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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mary Barton, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Employers vs. Workers
Sexuality and Danger
Christianity
Poverty and Morality
Empathy vs. Ignorance
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Mary rushes to see Alice before work. At the Wilsons’ house, Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Davenport say Alice’s condition hasn’t changed, and the latter shows Mary into Alice’s bedroom while warning her that Alice no longer recognizes anyone. Margaret is already there. The two girls listen to Alice talk aloud about her childhood as if she were still a child. Mary offers to watch over Alice through the coming night, and Margaret says that would be good—Mrs. Wilson had to watch Alice almost all last night, as Jem was out until very late. Mary is hopeful that she’ll see Jem later, though she judges herself for hoping such a thing while Alice is so sick.
Mary, Mrs. Davenport, and Margaret all volunteer to help Mrs. Wilson care for Alice in the aftermath of Alice’s stroke, illustrating the practical mutual aid that animates working-class morality throughout the novel. Mary’s self-judgment for thinking of Jem while Alice is sick recalls Jem’s self-judgment for proclaiming his love for Mary immediately after his brothers’ deaths; both incidents suggest that romantic love is unruly, often socially inappropriate, and sometimes dangerous.
Themes
Mary hurries to work, where Sally asks whether Mary has heard. When Mary asks what Sally means, Sally tells her that Harry was killed the previous night. Mary, utterly shocked, almost faints. Though she gets to work, she’s crying: she feared Harry but feels terrible that he’s died. All day, Mary’s coworkers gossip about the murder—and criticize Mary for dumping Harry.
Mary, who knew Harry, feels immediate empathetic grief over his murder even as she also acknowledges that she feared him as a real danger to her. Mary’s grief and empathy suggest her innate goodness, in contrast with the superficiality of her judgmentally gossiping coworkers.
Themes
Meanwhile, the police have plans to arrest Jem, and they send out an officer to determine who owned the murder weapon—though Mr. Carson, impatient and raging, thinks they are moving too slowly. That afternoon, someone knocks on the Wilsons’ door. When Mrs. Wilson answers, a policeman disguised in workers’ clothes shows her a gun and asks whether it belongs to Jem. Mrs. Wilson says it does and asks how he got it. Shortly thereafter, he rushes away without explaining. Mrs. Wilson supposes he was probably a friend of Jem’s and goes to take a nap.
The police act very quickly on Mr. Carson’s behalf, which reinforces the readers’ suspicion that the employer class receives preferential treatment from the criminal legal system in the world of the novel. Mr. Carson’s rage at the speed of the investigation underscores his unchristian desire for immediate vengeance. Meanwhile, the police’s suspicion of Jem emphasizes that romantic entanglements, though primarily dangerous for young women, are also potentially dangerous for young men; after all, Jem is a suspect primarily because he fought Harry over Mary.
Themes
Though the policeman feels a little sorry for Mrs. Wilson, he takes what he’s learned to the superintendent, and soon the police arrest Jem at work. Though Jem is shocked, he just asks a coworker to let his mother know he's in “trouble” and won’t be coming home—and no more. The coworker goes and tries only to tell Mrs. Wilson what Jem asked, but Mrs. Wilson badgers the truth out of him. Distraught, she calls Mary a “dirty hussy” when he tells her that Jem was fighting Harry over Mary and refuses to believe that the man who asked about Jem’s gun was undercover police. After the man leaves, Mrs. Wilson feels devastated though she is certain of Jem’s innocence.
Mrs. Wilson blames Mary for Jem’s arrest and calls her a “dirty hussy,” an insult suggesting boldness, flirtatiousness, and even sexual promiscuity. This insult suggests that even though Mary did not engage in premarital sexual activity with anyone or encourage the fight between Jem and Harry in any way, the mere fact of her having flirted with Harry is enough, in Victorian England’s conservative and sexist society, to endanger her reputation in the aftermath of Harry’s murder.
Themes
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