Zuleika Dobson · Chapter
XXIII explained
Zuleika flees from Noaks after a horrifying encounter, reflecting on her repeated disappointments in love and her role as a destructive force.
What happens
Zuleika flees from Noaks after a horrifying encounter, reflecting on her repeated disappointments in love and her role as a destructive force. She resolves to enter a convent and confesses to the Warden that all the undergraduates have drowned themselves for her, leading to a tense but ultimately understanding conversation about heredity and vocation.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Obsession
Noaks' extreme act to prove his love and Zuleika's repeated disappointments highlight the destructive nature of obsessive love.
Death and Sacrifice
The mass suicide of undergraduates for Zuleika and her contemplation of a convent as a form of self-sacrifice underscore the theme.
Fate and Irony
Zuleika's realization that she is a 'scourge' and her decision to become a nun after causing so much death is deeply ironic.
Characters to notice
- Zuleika Dobson
Flees from Noaks, suffers remorse and self-pity, decides to become a nun, and confesses to the Warden that all undergraduates died for her.
- Noaks
Attempts to prove his love by a shocking act, causing Zuleika to flee in horror.
- The Warden
Initially shocked by the news of the undergraduates' deaths, but relents upon learning all colleges were affected; shares his own romantic history with Zuleika.
- Laura Frith
Mentioned as the Warden's late wife, who did not embroider slippers for him and married him out of pique or fatigue.
- Dr. Pusey
Referenced by the Warden in his discussion about vocation and revulsion.
Key passages
“Twisting and turning in her flight, with wild eyes that fearfully retained the image of that small man gathering himself to spring, Zuleika found herself suddenly where she could no further go.”
Zuleika fled in panic, unable to escape the memory of Noaks' threatening posture, until she reached a dead end.
Describes Zuleika's immediate flight from Noaks.
“She was sorrier for herself, angrier, than she had been last night when the Duke laid hands on her.”
She felt more self-pity and rage than when the Duke had assaulted her the previous night.
Highlights Zuleika's emotional state after Noaks' act.
“Thrice in this Oxford she had been duped. Thrice all that was fine and sweet in her had leapt forth, only to be scourged back into hiding.”
Three times in Oxford her genuine affection had been met with betrayal, forcing her to retreat emotionally.
Summarizes Zuleika's pattern of romantic disappointment.
“She realised the truth of what the poor Duke had once said to her: she was a danger in the world…”
She finally understood the Duke's warning that she was a peril to others.
Zuleika acknowledges her destructive impact.
“It was as she stood on the Warden’s doorstep that she decided to take the veil.”
Standing at her grandfather's door, she resolved to become a nun.
Marks Zuleika's decision to enter a convent.
“The reason why there were no undergraduates in your Hall tonight is that they were all dead.”
The absence of students at dinner was because they had all died.
Zuleika's blunt revelation to the Warden.
