Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in An Experiment with an Air Pump, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Morality
Human Industry and the Limitations of Knowledge
The Ideal vs. Lived Experience
Passion vs. Rationality
Summary
Analysis
Maria enters the room wearing her shepherdess costume. She reads aloud from a letter Edward sent her. In the letter, Edward tells her about a New Year’s Eve party of Miss Cholmondely’s that Edward and some of his colleagues attended and at which Miss Cholmondely played the harpsichord. Then he admits to feeling nervous about returning to England, though he’d once been so homesick. It’s hot in India, yes, but northern England in January isn’t so great, either. He recalls how two of his men died of cold two years ago—the others found them “clinging together like babes” in a field, and the image still haunts him. He closes the letter by telling Maria how he can’t wait to see her and always dreams of her blue eyes.
Edward continues to speak of Miss Cholmondely—he seems to be spending a considerable amount of time with her. It’s also curious that he’s no longer homesick for England—and the audience can only assume that Miss Cholmondely has something to do with this odd change of heart, though Maria seems painfully oblivious to this. In a broader sense, Edward’s letter suggests a more thematically relevant development in his character: devoid of his former homesickness, he no longer remembers England in such an idealized manner, instead remembering it for how it really is.
Themes
Harriet and Isobel enter dressed in their costumes and carrying scripts. Harriet moves furniture to clear the room for their performance. Maria asks Harriet if her (Maria’s) eyes are blue; Harriet says they’re obviously brown—and always have been. Fenwick and Susannah enter. Maria says she’s no longer in the mood to perform. Harriet, annoyed, drags Maria from the room.
Maria puzzles over the final line of Edward’s letter, which mistakenly identified her eyes as being blue. It’s obvious to the audience (and to Harriet) that Edward likely mistook Miss Cholmondely’s blue eyes for Maria’s brown eyes, but Maria remains wholly unaware of—or at least, unwilling to acknowledge—this possibility. Her idealized memories of her fiancé—and her desire to avoid the heartbreak that would come with acknowledging that he has betrayed her—prevents her from seeing the truth.
Themes
Armstrong and Roget enter the room. Isobel, dressed in her sheep costume, stands awkwardly before the assembled audience. Armstrong calls her ears “fetching.” Maria and Harriet re-enter the room. Before Harriet can stop her, Maria tells Fenwick about Edward thinking her eyes are blue. Harriet says Edward is a fool who reads too many poetic musings about heroines with blue eyes; meanwhile, Maria fears he is sick with a tropical fever. Fenwick suggests Edward can’t tell one color from another. Harriet continues to insult Edward, and Maria accuses her of being jealous that Edward asked Maria to marry him instead of Harriet. Harriet insists that she never wants to marry. They bicker some more. Finally, Fenwick orders his daughters to reconcile and begin the play.
Maria continues to concoct ludicrous explanations for Edward’s gaffe, further showing how her idealized memory of him and her desire to avoid heartache warp her view of reality and prevent her from seeing the truth. And while Harriet’s critical opinion of Edward is likely closer to reality, it’s also possible that her disapproval of or disinterest in marriage in general predisposes her to disliking Edward. Thus, even characters like Harriet who tend to view the world more logically can let personal bias color their perception of reality.
Themes
Harriet, in character, introduces herself as Britannia, “spirit of our age, champion of our nation.” She identifies “industry and endeavour” as her “saviors.” Britannia describes the hill that Maria, the shepherdess, stands atop as she watches her flock; Isobel bleats. Britannia notes the new towers, chimneys, and lights that have sprung up around her, interrupting the pastoral beauty. “The future is as new as Jerusalem,” Maria’s character notes, to which Isobel—the sheep—replies, “But not for the sheep, for sheep it’s looking grim,” prompting much laughter from the audience. Isobel breaks character, insisting that the line is “an exercise in humiliation.”
Harriet’s play praises the Enlightenment ideals of knowledge and reason and insinuates that they are superior to the quaint but ignorant pastoral way of life that Maria’s character represents. Their characters in Harriet’s play mirror their personalities, with Harriet being the more logical sibling and Maria, the more sentimental. Meanwhile, Harriet doesn’t bother to dignify Isobel with the benefit of human role, instead offering her the pitiful role of a sheep that is really more “an exercise in humiliation.” Harriet’s mistreatment of Isobel challenges Harriet’s supposedly progressive mindset, showing that she’s fine with upholding unexamined, oppressive, and entirely subjective ideas about class and social position.
Themes
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The audience continues to laugh, and Harriet snaps that she’s never wanted to write plays and only wrote this one because Susannah told her to—Susannah wants Harriet to be a poet, but Harriet has no knack for words and would prefer to be a physician, like Fenwick. Maria and Harriet storm out of the room, and Susannah follows them. Fenwick chuckles that the place is “full of madwomen” and suggests he and the others go outside for a walk, despite Roget’s protests that it’s blizzarding outside. They exit.
Once more, Maria, Harriet, and Susannah have perfectly valid and logical reasons for being upset, but Fenwick opts to ignore this, determining instead that his house is “full of madwomen.” Thus, despite the progressive worldviews he preaches, and despite his avowed commitment to scientific inquiry, he, like Harriet, is biased toward the unequal social norms he’s been brought up with. In this case, those norms lead him to (unfairly) construe him female family members as high-strung, capricious, and illogical.
Themes
Armstrong and Isobel are alone in the room. He tries to be affectionate with her, but she resists, embarrassed. Then he asks if she’d get naked for him if he gave her a guinea. Isobel is shocked. Armstrong insists he’s only joking; he apologizes and explains that he often makes jokes during uncomfortable situations, like at his mother’s funeral. Armstrong then kisses Isobel’s hand and insists that he loves her. Isobel is silent as Armstrong runs from the room. Then, alone, she hugs herself, feeling equally delighted, shocked, and uncertain.
Though Armstrong insists he’s joking, this section seems to come closest to his true intentions for Isobel. He’s already heavily implied his keen interest in her twisted back, and he only further conveys that interest in bluntly offering to pay her to undress for him. Why, then, Isobel decides to ignore the obvious red flags Armstrong displays remains unclear, but it seems that she’s letting what she wants to be true obscure what is actually true. She’s never had a suitor interested in her before, and so she’s willing to suspend her disbelief and take Armstrong’s attempts at seduction at face value.
Themes
