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Chapter 18
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
As the gentleman’s carriage isn’t ready, he, Dr. Primrose, and the actor walk to his house, a large and beautiful mansion. Some ladies arrive, and they sit down to eat; their host immediately starts to talk about politics. He asks Dr. Primrose if he has read the latest journals, affirming that he himself reads each and every one, and he praises liberty as Britain’s highest value. The discussion then turns to the king, and his merits as a protector of that liberty. Dr. Primrose and the gentleman then begin a spirited debate; while Dr. Primrose advocates for the importance of the king’s role in society, the gentleman argues that the king’s power limits the liberty of individual citizens.
Forever trusting, Dr. Primrose does not consider the strangeness of a wealthy gentleman’s carriage being indisposed, or how the gentleman got to the tavern if that was the case. Instead, he quickly becomes hostage to the gentleman’s political rant. Goldsmith, parodying antimonarchists of the time, emphasizes the gentleman’s pseudointellectualism with his impossibly broad reading. This comic encounter, however, soon becomes the vehicle for a genuine debate on the merits of monarchy.
Themes
To Dr. Primrose, natural inequalities in society require a leader like a king to temper them; a king should mediate between the wealthy and powerful and the “rabble,” who otherwise would crush the middle class who are the “true preserver of freedom.” In capitalist republics like Holland, Dr. Primrose sees the wealthy perpetrate even worse oppression against the poor. Dr. Primrose gets carried away in his speech and soon realizes he has offended his host, who accuses him of Jesuitism and tells him to leave. Dr. Primrose begs his pardon but is unable to placate him. At that moment, however, a footman tells them that the master of the house has come home; the “host” is only the butler, who chose to play the role of the master while his employer was away.
Dr. Primrose proposes a defense of monarchy which, like other political arguments in the novel, can be read as a stand-in for Goldsmith’s own opinion. In Dr. Primrose’s view, inequality is a natural if unfortunate aspect of society, and one that the government should seek to temper but not eradicate. While he is not entirely opposed to the emerging capitalist society of the 18th century, exemplified by the new middle class which he praises, he is suspicious of its ability to provide for the poor. To address this, the monarchy should serve as a mediator, tempering economic inequality, which becomes excessive in genuine republics. The gentleman’s furious response to this becomes quite comical when it turns out that he is merely a butler pretending to be a gentleman, suggesting that his resolute republicanism is not entirely distinguishable from his class resentment.
Themes
The true master of the house enters with, to Dr. Primrose’s surprise, Miss Arabella Wilmot, who is overjoyed to see him. The master is her uncle, Mr. Arnold. At Dr. Primrose’s urging the butler is not dismissed, and Mr. Arnold insists that Primrose stay with them for a few days. Walking in the garden with Dr. Primrose the next morning, Miss Wilmot asks if he has heard from George. He tells her he has not and catches her up on the sufferings of the Primrose family since the happier times they spent together around the fireplace at Wakefield; Miss Wilmot has not married since then and in fact has rejected several suitors since her engagement with George was broken off by her father, Mr. Wilmot.
The shock of seeing Miss Wilmot provokes a twofold response in Dr. Primrose: he wonders what has become of George, and he considers what might have been if George and Miss Wilmot had successfully married. The close attention Miss Wilmot pays to him then raises the question of whether her relationship with George is truly over for good or if it can yet be redeemed.
Themes
At dinner, the manager of the theater company brings them tickets for a play that evening, “The Fair Penitent,” and praises the actor playing Horatio, who is completely unexperienced but very talented. The ladies convince Dr. Primrose to accompany them to the theater, and when the play begins, they realize the talented actor is George. When George sees his father and Miss Wilmot he freezes, bursts into tears, and leaves the stage. Mr. Arnold has George, who now refuses to act, brought to the house. Dr. Primrose observes how happy Miss Wilmot is in George’s company.
The stunning reveal that George is the actor playing Horatio completes one cycle of redemption and begins another. The kindness and sociability Dr. Primrose showed to the actors pays off; had he dismissed them as socially beneath him, he may never have found his son again. George and Miss Wilmot’s happy reunion, on the other, seems to suggest that the Primrose family can repair the broken bonds between themselves and Wakefield.
Themes
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