Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Lady Maid’s Bell, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Marital Conflict and Jealousy
Class and Hierarchy
Mystery and Ambiguity
Illness, Isolation, and Loneliness
Summary
Analysis
Hartley, a lady’s maid and immigrant to the United States who is down on her luck, has just recovered from typhoid after three months in a hospital. Hartley is running out of money and, still dealing with the effects of the illness, is about to give up hope of ever finding employment again when she runs into Mrs. Railton, a friend of her former employer. Mrs. Railton learns about Hartley’s predicament and says that she knows just the place for her: her niece, one Mrs. Brympton, needs a new lady’s maid, and Hartley would be the perfect person for the job. Hartley hints that, in hindsight, this apparent stroke of luck is not as lucky as it seems.
Readers learn a few important things about Hartley right away: due to her recent illness, her precarious position as an immigrant, and her lack of means, she is desperate to find work as a lady’s maid. In this way, Wharton wastes no time establishing some of the key forces that determine Hartley’s role in the story that will unfold at Brympton Place. First, Hartley’s illness and the sense of loneliness that pervades her life hint that she is perhaps not a completely reliable narrator. Second, her low status in American society means she has little control over her working conditions and is at the mercy of people like the Brymptons. Indeed, Hartley implies that she wouldn’t ordinarily accept such a position. Finally, Hartley’s oblique remark that this move to Brympton Place might not have been the stroke of luck it seemed to be sets up the first of many mysteries that will confront readers.
Themes
Mrs. Railton gives Hartley more details about her future employer: Mrs. Brympton is a young woman who lives in the country year round because of a vague illness. Mrs. Brympton, Mrs. Railton is quick to clarify, is very nice, even angelic; but the house where she and her husband live, Brympton, is gloomy and remote and generally a bleak place. To make matters worse, Mrs. Railton implies that Mr. Brympton is a brute whom Hartley is better off avoiding. Fortunately, Mrs. Railton adds, he spends long periods of time away from home.
Mrs. Railton’s admissions make it clear that Brympton Place is exactly the kind of place that Hartley would usually try to avoid: it is gloomy, remote, and afflicted, it seems, with a kind of spiritual ailment. It is also clear that the marriage between its owners, Mr. and Mrs. Brympton, is troubled, and that Mr. Brympton is less than an ideal husband. On the other hand, Mrs. Railton’s niece, Mrs. Brympton, is depicted as the kind of person one would want to work for. Given Mrs. Railton’s reluctance to speak about them, then, aspects of the Brymptons’ life and marriage are shrouded in secrecy.
Themes
Hartley accepts the post that day and sets off for Brympton on the afternoon train. The Brymptons’ groom picks her up from the station and takes her to the house, and she observes that, sure enough, it is a gloomy place. The house is surrounded by black-looking vegetation, and none of the windows are lit. Hartley declines to ask the groom about her new employers because she prefers to form her own opinions about people. While Mrs. Brympton is busy with a guest when she arrives—a fact that cheers Hartley up some—she notices that the house is well kept-up and that the staff seem to do things the right way.
Hartley’s journey to Brympton Place confirms Mrs. Railton’s warning about the place: the rain and the dark shrubbery that surround the house suggest that this is a gloomy place indeed. But perhaps it is not as lonely as Hartley feared—for one thing, Mrs. Brympton has a guest, suggesting that there is more connection to the outside world than Hartley thought. What’s more, Hartley is relieved to find that she is joining a well-run household. For a moment, Hartley’s loneliness recedes, and Brympton Place seems a bit less mysterious.
Themes
Since Mrs. Brympton is occupied, another maid takes Hartley upstairs to see her room. As she walks through the house, Hartley continues to be impressed by the quality of the furnishings and notices a series of old portraits. As the maid prepares to take leave of her, Hartley notices another woman in a maid’s outfit standing in a doorway. The maid accompanying Hartley doesn’t seem to see her, but the woman gives Hartley a long look before disappearing into the room. Hartley is struck by the woman’s silence and the look she gave her, but she shakes off this feeling and assumes the woman is the housekeeper.
Hartley is quickly confronted with a new set of mysteries: the woman standing in the doorway doesn’t speak to her, despite giving her “a long look,” and the housemaid walking Hartley up to her room doesn’t seem to notice the silent woman. Hartley begins to suspect that there are some things going on at Brympton Place that are not easy to explain, and that no one seems willing to speak about them openly.
Themes
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Later, Hartley goes downstairs for tea and gets to know some of the other servants. They’re a pleasant lot, Hartley thinks to herself, and they confirm that Mrs. Brympton is a very kind mistress. But one thing bothers her: the woman in the maid’s outfit she saw earlier does not join the others for tea. Hartley assumes that the woman must actually be Mrs. Brympton’s nurse—an idea that bothers her, because nurses are not easy to get along with. Still, it’s too late to back out now, and Hartley decides to make the best of it.
The mysterious woman in the doorway doesn’t appear in the servants’ hall for tea, and no one addresses her absence, adding to the ambiguity that surrounds Hartley’s position in the house: who is her neighbor across the hall, if no one is supposed to be living in that room? If Mrs. Brympton has a nurse, why did no one inform her of that fact? These remain mysteries for Hartley, who is either unwilling to clarify the situation at this point or too naïve to understand the hints she gets from the other servants. Fortunately for Hartley, there is a real sense of harmony and solidarity among the servants at Brympton Place, thanks in part to their fondness for Mrs. Brympton; this fondness suggests that, despite the rigid hierarchy the servants live in, loyalty and affection can make the relationship between servant and master more tolerable.
Themes
Once Mrs. Brympton’s guest—a certain Mr. Ranford—is gone, Hartley goes upstairs to meet her mistress. Hartley is struck by the woman’s delicacy but is nevertheless immediately won over by her; when Mrs. Brympton smiles, Hartley feels like she would do anything for her. They hold a brief conversation, in which Mrs. Brympton asks Hartley about her background, before Mrs. Brympton dismisses her, telling Hartley that another maid named Agnes will come fetch her when it is time to undress. Hartley asks whether Mrs. Brympton will ring the bell for her—a suggestion that seems to make Mrs. Brympton uneasy.
Mrs. Railton had explained to Hartley that Mrs. Brympton’s previous lady’s maid practically worshipped her, and Hartley is beginning to see why: Mrs. Brympton is very charming and seems to have a mysterious influence over Hartley, who responds to her new mistress with more warmth than one would expect at a first meeting.. Still, Hartley is not put entirely at ease: she is troubled by Mrs. Brympton’s odd rejection of the idea that she ring the bell for Hartley, a mysterious development that Hartley cannot explain to herself—after all, there are perfectly functioning bells all over the house. Thus, two important conditions of Hartley’s life at Brympton Place are established: first, she is comfortable in Mrs. Brympton’s presence but uneasy in the house itself, which is full of secrets and mysteries. Second, readers learn that the bell—a symbol for the power the upper classes hold over the lower classes in this period—is not functioning as normal, suggesting that there is a disruption in the ordinary way of doing things.
Themes
