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
Locksley’s band of thieves gathers at another of their great oak meeting-trees to divvy up the riches they stole from the burning castle. Locksley sits as king of his forest realm, with the Black Knight on his right hand and Cedric on his left. Cedric refuses his half of the booty. He did not, he says, fight for riches. And he has enough wealth to reward those Saxons who came to his aid. With tears in his eyes, he mourns the end of the Saxon royal line with the death of Athelstane. And he expresses undying gratitude to the faithful Wamba. In reward, Wamba begs Cedric to forgive and free the equally faithful Gurth.
Thus far, the book has only shown readers Prince John's treasonous and self-interested reign, and strongly suggested the indolent and slow-witted Athelstane's basic inability to rule. King Richard hasn’t asserted himself yet. In this vacuum, Locksley, “king” of the outlaws, provides a shining example of the benefits of a healthy monarchy—a key part of the book’s argument about the political and cultural greatness of England. Volume three sees the restoration of order and inheritance in the book, and the forgiveness and freeing of Gurth represents an important first step on this path: one freed Saxon hints at greater freedom for all Saxons in the future.
Themes
Lady Rowena, cleaned up and splendidly dressed, rides into the clearing. If her imprisonment distressed her, the knowledge that Ivanhoe still lives and that Athelstane will never again court her buoys her spirits. She courteously thanks Locksley for his role in her rescue. As she waits for Cedric, De Bracy begs her forgiveness and promises that he knows how to serve her “in nobler ways.” She forgives him, but only out of a sense of Christian duty.
Despite having embarrassed himself with a failed courtship of Rowena and a devastating loss at Torquilstone, de Bracy continues to play the debased lover-knight. Unsurprisingly, his protestations of love move Rowena even less now that he's literally tied up as a captive.
Themes
Cedric invites the Black Knight to Rotherwood. Swearing that Cedric has taught him “the value of Saxon virtue,” the Knight says that his own affairs must occupy him first, but that he will soon accept Cedric’s invitation and need his aid. After the Saxons depart, Locksley offers the Black Knight his pick of the castle’s spoils. The Knight wants only Maurice De Bracy, whom he frees, on condition that he never attempt to take revenge for his capture. The woodsmen jeer as De Bracy selects a horse and beats a hasty retreat. Locksley gives the Black Knight the bugle which he won at the tournament, promising his and his men’s support should the Black Knight ever need it. If he plays the bugle, they will appear.
Despite being a Norman, the Black Knight expresses frank admiration for the Saxons’ valor and honesty. This bodes well for their future prospects in England, especially since, as the book has strongly hinted, the Knight may in fact be Richard. He continues to showcase the chivalric virtue when he extends mercy to the captive de Bracy and in his refusal to mock a man whose honor has already been compromised. The woodsmen’s promise of aid, no less than Cedric’s promise of hospitality, shows that the Black Knight can earn Saxon respect and love.
Themes
Then Locksley distributes the treasure with judicious fairness that impresses the Black Knight. After setting aide portions for the church, the band’s general fund, and the widows and dependents of the fallen, Locksley impartially hands out the remainder in accord with each man’s just deserts. Just as the Black Knight and Locksley notice the Cleric of Copmanhurst’s absence and presumed death, the jolly hermit bursts into the clearing, with Isaac in tow!
The lawful order and equitable division of booty in the forest contrasts sharply with the lawlessness and rapacious greed of the Normans. In this moment, the book doesn’t so much suggest that Saxons are better at governance than Normans than it makes a claim for the necessity of a strong, ethically sound ruler—his fair division of the booty prevents his followers from giving into greed or ambition.
Themes
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The Cleric explains that, while he searched for the castle’s wine cellar, he found and freed Isaac instead. The collapsing walls cut off their escape, and although the Cleric initially thought he had better kill Isaac (to keep himself from dying in the company of a Jewish person), he decided to convert Isaac to Christianity instead. That morning, while some of Locksley’s men combed through the rubble, they found the pair unharmed. Isaac protests that he did not agree to convert, at which the Cleric threatens him with “penance” and raises his sword. When the Black Knight intervenes, he and the Cleric come to good-natured blows, which cease when Locksley receives another prisoner—Prior Aymer.
The cleric makes apparently real threats against Isaac’s life to force his conversion; to modern readers he seems little better than Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, who also threatened violence to get what he wanted (in that case, money) out of Isaac. Once again, despite regularly pointing out the inherent wrongness of the racist and prejudicial treatment that Jewish people suffered in the Middle Ages, the book’s generally sympathetic portrayal of the Cleric subtly validates his antisemitic views. This scene also points toward historic violence against Jewish people in medieval Europe, who were occasionally converted at the end of a sword; the entire point of the crusades was the conversion of Palestine into a Christian kingdom.
Themes
