The Woodlanders · Chapter
XXXV explained
Fitzpiers, drunk and returning from London, reveals to Melbury his regret over marrying Grace and his desire for Felice Charmond, leading Melbury to throw him from his horse.
What happens
Fitzpiers, drunk and returning from London, reveals to Melbury his regret over marrying Grace and his desire for Felice Charmond, leading Melbury to throw him from his horse. Meanwhile, Suke Damson and Felice Charmond separately arrive at the Melbury home, distraught over rumors of Fitzpiers's accident, and Grace confronts them with a mix of bitterness and compassion.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
Fitzpiers's drunken confession reveals his regret over his marriage to Grace and his desire for Felice, highlighting the theme of mismatched or regretted unions.
Social Class and Ambition
Fitzpiers laments being stuck in Hintock with tradespeople, expressing his ambition for a higher social standing through Felice's fortune.
Gender and Power
Grace, Suke, and Felice are all emotionally dependent on Fitzpiers, illustrating the power dynamics and vulnerabilities of women in romantic relationships.
Characters to notice
- Edgar Fitzpiers
Drunk and confessional, he reveals his regret over marrying Grace and his longing for Felice Charmond, leading to Melbury's violent reaction.
- George Melbury
Supports Fitzpiers home, overhears his disloyal confessions, and in a fit of rage throws him from the horse.
- Grace Melbury
Returns home to find Suke Damson and Felice Charmond seeking news of Fitzpiers; she displays a mix of sarcasm and empathy.
- Suke Damson
Arrives at the Melbury home in distress, fearing Fitzpiers is dead or dying, and is confronted by Grace.
- Felice Charmond
Also arrives in panic over Fitzpiers's accident, revealing her deep concern and her relationship with him.
Key passages
“I tell you, Farmer What's-your-name, that I'm a man of education. I know several languages; the poets and I are familiar friends; I used to read more in metaphysics than anybody within fifty miles; and since I gave that up there's nobody can match me in the whole county of Wessex as a scientist. Yet I am doomed to live with tradespeople in a miserable little hole like Hintock!”
Fitzpiers boasts of his intellectual superiority and laments being forced to live among uneducated tradespeople in Hintock.
Highlights Fitzpiers's arrogance and his sense of social and intellectual isolation.
“I was just two months too early in committing myself. Had I only seen the other first—”
Fitzpiers regrets marrying Grace instead of waiting to meet Felice Charmond.
Reveals Fitzpiers's view of his marriage as a mistake and his ongoing desire for Felice.
“It was well, very well, conventionally, to address either one of them in the wife's regulation terms of virtuous sarcasm, as woman, creature, or thing, for losing their hearts to her husband. But life, what was it, and who was she?”
Grace reflects on the conventional expectation to scorn her rivals, but feels compassion instead.
Shows Grace's internal conflict between societal norms and her own empathy.