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
Over breakfast, Agnes’s mother notices how flustered Agnes looks. Agnes collects herself and tells her mother that she ran into Mr. Weston, the former curate of Horton, on the seashore. She and Mr. Weston had a brief conversation, and Mr. Weston asked whether he could call on Agnes’s mother. Agnes asks whether that’s all right. Her mother says yes and asks what Mr. Weston is like. Agnes describes him as “very respectable.” Mr. Weston visits the next day. He and Agnes’s mother get on very well. After he leaves, Agnes’s mother asks why Agnes didn’t talk more. Agnes claims that it was because Mr. Weston was visiting her mother, not her.
When Agnes describes Mr. Weston as “very respectable,” it’s a funny moment in the novel: women don’t usually describe the objects of their romantic passion as “respectable.” Yet this unexpected description highlights that Agnes loves Mr. Weston because she respects his religious sincerity and his kindness toward animals and the poor. Thus the description suggests how well suited Agnes and Mr. Weston are for each other.
Themes
Mr. Weston begins visiting Agnes and her mother several times a week and becomes their close family friend. One evening, he asks Agnes to walk with him. As they walk along the coast, Mr. Weston first looks very serious and then very happy. He tells Agnes that, having met all the ladies in his parish, he only wants Agnes as his life companion—and asks her for her response. Agnes asks whether he’s serious, and he asks in return whether he’d joke about something like that. Then Agnes says she needs her mother’s permission. Mr. Weston says he has already received her mother’s permission and asks whether Agnes has any more objections. Agnes says no. Mr. Weston asks whether that means she loves him—and she says she does.
Agnes only admits that she loves Mr. Weston after she knows her mother has given permission for their marriage and after Mr. Weston has assured her he isn’t joking in his proposal. Her hesitancy reveals her shyness and lack of self-esteem—perhaps a result of her callous treatment by the Bloomfields and Murrays—as well as her devotion to her mother.
Themes
A few weeks after, Agnes’s mother finds another teacher’s assistant, and Agnes marries Mr. Weston. She has yet to regret her decision. Though she and Mr. Weston have encountered troubles, they support each other through them. Their main worry is separation by death—but religious hope for the afterlife will support them through that trial too. They have a son and two daughters, whom Agnes homeschools, and they live adequately on Mr. Weston’s modest income by being frugal and not trying to keep up with any rich neighbors. Thus, Agnes’s story ends.
Agnes and Mr. Weston’s happy marriage despite their small income emphasizes one of the novel’s major lessons: love matters more than money in marriage. Agnes’s decision to homeschool her children emphasizes another major lesson: parents have enormous power when it comes to teaching their children not only academic subjects but also values, and they need to understand that that power comes with responsibility.
Themes
