The French Lieutenant's Woman

As per convention, Charles agrees to visit Mrs. Poulteney with Ernestina and Aunt Tranter. The visit is part of a complicated social web of one-upmanship. Sarah announces the guests and prepares to leave, but Mrs. Poulteney tells her to stay. In the meantime, the guests make small talk and examine a portrait of Mrs. Poulteney’s late husband. On the side, Aunt Tranter invites Sarah to visit her after Ernestina leaves. At the same time, Sarah avoids Charles and refuses to be engaged in the conversation. Charles believes that she is attempting to disassociate herself from Mrs. Poulteney through her silence. While the others make conversation, he studies Sarah. Mrs. Poulteney and Aunt Tranter talk about their servants, and Ernestina says that Mary shouldn’t be speaking with Sam. Charles defends Aunt Tranter, who is hurt by the comment, but Mrs. Poulteney sides with Ernestina, saying that servants’ behavior must be policed. After the discussion, Charles and Sarah briefly exchange glances and realize they are allied against the “common enemy” (106) of class bigotry. Charles is perturbed by Ernestina’s bigoted view of servants. Sam waits in the kitchen, having a serious conversation with Mary.

Later, Ernestina cries in Charles’s arms. She is “horrified” (107) that they have argued, and Charles quickly forgives her. He notes that they should not be angry at Sam and Mary for falling in love, as they have done the same. He jokes about them eloping and, when he kisses her, Ernestina blushes. She laughs at the idea of Mrs. Poulteney seeing the kiss, and they are thankful that they live in such modern times. Aunt Tranter enters, mentioning that she would like to give a dress to Mary. Later, Mary tries on the dress and is impressed by how well it fits her. The following morning, Charles tells Sam that he can return to London. When Sam admits that he would rather stay, Charles accuses him of an immoral pursuit. They argue over whether Sam is right to pursue Mary. Sam angrily defends his emotions, and Charles eventually apologizes. However, he asks Sam to refrain from speaking to Mary until Charles has assured himself that Aunt Tranter “permits [Sam’s] attentions” (110).

Over the coming days, Charles and Ernestina socialize and discuss their plans for the future. Charles feels confined by Ernestina’s freshly deferential attitude.

One evening, Ernestina reads a favorite poem aloud. The narrator notes that, though the characters and the poem depict patriarchal gender roles, the women’s suffrage movement is gaining momentum. Charles listens to the poem with his eyes closed. He feels moved by the poem’s depiction of love. When he falls asleep, however, Ernestina throws her book at him. The next day, Charles is annoyed by Ernestina’s plans for them to move into a new house. He goes fossil hunting that afternoon, returning to the spot where he met Sarah. This time, there is no one else present. When he returns to the path, however, he spots Sarah. As she passes him, she slips. Though she tries to refuse him, he helps her up and along the path. Though he knows that Sarah wants to be alone, Charles refuses to leave. He examines her strong, determined, and unfashionable features, thinking that many men would be repelled by her independent streak. She suddenly reminds Charles of Emma Bovary from the novel Madame Bovary. As Sarah is about to leave, Charles reveals that he knows about her “circumstances” (121). They hear voices in the distance, and Sarah hides in the bushes. Two men appear, chasing a dog. Charles follows Sarah into the bush. She claims that being seen with him could ruin her reputation, but Charles dismisses this. As they return to the path, he tells her that—together with Aunt Tranter and Ernestina—he wants to help her escape Mrs. Poulteney and find a job in London. As she walks to the cliff, Sarah says she will never leave Lyme Regis. Charles feels an urge to shake her out of her air of tragedy. Though some people say that she has lost her mind, Charles believes that she is simply too hard on herself. Breaking the silence, Sarah admits that the French Lieutenant will never return; he wrote a letter saying he is married. She then leaves, and Charles is left alone on the cliff, feeling guilty.

Charles, Ernestina, and Aunt Tanter visit the Assembly Rooms, an entertainment venue and a social hub for Lyme Regis. A concert is taking place, despite the objections of religious locals such as Mrs. Poulteney. Aunt Tranter identifies the other guests while Ernestina takes pride in being the center of attention. She believes the other, less fashionable guests are boring. When the music starts, Charles thinks about Sarah. He is fascinated by her and has kept their meeting a secret. If Ernestina knew, he believes, she would be very jealous. He smiles at Ernestina, suspecting that there is an artificial quality to their happiness. Charles is proud to be different from most men, and he wonders whether his proposal to Ernestina is too conventional. He realizes that he is attracted to Sarah, or at least to something that she represents. As he thinks about Ernestina’s relative immaturity, he assures himself that they will be fine after they are married.

