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Chapter 29
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
Job goes to the house where Mrs. Wilson is staying and admits that Will has sailed but that Mary went after him to retrieve him. Mrs. Wilson drearily announces that Jem will be executed—his happy ending will be his afterlife with God, Mr. Wilson, and his brothers. She just wishes people knew Jem was innocent. Job goes to look for Mary and Will at Mr. Bridgnorth’s—but doesn’t find them. Mr. Bridgnorth tells Job that, given Mary and Will’s absence, the case looks very bad for Jem. Then Job goes to Mrs. Jones’s, where Charley tells Job that he heard Mary went out in a boat and likely won’t be back till the next morning. Job unhappily announces that she needs to be in court the next morning at nine.
Mrs. Wilson’s prediction that Jem will be happy only in the afterlife with God suggests that, while the novel’s working-class characters are genuine in their religious beliefs, their Christianity also serves to compensate psychologically for the exploitation and misery inflicted on them in this life. Meanwhile, Mr. Bridgnorth’s warning reminds readers yet again that unless Mary can produce will at Jem’s trial, Jem is likely to be convicted, thus heightening the novel’s suspense.
Themes
Unable to think what else to do, Job goes back to the lodging house where he and Mrs. Wilson are staying. When Mrs. Wilson asks him whether he found Will, he decides to lie to help Mrs. Wilson sleep; he tells her they found Will and Mary, though he feels terribly guilty for his deception. Then, too restless for bed, he goes to sleep in an armchair.
Here, Job’s Christianity and his practical morality pull him in different directions: while Christianity generally forbids lying, Job feels that he is powerless to help Mrs. Wilson except by lying to her. In this case, Job’s desire to be a practical help overcomes his religiously inflected qualms about lies.
Themes
