The Good Soldier

by

Ford Madox Ford

Leonora Ashburnham Character Analysis

Leonora Ashburnham is Edward Ashburnham’s wife. She comes from a poverty-stricken background, even though her family name is well known. Her father arranged her marriage to Edward, and she does her best to make it work. Although her marriage to Edward is difficult, Leonora loves him and supports him however she can. She puts up with Edward’s various affairs and handles the emotional and financial tolls that come with them. However, eventually, Leonora’s relationship with Edward becomes too much of an emotional burden, and her health begins to decline. With nowhere else to turn, Leonora begs Nancy Rufford to serve as Edward’s mistress, an act she believes is shameful but necessary. In the aftermath of Edward’s death, Leonora marris Rodney Bayham, a man whom she considered having an affair with while still married to Edward.

Leonora Ashburnham Quotes in The Good Soldier

The The Good Soldier quotes below are all either spoken by Leonora Ashburnham or refer to Leonora Ashburnham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Marriage and Infidelity Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

I loved Leonora always and, today, I would very cheerfully lay down my life, what is left of it, in her service. But I am sure I never had the beginnings of a trace of what is called the sex instinct towards her. And I suppose—no I am certain that she never had it towards me.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Leonora Ashburnham
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 21-22
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

It really worried poor Florence that she couldn’t, in matters of culture, ever get the better of Leonora. I don't know what Leonora knew or what she didn't know, but certainly she was always there whenever Florence brought out any information. And she gave, somehow, the impression of really knowing what poor Florence gave the impression of having only picked up.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

She continued, looking up into Captain Ashburnham’s eyes: “It's because of that piece of paper that you're honest, sober, industrious, provident, and clean-lived. If it weren’t for that piece of paper you’d be like the Irish or the Italians or the Poles, but particularly the Irish....”

And she laid one finger upon Captain Ashburnham’s wrist.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham
Related Symbols: Martin Luther’s Protest
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 1 Quotes

Well, Julius was so overcome with grief at being left behind that he must needs go and drop the precious grip. I saw red, I saw purple. I flew at Julius. On the ferry, it was, I filled up one of his eyes; I threatened to strangle him. And, since an unresisting negro can make a deplorable noise and a deplorable spectacle, and, since that was Florence’s first adventure in the married state, she got a pretty idea of my character. It affirmed in her the desperate resolve to conceal from me the fact that she was not what she would have called “a pure woman.” For that was really the mainspring of her fantastic actions. She was afraid that I should murder her....

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham, Julius
Page Number: 65-66
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 3 Quotes

I don't know why they never had any children—not that I really believe that children would have made any difference. The dissimilarity of Edward and Leonora was too profound. It will give you some idea of the extraordinary naïveté of Edward Ashburnham that, at the time of his marriage and for perhaps a couple of years after, he did not really know how children are produced. Neither did Leonora. I don’t mean to say that this state of things continued, but there it was. I dare say it had a good deal of influence on their mentalities. At any rate, they never had a child. It was the Will of God.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham
Page Number: 104-105
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 5 Quotes

I call this the Saddest Story, rather than “The Ashburnham Tragedy,” just because it is so sad, just because there was no current to draw things along to a swift and inevitable end. There is about it none of the elevation that accompanies tragedy; there is about it no nemesis, no destiny. Here were two noble people—for I am convinced that both Edward and Leonora had noble natures—here, then, were two noble natures, drifting down life, like fireships afloat on a lagoon and causing miseries, heartaches, agony of the mind and death. And they themselves steadily deteriorated. And why? For what purpose? To point what lesson? It is all a darkness.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

I have told you, I think, that Edward spent a great deal of time, and about two hundred pounds for law fees on getting a poor girl, the daughter of one of his gardeners, acquitted of a charge of murdering her baby. That was positively the last act of Edward’s life. It came at a time when Nancy Rufford was on her way to India; when the most horrible gloom was over the household; when Edward himself was in an agony and behaving as prettily as he knew how. Yet even then Leonora made him a terrible scene about this expenditure of time and trouble. She sort of had the vague idea that what had passed with the girl and the rest of it ought to have taught Edward a lesson—the lesson of economy. She threatened to take his banking account away from him again. I guess that made him cut his throat.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 2 Quotes

“This is the most atrocious thing you have done in your atrocious life.” He never moved and he never looked at her. God knows what was in Leonora’s mind exactly.

I like to think that, uppermost in it was concern and horror at the thought of the poor girl’s going back to a father whose voice made her shriek in the night. And, indeed, that motive was very strong with Leonora. But I think there was also present the thought that she wanted to go on torturing Edward with the girl’s presence. She was, at that time, capable of that.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Leonora Ashburnham (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 151
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

“He is going to telephone to your mother,” Leonora said. “He will make it all right for her.” She got up and closed the door. She came back to the fire, and added bitterly: “He can always make it all right for everybody, except me—excepting me!”

