Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ivanhoe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Merits of Chivalry
Disguise and Discovery
Inheritance and Displacement
The Vulnerability and Power of Women
History vs. Romance
Summary
Analysis
Unhappy Isaac finds his imprisonment much less agreeable than the Saxons. Guards throw him into a deep, dank prison cell decorated with a rusty fire grate and the moldering bones of other unlucky captives. But, imprisoned, Isaac regains some of the calm he has lacked in other circumstances. Templeton speculates that the Jewish people, so harassed and oppressed on all sides in this era, eventually became used to a certain amount of violence and terror. Moreover, Isaac possesses the “unyielding obstinacy […and] unbending resolution” of his people. Carefully folding his clothing to protect himself from getting dirty, Isaac sits in a corner of the cell and waits with composure for more than three hours.
Templeton offers one of his explanatory asides to readers here, which yet again points toward the violence and abuse that medieval Europeans inflicted on the Jewish people. And while these asides seem to suggest that modern times are better, the book’s tendency to blame Isaac individually and Jewish people generally for their mistreatment—even here his description of Jewish resilience shades into negative commentary in “unyielding obstinacy”—suggests that things may not have changed as much as Templeton would like to believe.
Themes
Literary Devices
At the end of that period, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf and Sir Brian’s two “Saracen slaves,” dressed like butchers, enter the dungeon. Stripped of his armor and clad only in a simple leather jerkin, Front-de-Boeuf looks even more intimidating. The arrival of these three grim figures so terrifies Isaac that he cannot even offer the humble bow he knows he owes the baron. As one of the servants places a scale at Isaac’s feet, Front-de-Boeuf demands 1,000 pounds sterling, or its equivalent in gold, as ransom for his freedom. He ignores Isaac’s plea of poverty, citing common knowledge about Jewish people’s wealth and their obstinate tendency to cling to their money. If Isaac refuses, the baron threatens, he will die a slow and painful death in that place.
Sir Brian (hinted at here through his slaves) and Reginald Front-de-Boeuf most thoroughly embody the abuses and bad character which the book assigns to all Normans. And Normans are, the book suggests here, greedy, terrifying, and violent—more like butchers than like knights. The scales in this scene may allude to one of the book’s sources, Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, in which a Jewish moneylender named Shylock demands a pound of flesh as payment from a debtor. Although it’s Front-de-Boeuf in this moment who represents avarice, his prejudicial beliefs about Jewish moneylenders and the financial abuse they practice against their Christian debtors underlie his demands.
Themes
At another command from Front-de-Boeuf, the two servants kindle a fire beneath the grate in the corner of the room, and Front-de-Boeuf threatens to have them roast Isaac alive. Front-de-Boeuf ignores Isaac’s appeal to his humanity and pleas for mercy. He suggests that Isaac will soon regain his wealth through bilking other Christians. Finally, he signals to the servants to strip Isaac. Desperate, Isaac says he will raise the money. Front-de-Boeuf promises that he will remain imprisoned until every last ounce has been weighed out right there on the prison floor.
The contrast between Cedric and Athelstane—both of whom are annoyed but not afraid in their imprisonment—and Isaac highlights the marginalized status of Jewish people in medieval Europe. Isaac’s appeals to his humanity here echo those Shylock makes in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, but they do not move Front-de-Boeuf to mercy. Instead, the Norman hints that he’s within his rights to extort money from Isaac, because Isaac has abused his Christian debtors to make his own fortunes.
Themes
As Front-de-Boeuf doggedly presses Isaac for the ransom, Isaac tries to bargain for Cedric’s and Rebecca’s freedom. Suddenly, the baron interrupts, saying he assumed Rebecca was Isaac’s concubine, so he gave her to Sir Brian as the spoils of conquest. Isaac’s enraged and horrified cries fill the dungeon. He throws himself at Front-de-Boeuf’s feet, begging the baron to take anything he wants as long as he protects Rebecca’s honor. Front-de-Boeuf expresses astonishment over a Jewish man showing love for something other than his “money-bags,” and he promises to remember that they love their children, too, in the future. For now, he claims, he can do nothing to change Rebecca’s fate. A horrified Isaac swears he will not give Front-de-Boeuf so much as a penny unless his daughter is released unharmed.
Although all the women in Ivanhoe are vulnerable to male violence, Rebecca is doubly so because of her marginalized status as a Jewish woman. Dispossessed of her own nation or country, she depends entirely on the kindness of people who have been trained to hate her and her people. The casual disregard with which Front-de-Boeuf consigns her to her fate with Sir Brian suggests that he considers her far less than human. And his feigned surprise over the fact that Jewish people—like all other human beings—love their children yet again points to antisemitic stereotypes about Jewish greed, which the book seems to criticize and reinforce at the same time.
Themes
Get the entire Ivanhoe LitChart as a printable PDF.
Front-de-Boeuf asks if Isaac will even face death for Rebecca, and Isaac swears he will. The baron orders the servants to strip the old man and chain him to the grate. But before they can do so, they hear a commotion at the gate and voices within the castle calling for Front-de-Boeuf.
However much the book plays into antisemitic stereotypes at other points, in this moment, it allows Isaac the dignity to face his death with courage rather than capitulate to Front-de-Boeuf’s arrogant and ignoble cruelty. The same trumpet blast that ended the previous chapter and closed the door on Cedric and Athelstane recurs; placing a pin in Isaac’s torments, the book prepares to pick up another unlucky captive’s story.
Themes
