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Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Vicar of Wakefield, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humility in the Face of Adversity
The Possibility of Redemption
Family and Society
Equality, Justice, and the Law
Travel, Home, and Belonging
Summary
Analysis
The Primroses prepare to send their daughters to town, where the Squire has promised to look after them personally. In need of money for their journey, the family decides that Dr. Primrose should sell their other horse, Blackberry. Dr. Primrose, while unexperienced in business, is confident of his success, though Mrs. Primrose warns him to be careful. At the fair he struggles to find someone willing to buy a one-eyed horse and grows increasingly embarrassed as potential bidder point out various defects. An old colleague arrives just then and suggests getting a drink together at the nearest tavern, saving Dr. Primrose from the spectacle.
Dr. Primrose, no longer trusting Moses to handle the family’s business, resolves to sell Blackberry himself, failing to realize that he is likely a worse businessman than his son. The marketplace soon tests his humility; without realizing it, he takes the first price he is offered, retreating to the comfortable space of discussing theology with a colleague rather than facing the challenge he has taken on.
Themes
Entering the tavern, Dr. Primrose is entranced by an old, distinguished-looking man reading a book. As he and his colleague discuss religious controversy and Primrose’s latest pamphlet, which the Church did not receive well, they witness the old man give a beggar child five pounds. Dr. Primrose’s colleague then leaves, saying his name aloud in his goodbye, which the old man hears and asks if he is the same Primrose writing those brave monogamist tracts. Dr. Primrose is extremely flattered and continues to enjoy the old man’s compliments—though he’s puzzled when the man starts making obscure and contradictory pronouncements on cosmology. Turning to the subject of the fair, Dr. Primrose and the old man are pleasantly surprised to find that while Primrose is selling a horse, the old man is looking to buy one.
Once again, Dr. Primrose falls victim to a combination of naiveté and pride. While his attraction to generous people has not steered him wrong thus far, the speed with which he lowers his guard after the distinguished-looking man praises his theological tracts is astounding, presenting a sharp contrast to the prudence he preaches to his family. Even the old man’s bizarre cosmological rambling—which Dr. Primrose recognizes as baseless—is not enough to reactivate his suspicions, as the man’s compliments have thoroughly charmed him.
Themes
The old man sends his footman, Abraham, to get change to make the purchase, but he is unable to find change anywhere. The old man then asks Dr. Primrose if he knows Flamborough, an acquaintance of his and suggests a draught on Flamborough instead. Dr. Primrose agrees, and the old man, who is named Mr. Jenkinson, takes Blackberry and departs. Dr. Primrose soon has doubts, but Jenkinson is already gone, and so he goes at once to Flamborough’s. There, to his dismay, Flamborough tells him that it was Jenkinson who cheated him and Moses at the fair before. Dr. Primrose prepares to tell his family but finds them already in distress, as the town ladies have left for London after hearing malicious, anonymous reports about Olivia and Sophia, the origin of which the Primroses cannot even guess.
Dr. Primrose, having lowered his guard, does not even think to question Jenkinson’s excuse that he cannot get change, an utterly laughable claim at a country fair full of buyers and sellers. Any suspicion he may have left disappears when Jenkinson mentions the familiar name of Flamborough, and Dr. Primrose unwisely accepts a draught (a promissory note of debt) in Flamborough’s name. Shortly afterward, as Jenkinson’s personal charm wears off, Dr. Primrose begins to doubt his course of action, but it is too late; he has proven as ignorant of the world as his son, all the more so for his self-confidence. Another economic disaster for the family is small change, however, compared to the shattered dreams of Olivia and Sophia’s move to London.
Themes
