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Chapter 7
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
Miss Overmore disdains the picture of Sir Claude, but her hostility doesn’t stop Maisie from fawning over it. Maisie asks her if she will be different as her stepmother, and Miss Overmore says yes. She asks Maisie to call her Mrs. Beale from now on. Mrs. Beale no longer serves as Maisie’s governess and instead becomes the mistress of the house. Maisie asks her to hire Mrs. Wix, but Mrs. Beale rejects her as being too beholden to Ida. Maisie learns that she will not go to school in Brighton, however, because it is too expensive. Maisie is now mostly left alone or in the care of their maid, Susan Ash, as Beale and Mrs. Beale entertain guests and celebrate their new marriage.
Maisie struggles to make sense of the fact that people she loves and looks up to—her parents and now her stepparents—dislike each other. Miss Overmore’s transformation into Mrs. Beale makes official a change that had already slowly taken place, as she was no longer fulfilling the duties of governess after becoming Beale’s lover. Rather than providing an antidote to the familial conflict, however, Mrs. Beale joins it on her husband’s side. Maisie continues to be neglected, now financially as well as emotionally, as Beale and his wife choose to spend their money on socializing instead of her education.
Active
Themes
Maisie comes home one day to find none other than Sir Claude waiting for her. Maisie is enamored with Sir Claude but soon realizes he and Mrs. Beale have been talking for some time. Mrs. Beale sarcastically points Maisie’s fondness for him and asks her how she can trust someone she doesn’t know. Sir Claude explains he has come to get her because Ida is unwilling to set foot in the house. At the end of Maisie’s stay with Ida, which will be longer than usual to make up for her time with Beale, Mrs. Beale will similarly come get her. Maisie asks if Beale would be upset about Sir Claude’s visit, and he responds that he would also like to know.
Sir Claude, like Mrs. Beale, immediately charms Maisie. What Maisie suspects but cannot quite comprehend is that he has also charmed Mrs. Beale. Unlike Mrs. Beale, who is much less interested in Maisie since marrying her father, Sir Claude appears to be genuinely excited to become Maisie’s stepfather. Still, his question about Beale might have another motive: the desire to see Mrs. Beale again, without anyone else around.
Active
Themes
Mrs. Beale is charmed by Sir Claude’s attempts to be a family man and asks him why he married a woman like Ida. Sir Claude points to Mrs. Beale’s own marriage and declares that it is in fact women who are uninterested in children. Maisie says that she prefers gentlemen. Mrs. Beale asks Maisie if she wants to leave, and Maisie, confused, responds that it is Ida’s turn. Mrs. Beale suggests that it is in fact Sir Claude’s turn, but the two of them bond over their shared affection for Maisie. Mrs. Beale suggests that Maisie brought her and Beale together, and Sir Claude sarcastically replies that Maisie will have to do the same for him and Ida. He then tells her that they are leaving right away, and that her things will be brought over later, much to Maisie’s excitement.
Active
Themes
