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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Black Beauty, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Horse Care, Abuse, and Neglect
Class, Transportation, and Victorian England
Good, Evil, and Power
Dignity and Religion
Summary
Analysis
When the narrator is almost two years old, something happens that he’s never forgotten. It’s early morning in early spring, and the quiet morning is interrupted by the baying of hounds. The colts rush to the top of the field, and Duchess explains that the dogs found a hare. Presently, the dogs swarm into the field next to the narrator’s, baying. Many men on horseback gallop after them. The colts in the field wish they were galloping with the riding horses, but soon, the hunt moves down into a lower field. An old horse explains that the hounds have lost the scent of the hare.
The horses are witnessing a foxhunt, which entails riders and hounds chasing foxes or hares through farmland and jumping hedges or fences as necessary. At first, the narrator and the other colts are enchanted—running and jumping like this seems like great fun. But the way the narrator frames this passage (saying it’s an event he’s never forgotten, and using a sharper word like “interrupted” to describe the end of the quiet morning) creates a feeling of unease, like this is perhaps not as fun as the colts think it is.
Themes
Not long after, the dogs start baying again—and the hare rushes past Duchess, the old horse, and the colts, coming through a spot in the hedge that drops into a brook. The dogs follow, and behind them are the horses. Several men leap the hedge and follow the dogs, which catch the hare at the bottom of the field. The colts hear the hare shriek and watch as the horses and men arrive. One of the men whips the dogs and holds the bleeding dead hare up.
The hare’s piercing death shriek, the men whipping the dogs, and the description of the bleeding hare contribute to the colts’ growing understanding that hunting isn’t actually so fun. It’s extremely violent—and even those animals involved in the hunt, like the dogs, suffer pain and abuse (whipping) as part of the sport.
Themes
Literary Devices
The narrator is so shocked by the sight that it takes a minute for him to realize that by the brook where the horses jumped, two horses are down—and one of the riders lies still. Duchess says the man’s neck is broken and a colt says it serves the man right. The narrator agrees with the colt, but Duchess says she doesn’t understand why men love hunting like this—it kills men and horses and tears up the fields. The horses watch as their master lifts the young man up, and the young man’s head flops back. Even the dogs are quiet.
The hare’s violent death was shocking, but what’s even more shocking for the narrator is noticing who else ends up suffering: two horses and two people. Duchess proposes that men aren’t rational, and it doesn’t necessarily matter to hunters that they’re doing something dangerous that can make life difficult for farmers (a hare and the pursuing dogs, for instance, won’t necessarily avoid running through cultivated fields out of politeness).
Themes
Later, the narrator learns the dead man is George Gordon, Squire Gordon’s only son. People ride in all directions and soon, a farrier arrives to check on the groaning black horse. Someone runs over with a gun—after a bang and a shriek, the horse is dead. This troubles Duchess, who explains the horse’s name was Rob Roy. He was good and bold, and after this, she refuses to go to that part of the field. Days later, the colts hear the church bells tolling and watch Gordon’s funeral procession. The narrator never learns what happened to Rob Roy’s body. It was all for “one little hare.”
The fact that Rob Roy is euthanized indicates that he was injured so badly that there was no chance of him healing, something that highlights how dangerous foxhunting can be for horses. And though Duchess is clearly grieving for Rob Roy, noting that nobody knows what happens to Rob Roy’s body suggests that horses aren’t given the same degree of respect as people are when they die. Finally, noting that Rob Roy, another horse, and a man died for “one little hare” suggests that their deaths were silly—and could’ve been easily prevented.
Themes
Literary Devices
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