58 pages • 1 hour read
Henry WoodEast Lynne
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1861A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Jealousy Leading to Irrational Decisions
Jealousy repeatedly drives the novel’s characters to make irrational decisions with harsh consequences. This is particularly true of Isabel, though her story is theoretically one of sexual temptation. However, the ruinous mistake at the core of the novel’s conflict is driven by jealousy as much as desire: As the narrator reflects, “[T]here never was a passion in this world, there never will be one, so fantastic, so delusive, so powerful as jealousy” (231).
While she does experience some attraction to Francis, Isabel primarily decides to leave her husband because she is obsessively jealous of Barbara Hare. Isabel’s jealousy toward Barbara, while completely unfounded, is so intense that it becomes obvious to Francis, who exploits this emotion for his own benefit. Isabel’s jealousy becomes a particularly destructive force when it collides with Francis’s relentless self-interest; just before Isabel finally concedes to elope with him, Francis persuades her to “be avenged on that false hound” (322). Isabel will later deeply regret the irrational and reckless decision that entails throwing away her entire life, but she acts under the influence of jealousy.
Jealousy also later drives Isabel to make a second reckless and irrational decision: returning to East Lynne in disguise. She only decides to return after she learns that Archibald has married Barbara. Her longing for her children is ostensibly what drives her to return (and risk having her true identity revealed), but she also seems motivated by a form of masochism, as she ends up having intimate access to the loving marriage between her rival and her former husband. Isabel’s jealousy is a strongly destructive force and may even be seen as the tragic flaw in her character.
Other characters likewise experience consequences when they make irrational decisions due to jealousy. Richard only lingers at the cottage on the night of Hallijohn’s murder because he is jealous of the other man who is courting Afy, and this jealous rivalry leads indirectly to Richard being falsely accused of murder and spending years of his life as a fugitive. Lady Levinson marries Francis despite her older sister, Blanche, having been previously engaged to him and even jealously mocks Blanche’s attachment to Francis. The novel frames her unhappy marriage as punishment: “[H]er three years of marriage […] served to turn her love for Sir Francis into contempt and hatred” (512). In all of these cases, characters make terrible decisions when acting under the influence of jealousy and suffer as a result.
False Perceptions of Innocence and Guilt
The novel depicts several cases where characters face consequences for their perceived or actual actions; however, the plot gradually reveals that categories of guilt and innocence are not necessarily clear-cut.
Most notably, Richard is falsely accused of having murdered Hallijohn; public opinion is against him, forcing him to live as a fugitive for years. Richard, however, always insists on his innocence and secures some allies who believe in him. Barbara and Mrs. Hare never question Richard’s innocence and work doggedly to clear his name. Archibald is more circumspect, but once evidence seems to point strongly in Richard’s favor, he also becomes a protector and champion of Richard’s innocence. By contrast, Richard’s own father, Justice Hare, readily believes that his only son is guilty of murder; when information starts to emerge that Richard may not be the culprit, Justice Hare reacts with confusion, reflecting: “Richard innocent! Richard, whom he had striven to pursue to a shameful end […] The world was turning upside down” (587). The lack of clarity about who is guilty and who is innocent generates narrative suspense (particularly useful in a novel published in serial format since suspense and cliff-hangers encourage readers to look for subsequent installments) but also prompts questions about epistemological certainty.
The eventual verification of Richard’s innocence also means that Francis is shown to be guilty, and this revelation is similarly disruptive. Notably, the two women who have born children to Francis (Isabel and his wife, Lady Levinson) are the most devastated to learn that Francis is guilty of murder. They are tainted by proximity, and in Lady Levinson’s case, she might even have fears about the man her child will grow up to be. False perceptions of guilt and innocence lead to both women facing the horrifying reality that a man they have become intimately tied to is far worse than they could have imagined. Here, Wood suggests that uncertainty surrounding guilt and innocence could be particularly devastating for women, whose livelihood might hinge on their ability to judge a man’s character.
While guilt and innocence can objectively be assigned to Richard and Francis, Isabel occupies a more ambiguous position. She is undoubtedly guilty of adultery and abandoning her family; however, she only made these choices because she was manipulated and misled. Moreover, she is otherwise a nearly ideal Victorian woman, demonstrating loving and unselfish devotion toward her children and showing a gentle and compassionate nature, all of which would complicate a 19th-century reader’s efforts to determine how guilty Isabel is. Wood unsettles facile assumptions about right and wrong by contrasting Isabel’s plot with a case in which guilt and innocence are actively confused.
The Anxieties and Opportunities of Unstable Social Positions
While East Lynne depicts a world largely organized around class and social position, it also presents that world as unstable and volatile: Characters experience significant changes in their social positions, and those who are most adaptable often prove to be the most successful. The novel thus embodies the tensions within Victorian society itself, displaying concern about the destabilization of traditional social categories but also recognizing those categories’ limitations.
The inciting action of the plot begins with a significant shift in social position for Isabel: After her father’s death, she is left destitute. This change in social position is important because Isabel had been raised to expect a future of significant privilege. She therefore has no employable skills and little practical knowledge of navigating the world; even her marriage prospects are predicated on wealth. Isabel’s loss of social status is cemented when she marries a man who is financially well-off but of a lower social position. Archibald can give her a stable and contented life, but he cannot give her luxury and social influence beyond their own small community. Implicitly, this mismatch feeds Isabel’s discontent, which hints at a critique of England’s traditional aristocratic class; if wealth and title make men like Francis ill-suited to “proper” domestic life, they make women like Isabel similarly ill-suited, though for different reasons.
Other characters also experience changes in social position: Richard has to take low-paying and menial jobs to survive while living as a fugitive, Francis is significantly elevated when he inherits a title and fortune (but loses it all after his criminal conviction), and Afy manages to secure a stable and prosperous position for herself after making a lucrative marriage to a local shopkeeper. Social positions may change due to fateful events outside of a character’s control or because a character has taken active steps toward prosperity or ruin. Notably, characters from both higher and lower social classes experience changeability, reflecting social class’s dominant but volatile influence in Victorian society, in which the decline of the aristocracy coincided with the rise of the professional classes and the growth of a new working class of urban industrial laborers.
Changing social positions are also represented as cutting across gender: In fact, the novel depicts female characters who use gainful employment to retain agency and reject passivity. When she refuses to take money from Francis after he abandons her, Isabel declares, “I will earn my own living” (361). Despite her privileged upbringing, Isabel readily embraces the idea that she can work to sustain herself: Doing so will radically alter her social position, but it gives her some ability to control her own destiny, which is especially important after the actions of her father and Francis have wrought so much damage in her life. Likewise, Afy initially views her employment as a lady’s maid as a positive force that gives her autonomy and means she does not need to be reliant on a male protector. With such depictions, the novel explores the intersection of class and gender, considering how financial independence could impact women’s position in society.
