Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Agnes Grey, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Education, Authority, and Class
Money vs. Love in Marriage
Women and Fulfillment
Power and Cruelty
Religion
Summary
Analysis
The next day after Matilda has finished her lessons, Agnes is painting a watercolor in the schoolroom at Rosalie’s request while Rosalie goes for a walk with a novel. Lying at Agnes’s feet is Snap, a terrier. Matilda planned to raise Snap but neglected him. Agnes cared for him, and now he adores Agnes—much to Matilda’s spiteful annoyance.
Throughout the novel, kindness toward animals has both predicted and symbolized kindness toward vulnerable humans. As such, Matilda’s enthusiasm for dogs and horses seemed to indicate some innate goodness in her despite the poor education she has received from Mr. Murray. Yet Matilda’s neglect of Snap, a helpless and vulnerable puppy, suggests that while Matilda may not be actively cruel like Tom Bloomfield, she is careless of the needs of those dependent on her. This carelessness contrasts with Agnes’s thoughtfulness and care for Snap.
Themes
Mrs. Murray rushes into the schoolroom and asks why Agnes isn’t out walking with Rosalie and Matilda. When Agnes points out that Matilda is with the other dogs and Rosalie is reading, Mrs. Murray accuses Agnes of being insufficiently entertaining to keep Matilda from unladylike pursuits and company. Then Mrs. Murray asks why Rosalie is spending so much time by herself. When Agnes repeats that Rosalie is reading, Mrs. Murray asks why she can’t do it on the Murray property. She recounts how Mr. Hatfield finds Rosalie reading in “the fields and lanes” so often. Then she orders Agnes to go remind Rosalie that she shouldn’t allow admirers to approach her familiarly while alone.
Mrs. Murray has ordered Agnes not to give Rosalie or Matilda stern talking-tos—yet she blames Agnes for the tomboyish behavior that Matilda learned from Mr. Murray before Agnes even arrived in the Murrays’ household. Like the Bloomfields, Mrs. Murray denies Agnes authority over her students and then makes unreasonable demands on her as a teacher. Given Mrs. Murray’s apparent desire that Rosalie marry her richest and highest-status suitor, Sir Thomas Ashby, readers may wonder whether Mrs. Murray is worried about Mr. Hatfield courting Rosalie due to propriety or due to his lesser wealth and social status.
Themes
Agnes exits the house and spots Rosalie walking with Mr. Hatfield in a field just beyond the Murrays’ property. Rosalie is holding a book in one hand and some myrtle in the other, looking coquettishly at her admirer. The terrier Snap, running ahead of Agnes, bites Rosalie’s dress, and Mr. Hatfield hits Snap with his cane. As Agnes is comforting the dog, Mr. Hatfield asks Rosalie when they’ll see each other again. When Rosalie says church—unless he happens to come by again exactly when she’s out walking—he asks for her myrtle as a consolation. After playfully refusing, Rosalie gives it to him. He leaves.
Myrtle is a flowering plant. Rosalie’s use of flowers to flirt with Mr. Hatfield, making him beg her for them, contrasts with Agnes’s attempts to get flowers by herself—only to be aided by the courteous Mr. Weston. The two interactions involving flowers create an implicit contrast between Rosalie’s and Agnes’s attitudes toward romance: Rosalie sees romance as a game she wants to win against male opponents, whereas Agnes doesn’t seek to play romantic games but is pleased to receive respectful romantic overtures from a good man. When Mr. Hatfield hits Snap with his cane, readers are reminded of his earlier cruelty toward Nancy Brown’s cat and his cruelty toward the poor, low-status cottagers. His cruelty and status-consciousness call into question his motives for courting Rosalie: does he love her, or is he seeking her family’s money and status?
Themes
Rosalie exclaims how glad she is that Agnes drove away Mr. Hatfield, whom she thought would never leave and whom she didn’t want Mr. Murray to see. Agnes asks whether Mr. Hatfield was bothering her for long. Rosalie says no, but he often passes by the property on various pretexts and engages her in conversation. Agnes explains that Mrs. Murray thinks Rosalie shouldn’t walk off the property without a chaperone, and Rosalie, miffed, says that she’s in no danger—she will never fall in love. At most, she’ll have a “preference,” but only for someone richer than Mr. Hatfield, entertaining though he is.
Rosalie’s cynical attitude toward love and marriage makes a certain amount of sense given her family education and social position: her mother has raised her to believe that, as an upper-middle-class Victorian woman, she should seek to make the most economically and socially advantageous marriage possible—a goal that does not leave room for genuine, passionate love but at most for a “preference.”
Themes
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Rosalie laments that Mrs. Murray will only let her flirt with Sir Ashby, lest his mother come to believe that Rosalie is a bad girl—even though Sir Ashby himself is a terrible man. With alarm, Agnes asks whether Mrs. Murray knows this about Sir Ashby and still wants Rosalie to marry him. Rosalie says her mother does: in fact, Mrs. Murray has heard more critical gossip about Sir Ashby than she’ll tell Rosalie. Rosalie doesn’t mind, because “reformed rakes make the best husbands,” but she wishes Sir Ashby were handsomer.
