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Summary
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
After a prolonged, bitter divorce, married couple Ida and Beale Farange agree to a compromise: Ida will forgive the money her ex-husband owes her in exchange for a custody agreement. Their daughter, Maisie, will be split between the two parents, spending alternating six-month periods with each of them. Both Ida and Beale are motivated less by their desire to raise Maisie themselves than to keep her from each other as much as possible, and to use her as a means of hurting each other. They reject alternate arrangements, including a foster parent. Ida and Beale are both popular members of high society—Ida is distinguished by her height and skill at billiards, Beale by his smile and charm—but neither of them are particularly wealthy themselves. They rely on a distant relative’s special allowance to provide for Maisie.
This chapter introduces the premise of the novel: the split-custody arrangement that will shape—and distort—Maisie’s childhood. The nature of the agreement suggests that it is not made with Maisie’s best interests in mind, as alternating six-month stays will be extremely disruptive for a young child. Instead, Ida and Beale are primarily interested in limiting each other’s time with Maisie as much as possible. This arrangement also indicates how far from resolved their marital conflicts are, since even after getting divorced both of them remained preoccupied with hurting each other. Ida and Beale’s hypocritical attitude toward family life is mirrored by their position in society, where they attempt to stay fashionable while using family members and connections for their wealth.
Active
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