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Chapter 6
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Rise of Silas Lapham, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class
Realism vs. Melodrama
Love and Communication
Morality and Compassion
Summary
Analysis
Lapham announces to Persis that Tom is a guest, and Persis makes him welcome at the dinner table. When the two of them are alone, Persis asks Lapham if he forced Tom to come, but Lapham says it was exactly the opposite—Tom visited Lapham’s office on his own. Persis doesn’t quite believe Lapham.
Tom’s seemingly genuine interest in Lapham’s paint business raises suspicions from everyone because it goes against the typical class divisions between new money and old money in Boston. Tom’s own motives remain mysterious at this point in the story—it’s deliberately unclear whether Tom is really so interested in business, or if he’s just looking for excuses to see Lapham’s daughters.
Active
Themes
Penelope tells the sick Irene that Tom has come to visit. Irene doesn’t believe her at first, then, when she realizes Penelope isn’t lying, she curses herself for taking the walk that made her sick. Later, Lapham and Tom talk alone, and the women all speculate on what they’re discussing.
Irene’s disappointment in this passage shows once again how she seems to be secretly in love with Tom. But she doesn’t say this explicitly, and Penelope doesn’t mention anything about how she herself might feel about Tom, showing once again how communication problems are starting to form between the two close sisters.
Active
Themes
While Penelope, Irene, and Persis are in the parlor, Tom and Lapham come back in. They all talk about books, and Irene admits to Tom that Penelope is the bigger reader in the family. Lapham encourages Irene and Penelope to take Tom outside to give him a view from some nearby rocks.
Active
Themes
While Lapham and Persis are alone, Persis says she thinks Tom is after Irene. Lapham insists that Tom came about business—after all, if he came for Irene, why would he want to go to South America? He asks Persis for advice, but she says that she thinks Tom seems like a good choice for the business.
Active
Themes
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Persis persists in her hope that Tom might marry Irene, even though Lapham himself remains skeptical that it’ll happen. Lapham thinks to himself how he is almost as excited for Tom’s potential joining of his business as he was back when he first met Persis at the school where she was teaching.
