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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hope Leslie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religious Conflict and Tolerance
Interracial Relationships
Violence and Historical Memory
Women’s Roles
The Puritan Heritage
Summary
Analysis
That same day, Esther spends a long time talking in private with her aunt and uncle, and then there’s a bustle in the house. Governor Winthrop paces and talks with Mr. Fletcher. Everell goes out, and Hope is helplessly distracted. Faith remains listless. That evening, a stranger knocks on the door. He is a young, sickly looking sailor with a wound on his head. He appears to speak no English.
Everyone in the Winthrop household is caught up in their own problems and secrets, giving a sense that things are about to build to a climax.
Themes
Governor Winthrop at first thinks that the young man is speaking Italian and that Master Cradock could confirm this, but the tutor has gone out somewhere with Hope. The Governor arranges for a meal and bed to be provided for the stranger.
The speaker’s supposed Italian misleads the reader into thinking it could be Antonio, Hope’s pious rescuer.
Themes
Earlier that evening, Hope had approached Master Cradock in his study, needing his help. She urges Cradock to put on his cloak, despite the summer heat, and to come along with her. He is so happy to be asked for help that he doesn’t ask any questions. When Hope explains that they’re going to the jail to help Magawisca, Cradock insists that a passport from the Governor is needed, but Hope insists that she will manage things with Barnaby Tuttle.
Hope takes initiative to put a plan into action—one implicitly denying Governor Winthrop’s authority, no less—and Master Cradock so reveres his beloved pupil that he’s willing to be led by her.
Themes
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Barnaby Tuttle takes a long time to respond to their knocking, explaining that he’s in the middle of his evening devotions, which Hope is invited to join. Hope obediently sings through 12 stanzas of a psalm with him. Afterward, Barnaby settles in for a friendly chat, but Hope has a favor to ask. Barnaby won’t deny her anything, he says, because of Hope’s former kindness to his late wife, who had been a servant to Alice Fletcher.
Barnaby’s unwitting delays in the midst of Hope’s urgent errand, such as the seemingly endless Psalm (a primary element of Puritan household devotions) add a comical note, as well as showing Sedgwick’s affection for the religious tradition she elsewhere critiques. Hope’s ability to charm her superiors, shown in her appeal to Barnaby, is backed up by genuine kindness and generosity, in contrast to the manipulation of characters like Sir Philip.
Themes
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When Hope asks to see Magawisca, Barnaby, to her surprise, asks for a permit. Cradock offers to walk home to obtain one, but Hope says she must abandon her plan and bursts into tears. Barnaby can’t stand this and agrees to let her into the jail, though only for 10 minutes. Once admitted to the cell, Hope begs Magawisca to trust her; she has come to release her. When Magawisca points out that Hope has betrayed her before, Hope explains that Magawisca’s capture was Sir Philip’s fault.
Soft-hearted Barnaby, perhaps not the best jailer, is easily swayed by Hope’s tears. Magawisca, with good reason, still suspects that Hope was responsible for her capture by the Governor’s men earlier, but when Hope offers evidence otherwise, she doesn’t hold a grudge.
Themes
Hope tells Magawisca and Master Cradock that they must swap outfits—Magawisca must borrow Cradock’s wig, hat, boots, and cloak, and Cradock must wrap himself in Magawisca’s blanket. Cradock is horrified and admonishes her with biblical examples of godly people who aided pagan enemies, yet he passively allows Hope to take his boots off. With Barnaby approaching, Hope hurriedly coaches Magawisca in a Cradock-like shuffle, and gets Cradock to hide his face with Magawisca’s blanket.
Sedgwick again balances the unrestrained horror of the violent scenes early in the book with a genuinely comical one here, its farfetched hilarity suggesting that, given the opportunity, a woman like Hope can find creatively nonviolent solutions to injustices. Incidentally, Sedgwick also includes a clothes-swapping, jail-breaking scene in her novel The Linwoods.
Themes
When Barnaby tries to get a look at “Cradock” with his lamp, Hope sweeps her shawl in such a way that the flame is blown out, and she urges him not to worry about relighting it. She distracts him with talk of his baby grandson while they grope their way out of the darkened prison. She assures him that Cradock, silent, is simply in one of his reveries. When Barnaby finally says goodnight to them and shuts the prison door, Magawisca flings off her disguise and goes to meet the waiting Everell.
Hope’s resourcefulness is on display again, as she quickly adapts to her circumstances and thinks of a diversion that a less delicate character (think of Sir Philip’s profanity-laden encounter with Barnaby) likely wouldn’t.
Themes
Literary Devices
