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 meditates on this odd fact—why would Mrs. Brympton send another maid to fetch her when she could easily ring a bell? This fact seems stranger still when Hartley confirms that all of the bells in the house function perfectly. Hartley notices some other odd things about life at Brympton Place: Agnes denies seeing the maid whom Hartley saw in the doorway the previous day, something Hartley chalks up to the servants having an unauthorized guest; and Mrs. Blinder, one of the older servants, acts strangely when Hartley asks about using the room across the hall as a sewing room. That room used to belong to Emma Saxon (The Ghost), Mrs. Brympton’s deceased lady’s maid, Mrs. Blinder explains. When Hartley presses her for more information, Mrs. Blinder begs off and hurries away.
Hartley’s inquiries into how things are run at the house only turn up more mysteries: Agnes denies seeing the woman in the doorway, and Mrs. Blinder gets very flustered when Hartley directs the conversation towards the empty room across the hall and the woman who used to occupy it, the former lady’s maid, Emma Saxon. Still, Hartley’s attempts to untangle the mystery of the room across the hall do not get any further, since Mrs. Blinder refuses to describe what Emma Saxon looks like and finds an excuse to rush away—reinforcing the sense of isolation and mystery that surround Hartley’s place in the house.
Themes
After a week at the house, Hartley meets Mr. Brympton for the first time. The first thing Hartley notices is that the other servants are greatly bothered by the man’s presence in the house: Mr. Wace, the butler, normally a soft-spoken man, reaches deep into his repertoire of Biblical language to express his aggravation and anxiety. Mr. Brympton himself, Hartley soon discovers, is a coarse, crude, red-faced man who looks her over with an air of ownership. Hartley notes that she has encountered that look before and that, fortunately for her, she is not Mr. Brympton’s type—especially since she is still recovering from typhoid fever. Mr. Brympton soon leaves the room and Hartley notices how cold and pale Mrs. Brympton is after her chat with her husband.
Hartley’s first interaction with Mr. Brympton confirms three important things about the master of Brympton Place: he is a coarse, aggressive man, he has a detrimental effect on his wife, and he causes suffering among his servants. The former is clear from Hartley’s description of the possessive air with which he evaluates Hartley as a sexual object. The second relates to Mrs. Brympton’s chill and pallor in her husband’s presence. The latter emerges from the servants’ reaction to his return to the house and the relief with which they greet his departure. Thus, the arrival of Mr. Brympton suggests that the Brymptons’ marriage is not only troubled but closely related to Mrs. Brympton’s illness, and that the rigid hierarchy at Brympton Place results in misery and abuse.
Themes
Mr. Brympton goes away again the next day, and Mrs. Brympton goes for a stroll in the wintry morning air. Hartley observes that Mrs. Brympton returns with a much healthier look about her, which she attributes to the effect of the cold morning air. But she also notes that she was joined by Mr. Ranford for her morning walk. Mr. Ranford, she adds, is a charming, if somewhat melancholy, man with a brilliant smile, whom all the servants are quite fond of. The only thing Hartley doesn’t understand is how Mr. Ranford can seem to get along with Mr. Brympton so well, given the difference in their natures. But then again, she notes, people of quality can hide their distaste well.
In contrast to Mr. Brympton, Mr. Ranford has all the qualities of a man of “quality,” to use Hartley’s word. He is handsome, albeit melancholy-looking, intellectual, and kind to servants. Readers might note Hartley’s relief that Mrs. Brympton can so enjoy Mr. Ranford’s company—a clear hint that Mr. Brympton might have something to worry about here. Likewise, Hartley’s observations return readers to the story’s implications about class: unlike Mr. Brympton, Mr. Ranford is a truly upper-class man, she implies, not least of all, paradoxically, because he has the approval of the servants.
Themes
Life goes on at Brympton Place, and Mr. Brympton comes and goes. Hartley sees that he is not just a crude, bullying type of man—he is also a drunkard. The other servants confirm Hartley’s suspicion that the Brymptons’ marriage is in bad shape; in fact, they allege that it was a poor match from the start. While Hartley is not fond of Mr. Brympton, she notes that her mistress plays some role in this dynamic as well, as she is somewhat cold and aloof in his presence. Hartley falls into the rhythm of life at the house but notices that there is a weight on her; the only times she feels free of this uneasiness are the occasional walks she goes on when she has errands that take her out of the house.
