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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Black Beauty, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Horse Care, Abuse, and Neglect
Class, Transportation, and Victorian England
Good, Evil, and Power
Dignity and Religion
Summary
Analysis
One day, Mrs. W comes down the steps and tells York to raise Black Beauty and Ginger’s heads; she’s tired of humoring them. York tightens Black Beauty’s bearing rein first. Ginger is already jerking her head when he approaches her—and as soon as he undoes the rein to tighten it, she rears up and throws York and a groom to the ground. She plunges and kicks, kicking a carriage pole and Black Beauty as she loses her footing and falls. York sits on her head while others hurry to unbuckle Black Beauty and cut Ginger’s harness.
Ginger’s explosive reaction illustrates the safety concern York expressed in the previous chapter. Driving accidents can be far more dangerous than riding accidents, so getting Ginger unhitched and away from the carriage and Black Beauty is extremely important—so she doesn’t get tangled or run off with the carriage. So forcing a spirited horse to wear the bearing rein, the novel suggests, isn’t just bad for the horse. It also creates a safety hazard when that horse inevitably protests.
Themes
A groom turns Black Beauty into his stall with the bearing rein still tight—he’s so upset, angry, and uncomfortable that he’s tempted to kick. Grooms bring Ginger in soon after, and York comes in and releases Black Beauty’s bearing rein. He grouses that he knew this would happen, but he can’t control Mrs. W if Lord W can’t. He attends to Black Beauty’s swollen kick wound.
It drives home just how uncomfortable the bearing rein is that even Black Beauty feels ready to kick someone—thus far, he’s carefully followed Duchess’s advice to behave and be gentle. York again insists that he has no power to advocate for the horses. He likely fears he’d lose his position, which highlights how people’s economic concerns affect how much they can stand up for others.
Themes
Lord W is very upset when he finds out, but he blames York for listening to Mrs. W instead of him. After this, Ginger never pulls the carriage again. One of Lord W’s sons starts training Ginger for foxhunting, while Black Beauty pulls the carriage with a horse named Max. Max is used to the bearing rein, though he acknowledges that it’s shortening their lives. Black Beauty asks if people know how bad it is for horses. Max says he’s not sure about their owners, but dealers and horse doctors know. Once, when someone asked Max’s dealer why he was training with a bearing rein, the dealer said London folks won’t buy horses if the horses can’t use the bearing rein. The dealer said it’s bad for the horses—but it’s good for business, as the horses wear out faster and people have to replace their horses.
The fact that York gets in trouble for the accident confirms that York would likely lose his job if he spoke out too much against the bearing rein. Pulling with Max, Black Beauty gets more insight into how other people in the Victorian era think about horses and bearing reins—and it's not a rosy picture. Essentially, Max’s story suggests that dealers don’t have any economic reason to oppose the bearing rein, since they sell more horses if horses wear out faster. The health and dignity of the animal, on the other hand, isn’t a compelling enough reason on its own to oppose the bearing rein.
Themes
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Black Beauty suffers with the bearing rein for four months; he can hardly describe the experience. He knows if he’d been there much longer, his health or his temper would’ve given out. Now, he foams at the mouth thanks to the sharp bit and his unnatural head position. But it’s not normal for horses to foam; it means they’re uncomfortable. And the bearing rein makes it hurt to breathe. Black Beauty used to know that John and Squire Gordon would protect him. Now, though he suspects York knows how much damage the bearing rein does, York does nothing to help.
Black Beauty’s health is starting to suffer, and he’s losing trust in the people who care for him. Noting that it’s not normal that he foams allows him to teach readers what a horse should look like as it works—potentially arming readers to say something when they see a horse foaming and uncomfortable, as Joe Green did earlier. Fortunately, Black Beauty implies that his time working with the bearing rein is coming to an end—but that is, of course, no guarantee that whatever comes next will be better.
Themes
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