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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in That Hideous Strength, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Obedience, Exclusivity, and Humility
Modernization vs. Tradition
Divine Conflict
Deception and Confusion
Gender and Marriage
Summary
Analysis
Mark has dinner with Curry, Feverstone, and the College bursar. They discuss the social politics of Bracton and the sale of the Wood. The bursar insists that bringing the N.I.C.E to Edgestow will not only bolster the University’s finances but will also improve the school intellectually. Lord Feverstone purposely irritates Curry, and Mark finds himself liking the way Feverstone gets under Curry’s skin. Feverstone points out that none of them know exactly what the N.I.C.E does, but Curry, the bursar, and Mark counter that the federally-supported N.I.C.E will have its own lawyers and police force, creating a society founded on science.
As Feverstone asserts dominance over Curry by annoying and needling him, Mark loses interest in Curry and is drawn to Feverstone. This dynamic makes clear that Mark values friendships based on the status they might grant him. When Feverstone seems to have more status than Curry, he becomes a more desirable friend. When Feverstone notes that his companions don’t understand the N.I.C.E.’s intentions, they insist that they do, despite lacking the inside access to the N.I.C.E. that Feverstone has.
Themes
Curry and the bursar step out, and Feverstone laughs at them with Mark, who wonders how he never noticed their ridiculousness before. Feverstone explains that Curry and his friends are suggestible and don’t understand “the point of the N.I.C.E” or “the point of anything.” He adds that humanity must allow Science to “re-condition” the human race, or else the species is doomed. Feverstone tells Mark that they are at war with men like Curry, and that his friend Weston has already died in the war. Without Weston, they can’t take over other planets, but humans can still dominate Earth––and, more specifically, a certain class of men that Feverstone deems superior must dominate the rest of humanity and wipe out undesirables.
Professor Weston is the antagonist of the first two books of the Space Trilogy, and the fact that Feverstone considers him a friend confirms to the reader that Feverstone and the N.I.C.E. are villainous forces. Mark, though, lacks this knowledge, and he is too awestruck with Feverstone to take issue with Feverstone’s insistence that science will enable the N.I.C.E. to wipe out an undesirable class of people. This goal of Feverstone and the N.I.C.E. would have been especially alarming to readers when the book was published in the 1940s, given the plan’s resemblance to the aims of Nazi Germany.
Themes
Feverstone explains that the N.I.C.E is running experiments on humans, and he asks Mark to use his expertise in sociology to document the experiments. Mark agrees. He goes home, where he finds a terrified Jane. Mrs. Dimble has advised Jane to meet Mrs. Dimble’s friend Miss Ironwood about her nightmares, but Jane has a nightmare of meeting a black-clad woman and is too afraid to go. The following morning, Mark offers to stay home with Jane, and she resents being made to feel like a “little woman.” The Studdocks argue, and Jane decides to see Miss Ironwood while Mark drives to N.I.C.E headquarters with Feverstone.
Jane is distraught at her mysterious dreams, and her worsening mental state undermines her attempts present herself as a serious and stoic academic rather than a “little woman.” This is the first step in her path to embrace humility. Despite Mark’s offer to stay home with his wife, he seems relatively unconcerned by his wife’s mental state, pointing again to their marital issues. b
Themes
