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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ivanhoe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Merits of Chivalry
Disguise and Discovery
Inheritance and Displacement
The Vulnerability and Power of Women
History vs. Romance
Summary
Analysis
De Bracy and Sir Brian meet at the door. Both complain about their ineffectual attempts at wooing their respective ladies. Front-de-Boeuf is slow to join them, and they speculate that the pained howls of a Jewish person giving up his money must drown out the commotion. Servants deliver a message in writing—in Saxon—from the gate. Sir Brian translates it for his friends: addressed from Wamba, Gurth, Locksley, and the Black Knight, it demands the immediate and unconditional release of Cedric, Rowena, Isaac, Rebecca, their injured charge, and everything and everyone else the Normans captured. De Bracy and Sir Brian laugh derisively. The news that at least 200 men lie outside the castle sobers them somewhat.
Of the Norman conquerors, only Sir Brian can understand Saxon—looking back to his earlier refusal to speak anything but Norman in Cedric’s home, readers can now understand the aggression of that act more fully. The Normans’ arrogant belief in their own strength disposes them to ignore the threat—they are abusive bullies, after all. But readers should remember that Cedric recently made a similar assumption and quickly found himself proved wrong when his Saxon strength did not protect him from kidnapping in the forest.
Themes
Still, De Bracy and Sir Brian arrogantly assert that either one of them can take on at least 20 English yeomen at a time. Front-de-Boeuf worries because most of their men—and the forces of their friends like Malvoisin—are far away. He sends his squire to fetch writing materials, then has Sir Brian write an answer to the challenge saying that they plan to execute their captives that afternoon and the brigands should send a priest to hear their confession before they die.
Front-de-Boeuf takes a more cautious view of the circumstances, likely because he has more to lose: the bandits and Saxon hordes are threatening his home. Still, he refuses to capitulate to the demands of a rabble of Saxons. He trusts that the other Normans—who face dangerous revolt if they break ranks—will support him.
Themes
Underneath a venerable oak tree near the castle, hundreds of yeomen and Saxons with improvised weapons gather to storm the castle. Only the Black Knight proves capable of reading the Norman letter penned by Sir Brian, which he translates into Saxon. Together, the leaders of the rebel band decide to send Wamba, disguised as a monk, into the castle. Meanwhile, Locksley tightens the line of his forces around the castle to prevent its defenders from sending for reinforcements.
Outside the castle walls, the Saxons meet under that grand symbol of English identity and strength, the oak tree. Readers should have no difficulty predicting their successful attack on Torquilstone, even though the book will build tension through its drawn-out descriptions of the fight. And although he’s clearly been conversing with the woodsmen in fluent Saxon, the Black Knight’s ability to read (since very few people in this era were literate) and write in Norman suggests that he himself is a Norman lord.
Themes
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