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Chapter 17
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
Dick is unable to describe Olivia’s abductor, but Dr. Primrose is convinced it is Squire Thornhill. On the way to the castle, however, a parishioner tells him that the abductor seemed to be Mr. Burchell. Still unsure, Dr. Primrose arrives at the castle, where he finds Squire Thornhill in shock too. Another witness, a friend of the Squire’s, tips the balance in favor of Mr. Burchell being to blame, and so Dr. Primrose sets off for a well 30 miles away where Burchell and Olivia have been spotted, and then to the races 30 miles further. At the races he thinks he sees Burchell in the crowd but is unable to catch up to him. Dr. Primrose is preparing to return to his family when he falls sick and is forced to stop at a tavern to recover.
While his feelings got out of control moments before, Dr. Primrose is now perhaps excessively distrustful of his own intuition and is unsure what to make of the claims that it was Mr. Burchell who abducted Olivia; this accusation is hard to believe, given Burchell’s affection for her sister Sophia, and his honorable conduct. Dr. Primrose does not suspect for a moment that friends of the Squire may be telling him things to mislead him; whether this is due to his distraught state or his trusting nature is unclear. Recalling his earlier excess of passion, Dr. Primrose eventually realizes that supporting the rest of his family must be his priority, as much as it pains him to give up his pursuit of Olivia.
Themes
Dr. Primrose runs out of money to pay his bill, but luckily a philanthropic bookseller who has published his tracts lends him some. Recovering his health, he heads home. On the way there, he meets a theater company wagon and starts up a lively conversation about contemporary drama with the actor driving it, and together they bemoan the current interest in Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists. Arriving at the next village, they enter a tavern together, where a well-dressed gentleman asks if Dr. Primrose is a real chaplain or an actor. They then drink together as the gentleman eagerly discusses politics, and he insists Dr. Primrose and the actor should come to his home for dinner.
Dr. Primrose now finds himself the lucky beneficiary of cosmic justice, receiving the very same kind of help he once offered to Mr. Burchell, a seeming coincidence which vindicates his moral vision. His affable, unprejudiced nature leads him to spark up conversation with travelling actors, a class of people whom polite society (and certainly the religious establishment) generally looked down upon in 18th-century England. This is why the gentleman in the tavern asks Dr. Primrose if he’s a real priest—the man finds it incongruous that an honorable vicar would socialize with actors.
Themes
