The Old Nurse’s Story

“The Old Nurse’s Story” suggests that unrestrained pride can lead to the loss of what one cares about most. Throughout the story, the Furnivall family’s pride spreads from one family member to the next. First, The old lord refuses to allow his daughters to marry because he has deemed them too beautiful to find any man deserving of them and doesn’t want anyone but himself to possess them. He’s especially proud of his eldest daughter, Miss Maude Furnivall’s, beauty, often emphasizing it as being even greater than her sister, Miss Grace Furnivall’s. But the old lord’s pride backfires in two ways: by inspiring jealousy between the sisters and by forcing them to seek out love in secret. These factors lead to both sisters pursuing the same man, the foreigner, with Miss Maude ultimately marrying him and having a daughter (the little girl) with him in secret. Miss Grace eventually finds out this secret, and her inability to let go of her pride leads her to tell the old lord about the secret marriage and the little girl. The old lord then casts Miss Maude and the little girl out into the snow—his own pride wounded by Miss Maude’s disobedience—which effectively sentences them to death. The old lord dies soon after (it’s implied that his daughter and granddaughter’s deaths hasten his own), and years later, Miss Grace is driven mad by guilt when she sees Miss Maude and the little girl’s ghosts. This tragic outcome shows how pride can hurt (or even kill) other people if left unchecked, and how the resultant guilt can eat away at prideful people in turn.

Hester’s pride also features intermittently in the story. As the narrator of “The Old Nurse’s Story,” she chooses to include her schoolteacher’s praise, along with every other compliment she receives. She is clearly proud to be Miss Rosamond’s nursemaid and is flattered that Miss Rosamond’s mother trusts her with her child. This pride takes a turn for the worse, though, as she enjoys how people look at her when she thinks she and Miss Rosamond going to live in Northumberland after Miss Rosamond’s mother and father die. But it is precisely this pride that confuses her about where they’re headed, assuming she’s destined for Northumberland only to end up at Manor House, which is run-down and dangerous because of the ghosts who inhabit it and try to lure Miss Rosamond out into the cold. Unlike the Furnivalls, however, Hester is able to keep her pride in check. She is thus able to focus entirely on keeping Miss Rosamond safe, ultimately saving her life by preventing her from succumbing to the same fate as Miss Maude and the little girl.