Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Good Soldier, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Marriage and Infidelity
The Manipulation of Reality
Class and Traditional Morality
Religion
Summary
Analysis
John returns to describing his trip to Prussia and Leonora’s sudden outburst. In the moment, John is struck by how much Florence’s comments about Catholicism bother Leonora. For a moment, John thinks there is even something threatening about Leonora. However, he quickly dismisses this thought and decides that religion is simply a topic that Leonora is touchy about. Then, John reiterates that he had no idea what was going on between Florence, Edward, and Leonora; he compares them to high-level gamblers who cleverly hid their hands from him. John thinks about how blissfully unaware he was at the time compared to the present moment, where he cannot help but judge his wife unfavorably. He even admits that he “hates” Florence for what she’s done.
Here is another moment in the story when John acts suspiciously innocent. John has already established that Edward is not good at keeping his affairs a secret. Yet here, John compares him to a high-level gambler. If this is the case, then John must be exceptionally naïve for his story to be consistent. Additionally, this passage is the first time that John openly expresses contempt for Florence.
Themes
While John was blissfully unaware, Leonora and Florence openly discussed Florence’s affair with Edward. Despite her attachment to Edward, Florence promised Leonora that she would leave him if the Ashburnhams repaired their marriage. Such promises only angered Leonora further. In one conversation, Florence claimed that her relationship with Edward was primarily spiritual in nature, and she likens herself to Maisie Maiden. This comparison enraged Leonora, who told Florence that their behavior toward Maisie amounted to “murder.” Florence responded that she was not to blame, and Leonora granted Florence the fact that she was less responsible than Leonora herself.
Although attitudes surrounding sex changed at the start of 20th century, society would still consider the behavior that Florene, Leonora, and Edward exhibit scandalous. In this chapter of the novel, the word “murder” is used for the first time, and it is an act that will remain in the background for the rest of the novel.
Themes
This reminiscence leads John to tell the story of Maisie’s death. The same day as their trip to M—, Leonora received a letter from Maisie. In the letter, Maisie says that she thinks the Ashburnhams brought her to Nauheim so that she could act as Edward’s mistress. Upon realizing this, Maisie decided to leave immediately. However, while packing, she had a heart attack, died, and fell into her open trunk. Leonora found her body and showed it only to John because she didn’t want Edward to see it. In general, Leonora hid the details of the situation from Edward. Edward doesn’t feel bad about what happened because he doesn’t know better. Meanwhile, Leonora is wracked with guilt.
There are three major deaths in the novel, and all of them occur under peculiar circumstances. Additionally, John is the first person to see two of the three corpses and the second person to see Maisie’s corpse. These facts combined suggest that John might have killed Maisie or—more likely—that Leonora killed Maisie and John helped cover things up. After all, John has already stated that he loves Leonora and would do anything for her. From Leonora’s point of view, her motivations for killing Maisie could include jealousy and a desire to protect her reputation.
Themes
