The Woodlanders · Chapter
XXXIX explained
Grace and Giles grapple with the painful revelation that her marriage to Fitzpiers cannot be undone by a mere stroke of the pen.
What happens
Grace and Giles grapple with the painful revelation that her marriage to Fitzpiers cannot be undone by a mere stroke of the pen. Melbury, having discovered the truth, forbids them from walking together. Giles, tormented by guilt and a sense of his own unworthiness, resolves to repulse Grace for her own good, while Grace, torn between her father's desperate wishes and her own feelings, longs to reconcile with Giles before her father returns.
Themes in this chapter
Sacrifice and Duty
Giles resolves to sacrifice his own happiness and repulse Grace to protect her from a marriage he considers beneath her, while Grace bears her father's trouble with dignified sorrow.
Social Class and Ambition
Giles's fear that his unrefined nature makes him unworthy of the accomplished Grace highlights the class divide that haunts their relationship.
Fate and Irony
The cruel irony that Grace's marriage to Fitzpiers cannot be undone despite Melbury's well-meant but blundering efforts underscores the theme of inescapable fate.
Characters to notice
- Grace Melbury
Grace learns from her father that she is still legally Fitzpiers's wife and cannot marry Giles. She struggles with shame over her forwardness with Giles and anxiety about her father's disappointment.
- Giles Winterborne
Giles is tormented by guilt for not telling Grace the truth about her marriage. He resolves to repulse her for her own good, believing himself unworthy of her refined nature.
- George Melbury
Melbury, broken by the discovery that his plan to annul Grace's marriage has failed, forbids Grace and Giles from walking together. He writes letters urging Grace to encourage Giles, fearing he will lose him.
- Edgar Fitzpiers
Fitzpiers is mentioned as Grace's still-legal husband, whose beck and call she remains subject to.
Key passages
“You are now, as ever, Fitzpiers's wife. I was deluded. He has not done you enough harm. You are still subject to his beck and call.”
Melbury tells Grace that she remains legally married to Fitzpiers and that his earlier belief that the marriage could be easily annulled was mistaken.
Melbury reveals the truth about Grace's marital status, shattering hopes of a quick annulment.
“I don't mind at all what comes to me, Grace continued; whose wife I am, or whose I am not. I do love Giles; I cannot help that; and I have gone further with him than I should have done if I had known exactly how things were. But I do not reproach you.”
Grace tells her father that she does not care about her legal status, confesses her love for Giles, and absolves her father of blame for her actions.
Grace expresses her love for Giles and her indifference to the legal situation, while comforting her father.
“How could she so trust her father's conjectures? He did not know how to tell her the truth and shame himself. And yet he felt that it must be done.”
Giles wonders how Grace can so blindly believe her father's assumptions, and struggles with the painful duty of telling her the truth about her marriage.
Giles's internal conflict over whether to reveal the irremediable nature of Grace's marriage.
“Move another step towards her he would not. He would even repulse her—as a tribute to conscience. It would be sheer sin to let her prepare a pitfall for her happiness not much smaller than the first by inveigling her into a union with such as he.”
Giles decides he will not pursue Grace any further and will even push her away, believing it would be wrong to let her marry someone as unrefined as himself.
Giles resolves to sacrifice his own desires for Grace's sake, fearing he is unworthy of her.