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Part 3
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Real Thing, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Reality, Artifice, and Art
Class in England at the End of the 19th Century
Money, Identity, and Class
Summary
Analysis
Mrs. Monarch is displeased when she sees that the artist has hired Oronte. When she sees the drawings that the artist has done with Oronte, she insinuates that she wouldn’t have been able to guess he was the subject. She adds, with satisfaction, that the artist’s drawings of the Monarchs always look exactly like them. The artist agrees with Mrs. Monarch, but sees this fact as being precisely the issue. Although he views it as occasionally useful and amusing to work with the Monarchs when depicting upper-class types, he finds it to be overall a frustrating affair. All the same, he proceeds with the determined Monarchs as his protagonists for the Philip Vincent books, and sends several of his illustrations to the publishers.
Once again, Mrs. Monarch demonstrates her ignorance of the purpose of art, which is to interpret reality, not document it. She doesn’t understand that the artist isn’t trying to capture his models’ appearances exactly as they are. He doesn’t want the models’ real selves to be apparent in his work. While he is frustrated, the artist does still find it sometimes amusing to work with Monarchs (that is, “the real thing”), which shows that, even though he sees that trying to capture reality is having a negative effect on his art, he is nonetheless still distracted by the opportunity.
Active
Themes
The artist is excited to get input from his long-time friend Jack Hawley, who has recently returned to London from a trip abroad designed to help him “get a fresh eye.” Although Jack is a bad painter, he is an art critic whose opinion the artist trusts. When the artist shows his friend the illustrations of the Monarchs, Jack instantly rejects them and sharply asks the artist what’s wrong with him. He finds these images “execrable” given the artist’s greater goals for his art. Although the artist presses Hawley for specific reasons why he despises the Monarchs so much, he is unable to give an answer. But he tells the artist that he must fire the Monarchs immediately.
Jack Hawley’s disgust with the artist’s Monarch-inspired artwork shows that an outside, critical audience also feels that “the real thing” is a poor inspiration for art. Jack knows that the artist seeks to illustrate human character in its variety, so he confronts the artist when he sees that his friend’s work is dominated by one type, the very same issue that the artist had denounced earlier in the story. Jack’s inability to articulate exactly what is wrong with the art suggests that perhaps the line between copying reality and interpreting reality is a thin one, or that one simply instinctively feels that such art is wrong, without need for an explanation.
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Themes
The artist ignores Jack Hawley’s warning. Yet even though he continues to work with the Monarchs, he is losing his patience with them and he begins to view them as “objects of charity.” They, meanwhile, still feel a superiority to Miss Churm and Oronte, whom they assume are being used to depict the “low life” of the Philip Vincent book. However, the artist is actually using Oronte and Miss Churm to model for the aristocratic types too.
One day, the Monarchs interrupt a sitting with Oronte. They intend to stay for tea, so the artist, wanting to deliver a lesson, asks them to prepare and serve the tea, which embarrasses Mrs. Monarch greatly. She is embarrassed, but does as requested, although she needs prompting from the artist to also serve Oronte a cup. The artist is moved by the effort and humility with which Mrs. Monarch completes this task, and he considers how he is doing the wrong thing by stringing them along in this work that they are unsuitable for.
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Themes
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Soon after, the artist receives a response from the artistic advisor for the Philip Vincent books. The advisor informs him that they were disappointed in the work and that the artist risks losing the rest of the books if he doesn’t improve his work. Feeling desperate, the artist turns to Oronte and Miss Churm and adopts them as the protagonists for the illustrations. When the Major stops in the middle of a sitting for Oronte, he asks whether the latter is the artist’s idea of a gentleman, to which the artist snaps, “I can’t be ruined for you!” The Major silently exits the studio, relieving the artist, who hopes he won’t have to see him again.
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Themes
The Monarchs do, however, return. Their visit strikes the artist as tragic proof that they really have nothing else to do. But the artist is in the middle of a sitting with Oronte and Miss Churm (who are posing for a scene from the Philip Vincent books) and is too wrapped up in his art to pay the Monarchs much attention. The Monarchs stand back to watch, and this hovering makes the artist uncomfortable. Suddenly, Mrs. Monarch asks for permission to touch up Miss Churm’s hair. The artist leaps up, nervous that Mrs. Monarch will hurt his model, but she stills him with a look that he realizes he would like to draw. Mrs. Monarch then adjusts Miss Churm’s hair and significantly improves it.
Active
Themes
Meanwhile, the Major is looking around the studio to find something to do and begins to clean the artist’s kitchen. Mrs. Monarch joins him. The artist is so stunned at this display of humility and desperation that his eyes tear up. The spectacle chills his creative fervor and dumbfounds his two models, whom he dismisses. The Monarchs make one final plea to stay on as servants, to which the artist agrees, knowing full well that he won’t be able to stand it. Sure enough, about a week later he gives them some money to go away. He never sees them again. He does secure the rest of the Philip Vincent books, but Jack Hawley avows that the Monarchs did the artist “a permanent harm” and changed his art for the worst. Although this may be true, the artist admits that it was worth it just to have the memory.
