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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Anchoress, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Rules and Freedom
Authority, Compassion, and Responsibility
Purity and Contamination
Life, Death, and Hardship
The Power of Words
Summary
Analysis
A concerned Ranaulf returns to the priory after visiting Sarah. As soon as he can, he slips into the infirmary to seek Father Peter’s advice. Father Peter’s words indicate that he has spent far more time talking with the anchoress—and the villagers—than Ranaulf has. Perhaps for this reason, Ranaulf has been missing key information, including that Father Simon began encouraging the villagers to talk about Sister Agnes’s sanctity after his attempt to get her bones recognized as relics failed. Or that Sister Isabella left the anchorhold amid swirling rumors about demonic visions. Telling himself that it should not be hard to care for an enclosed, protected woman, Ranaulf stands to leave. But before he goes, Father Peter reminds him that it’s his responsibility to support Sarah, to help her remain in place, to encourage her, and to take care of her.
Although in Sarah’s presence Father Ranaulf’s first instinct was to stand on his authority as her spiritual advisor (and as a man in a society which systematically devalued female intelligence and experience), fortunately for Sarah, he does seek Father Peter’s advice. The giant gaps in his knowledge of the village’s—and the anchorhold’s—history remind him (and readers) that it's not only nearly impossible for a person to isolate themselves from the world around them, it’s not even desirable. Still, despite Peter’s advice, Ranaulf clings to the idea of his own authority over Sarah and his naïve belief that her physical enclosure automatically protects her mind and spirit, too.
Themes
