain the possibility of the supernatural and his readiness to pathologize the Vicar's experience._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wonderful_visit_se/chapters/xv-the-curate
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wonderful_visit_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wonderful_visit_se/chapters