The magistrate in Knysna (whose name is Mr. Goldsbury, though the book more often refers to him by his title) is an upper-class man who is the most powerful legal figure in the region where the Komoetie family and the van Rooyen family live. With his swift, authoritative judgment, the magistrate decides that Benjamin is not the rightful adopted son of Fiela and Selling. Instead, he claims that Benjamin is Lukas, the long-lost son of Elias and Barta. Despite the magistrate’s supposed commitment to justice, he rigs the trial in several ways, making it so that Fiela can’t attend the trial to plead her case, then afterward refusing to see Fiela in person and even threatening to throw her in jail if she keeps bothering him to get her son back. The magistrate represents how racism infiltrated the legal system of 19th-century South Africa.
The Magistrate Quotes in Fiela’s Child
The Fiela’s Child quotes below are all either spoken by The Magistrate or refer to The Magistrate. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
The day the child disappeared the fog came up early and by midday it seemed as if the Forest was covered in a thick white cloud.
Related Characters:
Lukas, Elias, Barta, Benjamin, The Magistrate
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3
Quotes
‘Listen here, woman, you know as well as I do that there’s something very strange going on here. This can’t be your child but you gave out that he was yours. Where did you get the child from?’
‘He’s my hand-child.’
Related Characters:
The Census-Takers (speaker), Fiela (speaker), Benjamin, Lukas, The Magistrate
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7
Quotes
‘Is this a church?’ he asked the tall one.
‘No. It’s a courtroom. Sit there on the bench and sit still.’
Related Characters:
Benjamin (speaker), The Census-Takers (speaker), The Magistrate, Fiela
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
‘Will I still know him?’
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9
Quotes
It was late when they got home. His mother took one look at the egg, took down the strap from behind the door and beat their backsides well for them.
The next day she baked a sugar-cake with the egg.
Related Characters:
Dawid, Benjamin, Fiela, The Magistrate
Related Symbols:
Ostriches
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
‘I’m going to Knysna,’ she announced.
Related Characters:
Fiela (speaker), Benjamin, Selling, The Magistrate
Related Symbols:
Ostriches
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13
Quotes
‘He’s the forest woman’s child.’
Related Characters:
Fiela (speaker), Benjamin, Barta, The Magistrate, Lukas
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14
Quotes
‘I’m your pa! That’s who I am! Say it! Say who I am!’ He was as tough as a piece of ironwood. ‘Say who I am!’
‘Pa.’
[…]
For every answer he gave him a lash. ‘And who are you?’
‘Benja— Lukas.’
‘Lukas who?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Lukas van Rooyen. Say it!’
‘Lukas van Rooyen.’
Related Characters:
Elias (speaker), Benjamin (speaker), Barta, Lukas, Nina, Willem, Kristoffel, Fiela, The Magistrate
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15
Quotes
‘The child is back with his rightful parents,’ he said and it seemed as if his jaw had grown stiff. ‘What he had on the day he got lost can make no difference. You can put anything on him now and swear by it in the hope that I will believe you.’
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16
Quotes
A snare-pit. That was what he had to have, he sat thinking that Sunday. The sheer prospect of it brough a funny feeling to Elias’s stomach for if it worked once, it would work again if you were clever enough
Related Characters:
Elias, Fiela, The Magistrate
Related Symbols:
Tusks
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17
Quotes
In fact Petrus did not come riding up the Kloof until late on Thursday. Alone. A sugar-cake was waiting on the kitchen table.
Related Characters:
Petrus, Fiela, Selling, Benjamin, The Magistrate
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21
Quotes
She had to give up Benjamin to the forest people, Dawid to the grave. There was little difference in the bitterness within her. The question she put to God was the same: Why, God, why?
Related Characters:
Fiela, Benjamin, Dawid, Selling, The Magistrate
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Fiela’s Child LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Magistrate Character Timeline in Fiela’s Child
The timeline below shows where the character The Magistrate appears in Fiela’s Child. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
The next day, another forester visits Elias with a message from the magistrate, Mr. Goldsbury. It turns out someone may have found Elias’s son who disappeared many years...
(full context)
Chapter 6
...keep them from taking him away. The census-takers greet Fiela and say that the new magistrate has sent them. There will be a trial in Knysna, and the mother of the...
(full context)
Fiela bathes Benjamin one last time. She instructs him to address the magistrate politely, not tell lies and not mention that Selling has been in jail before. She...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...all the white people there look strange and poor. The census-takers bring Benjamin to the magistrate’s place, which seems to be a big school full of classrooms.
(full context)
...starts crying, and the two men tell him he can’t cry in front of the magistrate, or they’ll never take him home. Benjamin goes through his multiplication tables in his head...
(full context)
Chapter 8
Elias and Barta head from their home to the magistrate’s place in the village. Elias wanted to leave Barta behind, but the magistrate insisted that...
(full context)
...and Barta prepare for the journey once they learned they had to go to the magistrate. Elias gives Barta advice for meeting the magistrate, saying she must do as the magistrate...
(full context)
Chapter 9
As Benjamin waits in the magistrate’s courtroom for everyone to arrive, he counts the benches using his multiplication tables. He worries...
(full context)
...including Dawid’s coat, which are stored in a box in another room. At last, the magistrate, a man with glasses wearing a black suit and a stiff-looking shirt, comes and tells...
(full context)
The magistrate asks Benjamin if he remembers ever having a name other than Benjamin Komoetie. Benjamin doesn’t....
(full context)
Chapter 11
...news of Benjamin. Before Fiela left, Selling warned her not to get angry at the magistrate, since this might just cause him to punish her. She knows he’s right, but she...
(full context)
Chapter 13
...sleep by herself in a cave rather than ask for help. She arrives at the magistrate’s gray building and feels it looks grim. A man with no front teeth comes up...
(full context)
...Many children in the area look like their parents must be rich. She goes the magistrate’s building and is worried when the man there seems to only speak English (since she...
(full context)
Fiela tries to appear meek and not angry. The constable agrees to check with the magistrate, but when he comes back, the constable informs her that the case is closed and...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...be meek this time and instead to hold her head high. She walks up the magistrate’s office and says she wants to see “Solomon.” She complains that this “Solomon” only invited...
(full context)
...on her own so that he himself has a chance to go talk to the magistrate. This idea seems to temporarily bring some life back to Selling. Fiela doesn’t admire Petrus...
(full context)
Chapter 16
One day a forester named Mr. Kapp shows up to see Elias—the magistrate sent him to check on Benjamin. At the time, Benjamin is out with Nina, and...
(full context)
...that Barta looks too sad and that Mr. Kapp will report that back to the magistrate. But eventually, Mr. Kapp says that he can’t wait for Benjamin any longer and will...
(full context)
Chapter 17
Petrus says he spent a long time talking with the magistrate and believes that the magistrate is a reasonable man. He says the magistrate sent a...
(full context)
Chapter 28
...truly Lukas. She seems frightened and says of course he is—she testified this to the magistrate and would do it again. Disappointed, Benjamin feels like he has to accept that he’s...
(full context)
Chapter 29
...knows there’s something inside him that can’t be Lukas. He wonders why Barta and the magistrate both swore he was Lukas when it wasn’t true. He doesn’t know the real truth...
(full context)
...and Kristoffel act like she’s being delusional. But Barta is determined to go to the magistrate and get the burden off her conscience.
(full context)
...decides he needs to see the census-taker who determined his fate. He goes to the magistrate’s office and finds the man, who looks older but mostly the same. The man asks...
(full context)
