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
Rebecca’s profound dignity moves even the cold-hearted Beaumanoir. But he will only offer pity and forgiveness if she “confess [her] witchcraft” and convert to Christianity. She refuses. Asserting that he could, if he wished, rightfully ignore the requests of a Jewish woman, Beaumanoir turns to the crowd and asks who will represent the Templars in the contest. One of the preceptors nominates Sir Brian, who has no choice but to accept. Beaumanoir gives Rebecca just three days to find a champion. Only Higg, grateful for her doctoring and feeling guilty over his testimony, proves willing to show sympathy for a Jewish person, and accepts the task of taking a message to Isaac. Rebecca scribbles a note and hands it to him along with money to hire a horse.
Rebecca’s appeal to the customs of chivalry rests on shaky ground; doubly disenfranchised as an English native (rather than a Norman) and a Jewish woman, she must depend on Beaumanoir’s sense of honor. In this case, chivalry comes through for her, but the precarity of her situation suggests that it is not a reliable source of morality and justice. This becomes especially apparent when Sir Brian must fight for the Templars rather than for Rebecca (which was clearly his plan)—to save face with the order, he accepts the task even though it almost certainly condemns her to death.
Themes
Higg finds Isaac and Nathan Ben Samuel on the road a mere quarter mile from the preceptory, anxiously awaiting news of the trial. After taking one look at the scroll, Isaac faints dead away, and he remains too upset to talk while Samuel reads the letter for himself. It explains the trial’s resolution and instructs Isaac to seek help from Ivanhoe. Although he is still too weak to fight, Rebecca hopes he might have a willing friend.
A rematch between Ivanhoe and Sir Brian would put chivalry to the test, just as their first match made a claim for Saxon superiority over Norman ambition. Although both men have worldly honor and success in battle, Ivanhoe truly embodies the virtues of knighthood, while Sir Brian uses them disingenuously, playing the role out of self-interest.
Themes
Samuel reminds Isaac that King Richard loves Ivanhoe and hates the English Templars; he might decide to intervene. Renewed with this hope, Isaac rides for Rotherwood while Samuel returns home. They leave Higg in the road, cursing their avarice, since they didn’t pay him for his services. Although he’s been able to pocket the money Rebecca gave him, he considers it insufficient reward for the damnation his religion tells him to expect for helping rather than hating Jewish people.
Although this chapter mainly sets up the third volume’s main contest—between the truly virtuous chivalry of Ivanhoe and Sir Brian’s insincere playacting—it closes on an antisemitic note. Higg’s expectation of a better reward seems to grow from common beliefs about Jewish wealth. And, although he’s grateful for Rebecca’s help (and impressed by her beauty), he can’t help but fall prey to the religious prejudices of his age.
Themes
