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Chapter 16
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in What Maisie Knew, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Innocence and Corruption
Money and Society
Hypocrisy
Perspective and Understanding
Summary
Analysis
Maisie discovers that Mrs. Beale has been seeing Sir Claude separately too, out of the house and without her present. Maisie is jealous of Mrs. Beale but also lives vicariously through her, secretly hoping that whenever she is out, she is with Sir Claude. Maisie perceives that Sir Claude has become the emotional center of Mrs. Beale’s life. Maisie is so engrossed in Sir Claude and Mrs. Beale’s romance that she forgets about Mrs. Wix. She and Mrs. Beale are equally excited to attend lectures, to learn but also because they always hope they will see Sir Claude. This ulterior motive is also behind Mrs. Beale’s decision to visit a great Exhibition that night, where Maisie intends to ask Sir Claude to stop trying to protect her from her stepparents’ affair.
The revelation that Mrs. Beale and Sir Claude’s affair continues when Maisie isn’t there leads Maisie to realize for the first time that she is in competition with Mrs. Beale for Sir Claude’s affection. She comes to this awareness through her growing understanding of the world, and this moment recalls Maisie’s obliviousness to Beale and Mrs. Beale’s romance. The lectures Maisie goes to take the place of an actual teacher or governess and also offer Mrs. Beale a self-serving excuse to leave the house. Maisie’s desire to be included into her stepparents’ affair reveals how badly she wants a “normal” family, one in which she is loved by parents who love each other.
Active
Themes