At the same time, Sam is enjoying himself with Mary. They have different backgrounds but also share much in common. Mary has more self-confidence than Sam, and she admires his apparent knowledge of the world. In the past, Sam has mostly paid for sex, but he feels that he is falling in love with the innocent Mary. He has told her one of his deepest secrets: that he aspires to be a haberdasher though he lacks the training and money needed to become one. He has promised to show her around his native London if she ever visits the city. After talking to Mrs. Tranter, Charles gives his blessing to the budding relationship between Mary and Sam. While the others attend the concert, Sam and Mary sit in Aunt Tranter’s kitchen, silently holding hands.

Two days later, Ernestina’s migraine leads to Charles taking a walk to Ware Commons, where he searches for fossils. He senses someone behind him and turns to see Sarah, standing beside an ivy tunnel. Her wild appearance leads Charles to question her sanity. As he asks whether she wants to tell him something, a shaft of light falling across her face makes her seem almost divine. Sarah shows Charles two fossils. He explains the history of the “excellent” (139) specimens, no longer questioning her sanity. As he makes to leave, he notices the expression of anguish on her face. Though he wants to help, he is held back by social etiquette. Sarah speaks frankly about her weak and sinful past, and he cannot understand why she is confiding in him. Sarah regards Charles as educated and experienced in comparison to the idiotic and cruel Christian people of Lyme Regis. She struggles to understand why her life has been so hard, wondering why she could not have been born into a privileged position like Ernestina. She refuses to accept Charles’s insistence that he cannot help her. Through her argument, she seems to consider herself almost Charles’s equal, and this annoys him. Sarah wants to tell Charles the story of her past year. When he tries to leave, she falls to her knees and begs. She asks him to meet her again in the ivy tunnel. Though he wishes that Sarah would confide in someone else, Charles eventually agrees. He stumbles back to the path, regretting his actions; he knows he will not tell Ernestina what happened.

Charles and Ernestina plan a surprise party for Aunt Tranter at the pub where Charles is staying. They have invited Dr. Grogan, an Irish doctor who lives in the town. Ernestina believes that Grogan would be a fine husband for her aunt. Though he has converted to Anglicanism, the doctor’s Irish Catholic heritage makes any such marriage unlikely. During the course of the meal, Grogan asserts himself as more of the host than Charles by telling outlandish stories that delight Aunt Tranter.

Thinking about the evening, Charles reflects on his impression of Sarah. Compared to Sarah, Ernestina seems like “a child among three adults” (150). After the men walk the women home, Charles shares a drink with Grogan. They talk about a variety of intellectual subjects, including their shared liberal politics. Charles thinks about a conversation with his uncle, who was like Grogan, in that he was progressive and liberal until the point when politics moved beyond his views. They talk about paleontology and then Sarah, with Grogan referring to a German doctor’s research into the “obscure melancholia” (155) from which women suffer. In Sarah’s case, Grogan believes that the condition is caused by living with Mrs. Poulteney, and the only cure is for Sarah to leave her job. He believes that Sarah derives pleasure from martyring herself. Charles wonders if unburdening herself to someone would cure Sarah’s grief. The doctor agrees but says she is a hopeless case.

Across town, Sarah sleeps in her bed beside Millie, a 19-year-old fellow servant. The narrator notes that sexual attraction between women was not believed to be real in the Victorian era. Moreover, women like Mrs. Poulteney did not believe that moral women experienced sexual pleasure. However, Sarah and Millie are not lovers: Sarah has been sleeping with Millie ever since Millie suffered a nervous breakdown a while ago. Their relationship is more like that of sisters than anything sexual, as Sarah is able to comfort Millie.

In Grogan’s study, Charles and the doctor discuss paleontology and its impact on religion. New research contradicts the Bible, positing that the Earth is millions of years old. They discuss Darwin and realize that they have a great deal in common, particularly compared to the rest of society. Charles walks home, thinking about his capacity to understand almost everyone but Sarah.

Charles meets Sarah in the ivy tunnel, and they talk. Charles speaks about their difference in wealth, which he blames on pure chance. He says he wants to help Sarah and follows her up a grassy slope. Glimpsing her ankles, he thinks about her beauty. They arrive at a small amphitheater and sit on a stone slab laid against a tree trunk. Soon, Sarah tells him about the French Lieutenant. His name was Varguennes, and he was a courageous man. After surviving his shipwreck, Varguennes appeared at the Talbot house and stayed there to recover from his wounds. He claimed to have been cheated out of a large inheritance by his father. This, like his status as an officer on the ship, Sarah now believes was a lie. She spoke to him in French, as he spoke no English, and she eventually relented to his advances and allowed him to touch her. Though Charles wants to understand, Sarah believes that he will not be able to, as he is “not a woman” (170). Sarah believes that she has no chance of happiness and that someone in her situation can never dream of marriage. She continues her story, explaining how Varguennes told her that he loved her. He wanted her to go to France with him and claimed that he would soon be made captain. Feeling ashamed, Sarah said nothing to Mrs. Talbot. Varguennes preyed on Sarah’s loneliness. When he took a ship to France from Weymouth, she followed him. She found him in an inn, and there, she had sex with him, even though she knew he didn’t love her. She now knows that she chose to be humiliated in this fashion, and she wants Charles to understand her motivations. She wanted people to speak about her as “the French Lieutenant’s Whore” (176), as they would be acknowledging her suffering. Rather than marrying Varguennes, she married herself to shame. Had she not slept with him, she believes that she would have tried to die by suicide. Her dishonor feels freeing to her, but Charles cannot understand why she would want to feel such shame. When she begins to cry, Charles realizes that he might have acted just like Varguennes. This sudden recognition of sexual desire, the narrator notes, is particularly Victorian. As clouds gather out at sea, Charles thinks about his own lack of satisfaction. He wants to travel but begins to think about his deceased sister.

