# VI explained — The Woodlanders

> Chapter companion for The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy.

## What happens

Giles Winterborne drives Grace Melbury home from town, but their conversation reveals a growing distance between them as Grace's mind dwells on fashionable city life rather than the rural world Giles inhabits. At the Melbury home, Giles is forgotten as the family discusses Mr. Melbury's favorable timber dealings with Mrs. Charmond. Later, Grace learns from Grammer Oliver about the eccentric Dr. Fitzpiers, who has offered to buy Grammer's body for anatomical study after her death.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Class and Ambition

Grace's internal contrast between the homely farmsteads of Hintock and the fashionable suburban life of girls in artistic dresses underscores her social aspirations and the growing class divide between her and Giles.

### Isolation and Community

Dr. Fitzpiers's complaint of having no society and his melancholic solitude in Little Hintock, alongside Giles's feeling of being forgotten by the Melbury family, emphasize the theme of isolation within a close rural community.

### Tradition vs. Modernity

Grace's return from the city introduces modern ideas and aspirations into the traditional woodland setting, while Dr. Fitzpiers's scientific and metaphysical pursuits represent a clash with the old ways of Hintock.

## Character check-ins

### Giles Winterborne

Drives Grace home and reflects on their past intimacy, but feels increasingly distant from her as she seems absorbed in memories of city life.

### Grace Melbury

Returns home from school, distracted by visions of fashionable society; she is polite but evasive with Giles, and later learns of Dr. Fitzpiers's strange bargain with Grammer Oliver.

### George Melbury

Welcomes Grace home warmly but forgets Giles outside; he is pleased with his timber arrangement with Mrs. Charmond.

### Grammer Oliver

Reveals to Grace that Dr. Fitzpiers has offered her ten pounds for her body after death for anatomical study, a secret she asks Grace to keep.

### Felice Charmond

Mentioned as having granted Mr. Melbury favorable terms for timber felling on her land, indicating her disinterest in Hintock.

### Edgar Fitzpiers

Introduced through Grammer Oliver's account as a melancholy, eccentric young doctor who has settled in Little Hintock and made a bizarre bargain for her corpse.

## Key lines

> It seemed as if the knowledge and interest which had formerly moved Grace's mind had quite died away from her. He wondered whether the special attributes of his image in the past had evaporated like these other things.

Grace appeared to have lost her former connection to the rural world, and Giles wondered if her feelings for him had faded just as her knowledge of the countryside had.

_Highlights the growing emotional distance between Giles and Grace as she returns from her education._

> He said, 'Grammer Oliver, I've been here three months, and although there are a good many people in the Hintocks and the villages round, and a scattered practice is often a very good one, I don't seem to get many patients. And there's no society at all; and I'm pretty near melancholy mad,' he said, with a great yawn.

Dr. Fitzpiers complained to Grammer Oliver that after three months in Little Hintock he had few patients and no social life, leaving him nearly mad with boredom.

_Introduces Dr. Fitzpiers's dissatisfaction with rural life and his sense of being meant for higher things._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_woodlanders_se/chapters/vi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_woodlanders_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_woodlanders_se/chapters