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
As the steward leads King Richard and Ivanhoe up the precipitously steep stairs and into the castle, Ivanhoe covers his face to prevent being recognized before Richard can reconcile Cedric to his son. Cedric, seated at the head of a band of old Saxon lords, greets Richard as the Black Knight, whom he recognizes from the tournament. After Richard carefully returns Cedric’s Saxon greeting, Cedric shows him and Ivanhoe to the chapel, where a group of local monks pray for Athelstane’s soul with a zeal born of superstition and gratitude for the large donation made in Athelstane’s honor by his mother.
Ivanhoe and King Richard reassume their disguises, but although their faces are hidden, they cannot obscure their noble characters. Richard continues to demonstrate his fitness to be king of England by talking to Cedric in Saxon. This not only shows that he knows the language (a bit of poetic license on the book’s part; no contemporary evidence suggested that Richard was fluent in Saxon and most modern historians doubt that he could understand the language at all) but that he respects Cedric’s heritage—and by implication, that he values the Saxon population generally. Readers should pay attention to the aside about the monks’ avarice; it foreshadows exciting events to come.
Themes
Ushered by Cedric, King Richard and Ivanhoe pay their respects to Athelstane’s mourning mother. She thanks Richard (still disguised as the anonymous Black Knight) for freeing her son from Torquilstone, then bids them to enjoy the castle’s hospitality. Next, Cedric shows them to another room where Rowena leads some maidens in funeral hymns while others embroider Athelstane’s funeral pall and arrange the flowers for his bier. The young ladies attend to their tasks with seriousness but little sadness.
Preparations for Athelstane’s funeral suggest that few, other than his mother and Cedric, will truly miss the man. Whereas the entire nation longs for the return of King Richard, Athelstane seems forgettable, and this suggests that Cedric’s plans to try and put him on the throne were doomed from the start.
Themes
Finally, Cedric shows them to a room set aside for guests with “slight connection” to the deceased. But before he can take his leave, King Richard demands the reward Cedric promised his rescuer. Then he reveals his identity. Cedric refuses to bow to a Norman, but rather than becoming angry, Richard agrees that he has no right to Cedric’s homage until he has proved himself an equal friend to Saxons and Normans alike. Then King Richard names his reward: he wants Cedric to forgive his son. Ivanhoe steps forward and throws himself at his father’s feet. Cedric grants Ivanhoe full forgiveness but commands him to stop dressing and behaving according to Norman customs. And he warns his son not to speak of marrying Rowena yet, since she must complete two years’ mourning for Athelstane.
Cedric’s assumption that these guests, with their “slight connection” to Athelstane, are Norman proves mostly correct when King Richard reveals himself and Ivanhoe. When Richard refuses to take offense at Cedric’s defiance, he shows himself to be a just and reasonable king who understands and regrets the abuses Saxons have suffered under Norman rule. The conditions Cedric places on Ivanhoe’s restoration suggest that he still tends to look more toward the past than the future. Whether this constitutes beneficial Saxon strength or self-defeating obstinacy remains unclear. In either case, Cedric’s inflexible attempt to live in the past suggests the impossibility of full Saxon restitution.
Themes
Then, as if summoned by his name, Athelstane himself, dressed for burial, stumbles through the door. He tells the astonished party an incredible tale: Sir Brian did indeed knock him unconscious but did not kill him. He recovered consciousness in a nearby abbey whose monks seemed dismayed at his survival, since it meant they wouldn’t be imminently receiving large donations from his family in his honor. The monks have kept him half drugged and locked in the abbey’s cellar for days while praying over an empty coffin at the castle. Only by luck—a somewhat drunk monk forgot to lock the cellar door—did Athelstane escape, find his horse, and ride back to Coningsburgh.
Athelstane’s sudden and seemingly miraculous resurrection threatens the tentative peace between Richard and Cedric; the Saxons still (or yet again) have a claimant to the throne. His incredible story suggests that corruption and moral rot are more widespread than it first seemed; even the monks of the nearest Saxon monastery place their greed above the good of the country or the freedom of a nobleman. Their attempt to trick Athelstane into believing he’s in purgatory recalls anticlerical stories from the Middle Ages where corrupt clergy lie in similar ways either to gain wealth or access to their victims’ wives.
Themes
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Cedric encourages Athelstane to immediately challenge Richard for the English throne. But Athelstane’s recent near-death experience and imprisonment have given him some clarity. He no longer cares to pursue his claim to the throne, nor does he want to waste English blood in civil war. He’s well aware of Rowena’s disdain for him. He’s ready to renounce both, offering his loyalty to King Richard and giving Rowena to Ivanhoe himself, but during his lengthy soliloquy, Ivanhoe, Rowena, King Richard, and the rest have all disappeared. At length, Wamba explains that Isaac appeared in the courtyard with a message that sent Ivanhoe for his horse. No one knows where Richard went. Shrugging, Athelstane prepares to dig into his own funeral feast.
Athelstane claims that he returned to life a changed man, no longer saddled with royal ambitions. But his excuses recall earlier behavior that already suggested he was unfit to rule—he’s more concerned with eating and drinking than with leading, he lacks fighting spirit and the bloodthirstiness to match the Normans’ chivalric emphasis on fighting, and he doesn’t even want to force Rowena into an unhappy marriage. Thus, his acceptance of Richard confirms the foregone conclusion (which the facts of history force on the book) that Richard will one day hold the throne. And it confirms Richard’s right—both by birth and by his excellent character—to fulfill the role of king.
Themes