Related Characters: Leonora Ashburnham (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 6 Quotes

When he saw that I did not intend to interfere with him his eyes became soft and almost affectionate. He remarked:

“So long, old man, I must have a bit of a rest, you know.”

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to say, “God bless you,” for I also am a sentimentalist. But I thought that perhaps that would not be quite English good form, so I trotted off with the telegram to Leonora. She was quite pleased with it.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham (speaker), Florence Dowell, Leonora Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
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Leonora Ashburnham Quotes in The Good Soldier

The The Good Soldier quotes below are all either spoken by Leonora Ashburnham or refer to Leonora Ashburnham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Marriage and Infidelity Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

I loved Leonora always and, today, I would very cheerfully lay down my life, what is left of it, in her service. But I am sure I never had the beginnings of a trace of what is called the sex instinct towards her. And I suppose—no I am certain that she never had it towards me.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Leonora Ashburnham
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 21-22
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

It really worried poor Florence that she couldn’t, in matters of culture, ever get the better of Leonora. I don't know what Leonora knew or what she didn't know, but certainly she was always there whenever Florence brought out any information. And she gave, somehow, the impression of really knowing what poor Florence gave the impression of having only picked up.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

She continued, looking up into Captain Ashburnham’s eyes: “It's because of that piece of paper that you're honest, sober, industrious, provident, and clean-lived. If it weren’t for that piece of paper you’d be like the Irish or the Italians or the Poles, but particularly the Irish....”

And she laid one finger upon Captain Ashburnham’s wrist.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham
Related Symbols: Martin Luther’s Protest
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 1 Quotes

Well, Julius was so overcome with grief at being left behind that he must needs go and drop the precious grip. I saw red, I saw purple. I flew at Julius. On the ferry, it was, I filled up one of his eyes; I threatened to strangle him. And, since an unresisting negro can make a deplorable noise and a deplorable spectacle, and, since that was Florence’s first adventure in the married state, she got a pretty idea of my character. It affirmed in her the desperate resolve to conceal from me the fact that she was not what she would have called “a pure woman.” For that was really the mainspring of her fantastic actions. She was afraid that I should murder her....

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham, Julius
Page Number: 65-66
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 3 Quotes

I don't know why they never had any children—not that I really believe that children would have made any difference. The dissimilarity of Edward and Leonora was too profound. It will give you some idea of the extraordinary naïveté of Edward Ashburnham that, at the time of his marriage and for perhaps a couple of years after, he did not really know how children are produced. Neither did Leonora. I don’t mean to say that this state of things continued, but there it was. I dare say it had a good deal of influence on their mentalities. At any rate, they never had a child. It was the Will of God.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham
Page Number: 104-105
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 5 Quotes

I call this the Saddest Story, rather than “The Ashburnham Tragedy,” just because it is so sad, just because there was no current to draw things along to a swift and inevitable end. There is about it none of the elevation that accompanies tragedy; there is about it no nemesis, no destiny. Here were two noble people—for I am convinced that both Edward and Leonora had noble natures—here, then, were two noble natures, drifting down life, like fireships afloat on a lagoon and causing miseries, heartaches, agony of the mind and death. And they themselves steadily deteriorated. And why? For what purpose? To point what lesson? It is all a darkness.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

I have told you, I think, that Edward spent a great deal of time, and about two hundred pounds for law fees on getting a poor girl, the daughter of one of his gardeners, acquitted of a charge of murdering her baby. That was positively the last act of Edward’s life. It came at a time when Nancy Rufford was on her way to India; when the most horrible gloom was over the household; when Edward himself was in an agony and behaving as prettily as he knew how. Yet even then Leonora made him a terrible scene about this expenditure of time and trouble. She sort of had the vague idea that what had passed with the girl and the rest of it ought to have taught Edward a lesson—the lesson of economy. She threatened to take his banking account away from him again. I guess that made him cut his throat.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 2 Quotes

“This is the most atrocious thing you have done in your atrocious life.” He never moved and he never looked at her. God knows what was in Leonora’s mind exactly.

I like to think that, uppermost in it was concern and horror at the thought of the poor girl’s going back to a father whose voice made her shriek in the night. And, indeed, that motive was very strong with Leonora. But I think there was also present the thought that she wanted to go on torturing Edward with the girl’s presence. She was, at that time, capable of that.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Leonora Ashburnham (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 151
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

“He is going to telephone to your mother,” Leonora said. “He will make it all right for her.” She got up and closed the door. She came back to the fire, and added bitterly: “He can always make it all right for everybody, except me—excepting me!”

Related Characters: Leonora Ashburnham (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 6 Quotes

When he saw that I did not intend to interfere with him his eyes became soft and almost affectionate. He remarked:

“So long, old man, I must have a bit of a rest, you know.”

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to say, “God bless you,” for I also am a sentimentalist. But I thought that perhaps that would not be quite English good form, so I trotted off with the telegram to Leonora. She was quite pleased with it.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham (speaker), Florence Dowell, Leonora Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis: