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Chapter 4
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
Near the Primroses’ home is a small seat under hawthorn and honeysuckle trees looking out over the country, where they often sit, eat, read, or play music together. As autumn arrives, they settle into a comfortable routine. One day, a hunting party crosses their path. Leading it is Squire Thornhill, who initially declines to introduce himself to anyone but Olivia and Sophia; when they do not accept his overture, he introduces himself to the whole family. Squire Thornhill asks the ladies to play him a song, and while Dr. Primrose hints at them to refuse, Mrs. Primrose encourages them to play. The Squire then plays a song himself, badly, but Olivia is charmed.
Closely connected to the pastoral idyll of the Primroses’ new home and community is the beauty of nature; the community’s harmony with nature matches the social harmony of the Primroses’ new rural community. This is a sharp contrast to the chaos and disorder of urban life, as later developments in the novel will show. Of course, the Squire’s cruel pastime of hunting interrupts this harmonious existence, which is described by Dr. Primrose with disgust. Nevertheless, the Squire makes a charming first impression, perhaps not despite but because of the scandalous rumors the Primroses have heard about him and his behavior.
Themes
The Primroses invite Squire Thornhill to taste their gooseberry wine, and he promises to return for future visits. Mrs. Primrose schemes for a match between Olivia and the Squire; she does not see why other women’s daughters should marry into wealth while her own have not. Dr. Primrose does not approve, but he sees no reason to worry, trusting Olivia to make her own judgment after he has warned him. But a gift the Squire sends them—a piece of venison from his hunt—overshadows Dr. Primrose’s warnings.
Just as Squire Thornhill’s high life charms the Primroses, the family’s simple ways charms the Squire—or perhaps its mostly the simple beauty of Sophia and Olivia that charms him. Mrs. Primrose’s practical scheming, alluded to earlier, is now on full display for the first time as she matches her husband’s unconcern for worldly matters with a crude, artless attempt to elevate her family’s position in society. Dr. Primrose, however, must ignore the disconcerting aspects of both the Squire and his family’s behavior because he cannot bring himself to doubt his children, as that would be doubting his own parenting.
Themes