After sleeping with Sarah, Varguennes leaves, promising to return. She knows that he is lying. A month later, she receives a letter from him explaining that he still loves her but that he is caught in an unhappy marriage to his wife. Sarah does not want to see him again and takes comfort in punishing herself for her reckless actions.

As Charles and Sarah walks around the clearing, Charles is concerned that they will be seen together. After hearing her story, he believes that she needs to leave the town. She explains that she cannot and intentionally pricks herself on a tree thorn. Charles explains his conversation with Grogan and his belief that Sarah must forgive herself to move on. As he debates with her, Charles feels how intimately he understands Sarah. He has never understood a woman like this.

Sarah asks for some time to think about Charles’s proposal and cries; she does not believe herself worthy of Charles’s kindness. Charles hopes that sharing her darkest secret will help her to heal. As they walk back through the ivy tunnel, they hear a woman’s laugh. Charles nervously peaks through the leaves and sees Sam and Mary together, kissing. When Charles realizes he and Sarah have not been spotted, Sarah surprises him by smiling. Charles returns the smile but soon realizes their situation; they could embrace passionately and neither would resist. Instead, he tells Sarah that they can never again be alone together. Mary and Sam disappear into the forest, laughing together. For five minutes, Charles cannot look at Sarah. He tells her to leave ahead of him, and he will follow a half hour later. As she walks away, she glances back piercingly at Charles.

Charles returns to the town feeling a mix of regret and excitement. He hopes that he has helped Sarah, and he is confident that he can exit the situation without any damage to his reputation. Now, Aunt Tranter will help Sarah to leave Lyme Regis. Charles does not plan to tell Ernestina what happened. In his room, a telegram from his uncle is waiting. Sir Robert is inviting Charles to Winsyatt, his estate, and Charles is pleased that he has an excuse to leave immediately. When he tells this to Ernestina, she pouts. She does not like Charles’s rude uncle and his old fashioned home. Ernestina fears Sir Robert and envies his close relationship with Charles. Throughout her previous trip to Winsyatt, she felt judged by her host and his neighbors, who, unlike her, are all aristocrats. However, she is glad that Charles is set to inherit the estate, and she imagines the décor changes she will be making. Charles promises to return soon. He believes that his uncle may be planning to offer him Winsyatt or some other property to live in after he marries Ernestina and tells this to Ernestina. She can imagine herself as the lady of Winsyatt but worries that the property is too old. Charles promises that she will be allowed to redecorate. After he leaves, she studies her “copious armory” (194) of décor catalogs.

When Charles arrives at Winsyatt, he stops his carriage at the gatehouse to say hello to Mrs. Hawkins, the servant who raised him after he was orphaned. She frets over him, and he is pleased to see her. Resuming his journey, he studies the estate and the local people. He appreciates the sense of idyllic rural peace at Winsyatt, and he hopes to preserve this peace when he inherits the estate. At the house, he searches for Sir Robert and notices that something is different. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Mrs. Fairley spotted Sarah on the path to Ware Commons after her meeting with Charles.

Ernestina and Charles receive terrible news: Sir Robert has become engaged to a younger woman named Mrs. Tomkins and she may give him a male heir, meaning that Charles will not inherit his uncle’s fortune and estate.

Charles returns quickly from Winsyatt and sits in Aunt Tranter’s parlor with Ernestina, who is beginning to believe that she must change her behavior. She kisses Charles’s hand, but he has already witnessed her unladylike outburst in response to the news. He credits her lack of decorum to being the daughter of a draper. Changing the subject, Ernestina says that Sarah has been fired by Mrs. Poulteney. Sarah is supposed to be staying in the same pub as Charles, but no one has seen her since the previous day. Aunt Tranter is worried and unsure what has happened. Ernestina blames Mrs. Poulteney. Charles worries that Sarah might have hurt herself. A search is underway. Aunt Tranter refuses to visit Mrs. Poulteney, who is seemingly ill. Charles is concerned for Sarah and plans to visit Grogan. He returns to the pub as a storm begins.