64 pages • 2 hours read
Parade's End
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BetaBook 3, Part 3, Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 3: “A Man Could Stand Up—"
Book 3, Part 3, Chapter 1 Summary
Valentine goes to see Christopher. She is apprehensive: She does not know what to expect. Christopher greets her at his door in a whirlwind. He is busy carrying furniture and leaves her to wait briefly for him. The house is bare. Christopher is living like he did in a military camp. Valentine is afraid. She wonders if Christopher will murder her. However, she is also excited to be with him again. She sees an open letter from Sylvia. She tries desperately not to look at it. The phone rings and Valentine answers. It is her mother. She tries to dissuade Valentine from being with Christopher unless she absolutely must. Valentine says she must be with him. Mrs. Wannop then speaks to Christopher.
There is a knock at the door; it is McKechnie. Valentine herds him into the kitchen. She wants Christopher to finish the conversation with her mother. Soon, Aranjuez arrives with his girlfriend, Nancy, and with a soldier missing an arm. They say they must see Christopher. It is Armistice Day, marking the end of the war. The old Colonel is in town too. Christopher comes down the stairs. Valentine is crying.
Book 3, Part 3, Chapter 2 Summary
Mrs. Wannop continues to speak to Christopher on the phone. Christopher thinks about Sylvia’s letter informing him she will no longer live with him. He suspects she is having an affair with the General. If there were any proof General Campion was sleeping with Sylvia, he would confront him. Christopher hears a voice downstairs. He has an epiphany: “The war had made a man of him” (668). He hears more voices and does not want Valentine to be alone. He tells Mrs. Wannop he has to go. She says, “Yes; do. I’m very tired” (669). Christopher goes downstairs and meets Valentine. He tells her he is neither mentally unstable nor destitute. He would have sent for her had she not come herself. They must go out and celebrate. Christopher and McKechnie reconcile. They all go upstairs and begin to drink and dance. The group urges Christopher and Valentine to dance together. Glasses break like at a wedding. The two dance while the others form a circle around them: “Les petites marionettes, font! font! font!…On an elephant. A dear, meal-sack elephant. She was setting out on…” (674).
Book 3, Part 3, Chapters 1-2 Analysis
Part three returns to Armistice Day and the first chapter deals with Valentine and Christopher’s reunion, which is unsurprisingly bereft of romance or emotion. Christopher is in a whirlwind trying to scrounge up money. Nevertheless, Valentine’s thoughts are all on Christopher and her love for him despite her fears. She considers Edith Ethel and Macmaster, comparing their life with the life that she and Christopher will be leading. She and Christopher have actually maintained Victorian morals; lies and rumors have destroyed their chances of existing in British high society, however. On the other hand, Edith Ethel has had at least one affair and a probable abortion, and Macmaster cheated his friend and mentor and received a knighthood therefrom. On the surface the two appear to uphold Victorian morals and ethics, however they do not in secret. Nevertheless, they are the ones who achieve renown and praise, while Christopher and Valentine must retreat.
Valentine’s emotions throughout the third book are in flux; and particularly in the third part, she has a sense of being swept away by events. That she is not in control of her emotions is highlighted through her nightmarish imaginations that Christopher is going to murder her. Then, she thinks of a quote, which she believes comes from Euripides’s play: “Like a victim upon an altar. I am afraid; but I consent!” (655). It is possible the quote comes from a specific translation of that play, or from another one entirely, but that is beside the point. What is important is her frame of mind. She feels herself somehow a victim of circumstance, of her love for Christopher, and of society’s expectations—even her mother, who adores Christopher, is against her living with him out of wedlock). When Christopher’s soldier friends begin showing up, she feels swept away by the events of Armistice Day, when all she wants is some quiet, private moments with Chris: to finally consummate their love. These sentiments achieve their pinnacle when Christopher and she are dancing, surrounded by the others in his Spartan upstairs room. They are the ending lines of the book, and they are quoted at the end of Part 3, Chapter 2 Summary. The French lines come from a children’s song called Ainsi font (Do like this). Valentine switches the words around so that it sounds like a command, as if the others have compelled them to dance like puppets.
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