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Chapter 30
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
Black Beauty’s next groom is a man named Alfred Smirk. He’s civil and kind to Black Beauty—at least when Mr. Barry is watching. Though he’s never outright cruel, he never properly grooms Black Beauty, cleans his feet, or cleans the tack. People think he’s wonderful, but Black Beauty considers him the laziest and most conceited man he’s ever met.
Again, Black Beauty is totally powerless—Alfred seems amazing to other people, and Black Beauty has no way to tell them that he’s actually terrible at his job. This suggests that the only way people are going to find out about Alfred is if something happens to Black Beauty—or he could go on neglecting horses forever, if he doesn’t get caught.
Themes
Black Beauty would be reasonably comfortable if Alfred would only clean his stall out. The vapors irritate Black Beauty’s eyes, and even Mr. Barry comments on it once. Alfred insists that it’s dangerous to fully clean a horse’s stall, as they might slip in or get sick from the cold water. Mr. Barry then asks Alfred to have the drains checked. The bricklayer finds nothing wrong—and the stench in Black Beauty’s stall gets worse.
Not being properly groomed or having clean tack is one thing, but Black Beauty insists that living in his own filth is something else entirely. Alfred seems to know exactly what he’s doing here—and he’s abusing Mr. Barry’s trust and ignorance to get out of doing the unpleasant job of cleaning Black Beauty’s stall.
Themes
Standing on wet straw makes Black Beauty’s feet painful. Mr. Barry observes that Black Beauty has started stumbling, and Alfred says he’s noticed the same when he exercises Black Beauty. He never exercises Black Beauty; Black Beauty is just stuck in a stall eating high-energy feed if Mr. Barry is too busy to ride. This makes Black Beauty feel terrible—but rather than exercise him or change his feed, Alfred just administers horrible and ineffective medicine.
Finally, Alfred’s neglect starts to take a toll on Black Beauty’s feet and general health. Feeding a horse to match their workload is extremely important—but Alfred isn’t doing that. Whether this is out of ignorance or willful neglect is unclear, but the result remains the same. Black Beauty is suffering, and again, he has no way to tell anyone what’s going on or who’s at fault.
Themes
Finally, Black Beauty’s feet are so tender that he trips twice while carrying Mr. Barry. Mr. Barry stops at a farrier to see what’s wrong. The farrier instantly diagnoses Black Beauty with a bad case of thrush, which occurs when horses are standing in foul stables. The farrier treats Black Beauty’s hooves the next day and orders Black Beauty’s bedding to be completely removed every day. He also explains how to feed Black Beauty properly. Black Beauty is soon better, but Mr. Barry is fed up with deceitful grooms—so Mr. Barry sells him.
As the farrier explains, thrush is a fungal infection that happens when a horse’s feet never dry out—as when they’re standing in their own urine and excrement all day. So this is a moment where both Mr. Barry and readers can learn a new horse care tip. And while Black Beauty recovers from the thrush, his future is once again uncertain. He has no control over where he’s going, after all.
Themes
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