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Chapter 43
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 and Captain have become great friends by now. But one day, as Jerry and Captain are coming home, a brewer’s dray is going the opposite direction. The drayman is beating his horses and loses control—and they run a girl over and crash into Jerry’s cab. A broken shaft runs through Captain’s side, and nobody knows how Jerry escapes. The drayman is eventually found drunk and pays damages to Jerry, but nobody pays damages to Captain. Jerry can’t work for a few days while the cab is repaired and when he returns to the stand, he tells the Governor that Captain won’t work again. He might be able to cart, but that’s a death sentence.
Finally, the dangers of the London streets cause pain and suffering in Jerry’s home—and alcohol is again the culprit, which aligns alcohol with bad, careless behavior. Suffering this accident is a huge blow to Jerry, since he’s not only going to lose one of his horses—he also loses days of work and has to pay to fix the cab. Noting that nobody pays damages to Captain highlights the novel’s insistence that horses are some of the most vulnerable in this society. He’s not a being who can collect damages—he just suffers.
Themes
Jerry spits that he’d like to abolish alcohol so drunkards stop hurting innocent people and animals. The Governor admits that he drinks and Jerry is making him feel bad, but Jerry suggests he quit. Jerry explains that he used to drink, though never to excess. It took a few weeks to break the habit, but with Polly’s help and his book—and by telling himself that he'd break Polly’s heart if he drank again—he quit. Alcohol doesn’t control him anymore.
Jerry links sobriety to virtuousness, family, and religion when he describes quitting by reading his book (presumably, a Bible) and thinking of his wife. He also insists that being able to live without alcohol is the only way for a person to fully be in control of their lives. Alcohol, this implies, makes decisions for people—such as Smith’s decision years earlier to ride Black Beauty too hard and break his knees (recall how the men who found Black Beauty noted that Smith would never choose to do that sober).
Themes
Captain heals well, and the farrier suggests that Captain might sell for a few pounds. But Jerry refuses to sell Captain into misery. He decides to shoot him to end his suffering instead, which he does one day while Harry takes Black Beauty to the forge for new shoes. Soon after, Jerry purchases a spirited gentleman’s horse who scarred too much after an injury. The horse’s name is Hotspur; he’s only five and very friendly. He’s restless at first, but soon settles. Hotspur initially thinks it’s an insult to work as a cab horse—but he later confesses to Black Beauty that Jerry’s fine driving makes the work much less degrading than having to drive with the bearing rein.
When it comes to Captain, the novel suggests that Jerry does the humane thing by putting him out of his misery before he’s worked to death as a carthorse. Death is what Ginger longed for when she was in a similar position to Captain’s—but her owners weren’t willing to relieve her suffering before it became extreme. Hotspur, like Black Beauty, came from a wealthy home that prioritizes unblemished horses over everything else. But he eventually comes around to agree with Black Beauty that kindness and good driving is far preferable to having wealthy but cruel owners.
Themes