As Hartley continues to observe Mr. Brympton’s habits, her contempt for him grows, as does her certainty that the Brymptons’ marriage is in trouble: the other servants confirm that it has never been a happy match. The Brymptons are opposites in every way, and their dislike for each other has made the house an unpleasant place to be. Hartley implies that this conflict is related to the fact that she feels uneasy; there is something wrong in the house, and the Brymptons’ disintegrating marriage is related to this feeling. Still, Hartley cannot put her finger on what exactly is wrong, adding to the sense of mystery and ambiguity that pervades the place: the house is both atmospherically gloomy and yet not gloomy in a tangible, obvious way.
Themes
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A week of steady rain is especially hard on Hartley because she cannot leave the house and go for walks. She finds her thoughts drawn to the locked room across the hall—the one once occupied by Emma Saxon (The Ghost), the deceased lady’s maid. Occasionally she seems to hear noises over there, but she tries to dismiss these thoughts. Having noticed that Hartley is feeling down, Mrs. Brympton sends her to town to do some shopping. In town she runs into an old friend, a maid she had once worked with. Astonished that Hartley is working for the Brymptons, this maid informs her that the Brymptons have had four maids in the last six months—none of them stay for long. Hartley mulls this information over and thinks to herself that there is indeed something off about the house.
Hartley’s increasing loneliness causes her mental state to deteriorate, as her fixation on the room across the hall indicates. Notably, her thoughts turn to the room occupied by Emma Saxon: her response to her isolation is to dwell on the mystery that surrounds the room and its former occupant. Hartley’s interaction with her friend and fellow maid reinforces her certainty that there is a troubling secret about Brympton Place. In addition, Hartley’s conversation with her friend reveals two important things about life as a servant: first, servants share useful information about positions with each other, and second, while one can’t change the master’s behavior, one can choose to leave. Both of these observations suggest that servants have more power than it might seem at first.
Themes
Sure enough, when Hartley returns to the house, Mrs. Blinder expresses how grateful she is that she’s come back, almost implying that she thought Hartley, too, would leave. Mr. Brympton has returned in the meantime, and the servants are upset by something that’s happened, although Hartley doesn’t know what. Hartley heads upstairs to tend to Mrs. Brympton and overhears an argument as she approaches: Mr. Brympton accuses his wife of spending too much time with Mr. Ranford and not enough with him. Mrs. Brympton replies that he’s never around, and Mr. Brympton snaps that perhaps that’s because the house is about as fun as a graveyard.
Not for the first time, Hartley notices that something is wrong but is either unwilling to clarify what it is or too isolated to be informed about it. Thus, her odd position in the house consistently adds to the ambiguity that is central to the story; if something happens that she doesn’t directly observe, she has little access to its meaning. She does directly observe this quarrel between Mr. and Mrs. Brympton, however, which establishes clearly that Mr. Brympton is jealous of Mr. Ranford and the attention his wife pays him. The unhappiness between them is acute, and Mr. Brympton remarks that Mrs. Brympton makes their home as somber as a graveyard, suggesting that their relationship is not only troubled but related to death in some way.
Themes
After putting her mistress to bed, Hartley heads upstairs and falls asleep. In the middle of the night she is awoken by a sudden, jarring noise—the ringing of the maid’s bell. As she puts on her clothes and prepares to check on her mistress, she hears another sound: the door across the hall opens and closes, and there are soft footsteps on the carpet. Hartley freezes with terror but forces herself to overcome her fear and heed her mistress’s call. She makes her way to the door of Mrs. Brympton’s room without seeing anything unusual and, after hesitating for a moment, knocks on the door. She is surprised to find that Mr. Brympton answers; he mysteriously asks, “How many of you are there[?]” Mrs. Brympton asks Hartley for some drops and then goes back to sleep—but not before calling her by the name “Emma.”
The bell rings in the night and Hartley does her duty and gets out of bed to tend to Mrs. Brympton—a symbol of how much power her mistress has over her. However, this symbol is complicated by the fact that there seems to be another person answering the bell as well—although Hartley can’t understand who it might be. The normal servant-mistress relationship has been disturbed, a situation that Mr. Brympton alludes to with his mysterious question. It is worth noting, too, that the lady’s maid’s bell rings for the first time after Hartley observes a particularly bitter quarrel between the Brymptons, suggesting that this new low in their marriage is responsible, at least in part, for its ringing.
Themes
