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Volume 1, Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mysteries of Udolpho, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Marriage, Love, and Inheritance
The Wonders of Nature
Mystery and Superstition
Mortality
The Value of Education and Art
Summary
Analysis
Emily receives several letters from Madame Cheron. Although Emily doesn’t dare question St. Aubert’s choice for her new guardian, she does write back to Madame Cheron begging to stay at her current chateau.
Emily struggles in this chapter with how her desire to fulfill her father’s wishes conflicts with her sense that perhaps Madame Cheron doesn’t value the same things as Emily and her father.
Themes
One day, Emily gets the idea to go down to the fishing house to play her lute. She gets there and finds everything where she left it. All of a sudden, Emily hears footsteps outside, and then someone opens the door. The stranger’s voice is familiar—Emily realizes it’s Valancourt. When Valancourt says that he hopes traveling was good for St. Aubert’s health, Emily immediately starts crying, revealing that he’s dead.
Valancourt represents Emily’s future now that St. Aubert is a part of her past. Valancourt’s farewell earlier takes on additional meaning, since although he didn’t realize it, he was saying goodbye to St. Aubert forever. This scene presents Valancourt as mysterious at first, suggesting that as much as Emily likes him, there are still many things about him she doesn’t know.
Themes
Valancourt knows that nothing he says will be enough to comfort Emily. He offers her his arm and takes her on a walk through the woods. Emily gets the courage to tell Valancourt the full story of St. Aubert’s death. Valancourt is dismayed he wasn’t there. He says he has to leave the next day, but he’d like to come say goodbye to Emily in the morning. Although Emily doesn’t want to see him go, she agrees to this. That night, she thinks of how solemn her father looked when he told her to burn the papers, and she feels guilty about not doing it yet.
Emily’s refusal to burn her father’s papers represents her inability to fully let go of him. By putting off fulfilling his last request, she still has not found closure about St. Aubert’s death. Although Emily respects her father, her interactions with Madame Cheron have perhaps motivated her to question some of her father’s decisions (like the decision to make Madame Cheron her guardian), and the mysterious papers also sow doubt in Emily’s mind.
Themes
