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Chapter 19
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mary Barton, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Employers vs. Workers
Sexuality and Danger
Christianity
Poverty and Morality
Empathy vs. Ignorance
Summary
Analysis
After work, Mary walks to the Wilsons’, guiltily glad that she no longer has to worry about Harry harassing her and that she might see Jem. When she enters, she sees Mrs. Wilson cooking and asks to help. Mrs. Wilson, furious, demands whether Mary knows where Jem is because of her—in prison on suspicion of murdering Harry. Then she asserts her son’s innocence and accuses Mary of being a dirty flirt not good enough for Jem. Mary, horrified, agrees that she isn’t good enough. She remembers how Jem told her that her rejection might turn him into a murderer and blames herself for the murder, which she immediately believes he committed.
Mary’s guilty happiness that she doesn’t have to fear Harry anymore reveals just how psychologically oppressive and frightening she found his ongoing harassment. Meanwhile, her meek agreement with Mrs. Wilson’s sexualized insults of her and her self-blame over Jem’s arrest shows her internalized sexism, which the novel in no way challenges: Mary believes that because Jem loved her and she flirted with someone else, she is somehow at fault for any acts of violence Jem’s love may have motivated him to commit.
Themes
Though Mrs. Wilson is somewhat appeased by Mary’s self-criticism, she reasserts that if Jem is executed, his death—and Mrs. Wilson’s death to follow—will be Mary’s fault. Mary covers her face and announces, “My heart is breaking.” Mrs. Wilson bursts into tears at the prospect of Jem’s execution. Mary begs to stay and help with Alice, but Mrs. Wilson insists that she leave: she can’t bear to have Mary around when her “giddiness” caused Jem’s arrest.
There is a cause-and-effect relationship between Mary’s flirtation with Harry and Jem’s arrest for Harry’s murder, but that relationship does not make Mary morally responsible for Jem’s arrest or possible execution. That Mrs. Wilson blames Mary anyway shows Victorian cultural misogyny, which demands that girls and women act as romantic-sexual gatekeepers to control men’s bad behavior.
Themes
On Mary’s way home, a beggar boy asks her for food. At first, she brushes him off but, repenting, she runs home and fetches him what food she has. Charity complete, she returns home, falls to the floor, and sobs. She blames herself for Jem’s crime and is horrified by the prospect of his execution. She is remembering the past—when she and Jem were innocent playmates, Mrs. Barton was alive, and John was happy—when she falls asleep on the floor. Later, a knock on the door wakes her. She opens the door and falls into the arms of the woman outside—mistaking her aunt Esther for her dead mother.
Despite her own dire situation, Mary makes time to give a beggar her remaining food. Through this action, the novel not only gives another example of practical working-class morality but also insists on Mary’s essential goodness despite her flirtation with Harry. Thus, while the narrator never directly contests the misogynistic blame that Mrs. Wilson hurls at Mary for flirting with Harry, the novel does take care to indicate that condemning Mary wholesale would be unfair.
Themes