Rosalie too wants to exercise her energy and skill—but given the limited roles available to Victorian women, Rosalie channels all this energy, skill, and ambition into flirtation. A marriage to Sir Thomas Ashby, though a “victory” according to Rosalie’s mother, would also constitute the end of Rosalie’s “career” and ability to exercise her skills. Meanwhile, Mrs. Murray’s desire that Rosalie marry Sir Ashby despite having heard terrible rumors about him shows how status-consciousness has warped her value system: she would rather her daughter have a rich husband (even if he’s a “rake,” or a wealthy but immoral man) than a good one.
Themes
When Agnes suggests that Mr. Hatfield would perhaps be a preferable match, Rosalie says he would—except that he doesn’t have Ashby Park, which she wants. Agnes asks Rosalie to consider how she may wound Mr. Hatfield if she encourages him when she has no intention of marrying him. Rosalie says that she wants the entertainment—but eventually she’ll “punish him” for daring to think that she could really like him. Despite Rosalie’s claims, Agnes thinks the girl must be a little fond of Mr. Hatfield—for now that Agnes accompanies Rosalie on her walks beyond the property, she can see that Rosalie is angling to walk near the road and look for horsemen.
For Rosalie, love and marriage are status games. She plans to marry a man who can offer her an estate like Ashby Park, and she finds entertainment in “punish[ing]” men who aspire to marry her even though she believes they are lower status than she deserves. Agnes, who does not think of love as a status game, cannot understand this behavior and so assumes that Rosalie must really like Mr. Hatfield deep down.
Themes
Four days after Rosalie’s last meeting with Mr. Hatfield, she and Agnes are walking in the field when Rosalie abruptly announces that she has forgotten to give the cottager dying of consumption some money. She tosses Agnes her purse and hurriedly tells her to go to his house. As Agnes is leaving, she looks back and sees Mr. Hatfield—but she decides not to intervene, as the cottager could use the money, and Mr. Hatfield might “save [Rosalie] from a worse fate.”
Unlike Mrs. Murray, Agnes believes that love is a better foundation for marriage than wealth—likely due to the education Agnes received from her own parents, a poor but loving couple. The “worse fate” from which Agnes would like to save Rosalie is marriage to the immoral Sir Thomas Ashby. As such, Agnes disobeys Mrs. Murray to encourage a love match between Mr. Hatfield and Rosalie.
Themes
Agnes gives the consumptive man some money and reads to him. On her way out, she meets Mr. Weston coming in. They have a brief conversation—which she cherishes—and she continues on. A beaming Rosalie rushes to meet her and announces that Mr. Hatfield has proposed and that she sternly rejected him. Telling Agnes the story, Rosalie explains that Mr. Hatfield turned pale and asked whether she would still reject him if he were rich. She claimed she would—knowing she was lying. Angrily, he told her not to mention his proposal to anyone—and implied that if she did, he’d tell certain women in the parish that she led him on, thus starting gossip about her character that would damage her marriage prospects. Rosalie, annoyed, promised him she wouldn’t tell anyone.
Rosalie’s glee at having received and rejected a proposal from Mr. Hatfield underscores that she sees romance as a status game: because Mr. Hatfield loves her but she doesn’t love him, she has “won” the game, proving herself higher-status than her suitor and licensing her to treat him cruelly. Mr. Hatfield’s immediate response to romantic disappointment is to threaten Rosalie, which fits with the novel’s earlier characterization of him as egotistical, cruel, and insincere in his religious practice.
Themes
Agnes, shocked, points out that Rosalie just broke her promise. When Rosalie says that telling Agnes doesn’t count because Agnes won’t repeat the story, Agnes says that Rosalie is going to tell Matilda—and then the story will be everywhere. Agnes gets Rosalie to agree not to tell her maid but encourages her to tell Mrs. Murray. Rosalie says that she’s happy to, since it will prove to her mother that she was in no danger. She’s also happy to have “conquered” Mr. Hatfield—and to have demonstrated the self-command to reject a handsome suitor. Agnes asks whether she’s as happy to have lied to him about wealth having no effect on her or about not telling anyone. Rosalie, annoyed, asks what else she could do and walks off. Agnes remains shocked at Rosalie’s cruel egotism.
Agnes has an (implicitly religious) moral commitment to honesty. Her pointed questions to Rosalie about Rosalie’s lies are intended to educate Rosalie in appropriate moral values. Rosalie’s annoyed dismissal of the questions shows Agnes’s inability to educate Rosalie in values given Agnes’s low status in Rosalie’s household—Rosalie is not bound to listen to Agnes. Meanwhile, Agnes’s genuine shock at Rosalie’s egotistical pleasure at “conquer[ing]” Mr. Hatfield shows the two characters’ different attitudes toward love.
Themes
