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Part 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in An Englishman’s Home, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class, Hierarchy, and Selfishness
Hypocrisy and Elitism
Social Mobility
Summary
Analysis
Ten days later, Metcalfe and Peabury have both maintained their resolve to move out of Much Malcock, although they are wistful as they survey the landscape they’re leaving. Metcalfe watches the cows and pictures the greenery wilting and dying in the industrial smog that Hargood-Hood’s laboratory will create, and Peabury mourns the loss of her fine gardens and groves. Neither of them stands to benefit from relocation, since Metcalfe’s threat of building his own housing estate on his land falls through and Peabury has little chance of finding another permanent home. Hodge and the Hornbeams are dejected with the state of affairs, and their mood seems to reach even Hargood-Hood, who sets out to have another conversation with Hodge.
In Part IV, all briefly appears lost. The situation is worse than ever, since Metcalfe and Peabury are both planning to sabotage the land for no personal gain. This section contains a eulogy of sorts to the valley, as Metcalfe and Peabury reflect on their connections to the land. Metcalfe compares himself to Westmacott’s cattle, further developing their significance as a symbol of pastoral beauty and belonging. Peabury’s focus on the gardens she has planted also revisits a symbol from Part II; in this section, she thinks of her garden as a marker of her long history as a steward of her land. In their feud, they are sacrificing their own hopes of acceptance and stability in the name of arrogant revenge.
Themes
