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Chapter 44
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
Many people enjoy Christmas and the New Year, but not cabmen and their horses. It can be a lucrative time to work with all the parties, but waiting for hours in the freezing rain for a party to end can take its toll. Black Beauty performs most of the evening work during the week between the holidays. Jerry has a cough, and Polly always waits up for him to come home with a worried look. On New Year’s Eve, Jerry and Black Beauty take two men to the West End and are told to return at 11, though they say the party might go late. Jerry returns on time, waits for an hour, and tries to warm himself in the driving sleet. The passengers return at 1:15 and are annoyed to be charged for the waiting time. Black Beauty is so cold he can barely make it home.
Again, Black Beauty encourages readers to realize that not everyone can celebrate holidays warm and snug at home, if their job requires that they work those days. It’s Jerry’s working-class job that requires him to be out in the sleet, putting his health and Black Beauty’s safety in danger. The men’s general behavior, and specifically their annoyance at being charged for the wait time, show how entitled they are. They seem to want special treatment because they’re wealthy, which in turn implies that they don’t think Jerry really earned the extra cash.
Themes
When Jerry and Black Beauty get home, Jerry can hardly speak and is coughing. Polly attends to Black Beauty that night—and the next morning, only Harry comes to the stables midmorning. The boy seems grim. Later, Black Beauty learns that Jerry is very ill. On the third day of Jerry’s illness, the Governor visits the stables while Harry is there. Harry explains that Jerry has bronchitis and will either die or start to improve tonight, according to the doctor. The doctor also insists that Jerry would’ve died already had he been a drinker. The Governor sadly tells Harry that if good men get special treatment, Jerry will certainly pull through. He promises to stop in the next morning.
After what happened to Seedy Sam, Jerry’s illness is extremely concerning. And while this passage suggests that Jerry’s virtue is a help (since the novel links his not drinking to his virtue), it can’t actually save him. The Governor essentially wants Harry to understand that good men should receive better treatment because they’re good and virtuous. But in practice, he acknowledges, this doesn’t happen—something the novel made clear when Jerry and Captain suffered the collision with the dray.
Themes
In the morning, Harry tells the Governor that Jerry is better. The Governor is thrilled. He says that Black Beauty will be fine with a week or two of rest, but Hotspur will quickly become dangerous without exercise. He suggests that if Polly is interested, he could take Hotspur out in the afternoons and give Polly half the earnings. At noon, the Governor returns and takes Hotspur out, and this continues for a week. The Governor regularly tells Harry he’s happy to do a nice thing for Jerry.
The Governor seems to repackage what John Manly believed about horses’ energy: that they need exercise in order to be safe citizens. Black Beauty is now at an age where he doesn’t have young horse energy, but Hotspur needs the work or he’ll hurt someone. The Governor sounds like John Manly again when he says he’s happy to do this favor for Jerry—like John, he wants to help those in need whenever he has the opportunity.
Themes
Literary Devices
Jerry gets better, but his doctor says he can’t drive a cab again. Dolly and Harry are very interested in what their father is going to do now. One day, while Harry is grooming Hotspur, he and Dolly learn that the woman Jerry met last summer, Mrs. Fowler, has hired Jerry to be her coachman in the country. The family decides to leave as soon as Jerry is well enough to travel, so the horses and cab must be sold quickly. Black Beauty is resigned to his fate; he’s not young anymore, and three years as a cab horse has left its mark. The Governor purchases Hotspur, but Black Beauty doesn’t find out where he’s going until after the children come out to say goodbye. He never gets to say goodbye to Jerry.
Black Beauty introduces a lot of nuance in this passage. He’s acknowledged in the past that getting Sundays to rest has helped his health, as has Jerry’s exceptional care—but he also can’t ignore that the cab work is harming his body. Then, he also recognizes that Jerry’s kindness can’t ensure that he goes somewhere pleasant, and being older and less healthy makes him a less desirable horse anyway. In this way, Black Beauty shows how he's becoming increasingly vulnerable as he ages and wears out.
Themes
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