Summary: Chapter 22
Captain Donnithorne’s coming-of-age party begins. As she
gets ready, Hetty tries on the earrings Captain Donnithorne has
given her and wears the locket with his hair in it that he has given
her but keeps it under her dress. People from the parish, including
the Poysers, begin to arrive, and the Chase, the Squire’s home,
is consumed in a fairlike atmosphere. Captain Donnithorne and Mr.
Irwine survey the dinner arrangements and discuss Adam. The Squire
has agreed to hire Adam to look after his timber. Captain Donnithorne complains
about how little money the Squire has given him for the party, but
Mr. Irwine tells him that a quieter party will be more appreciated
than a more raucous event would have been.
Summary: Chapter 23
The tenants come in to dinner, and they argue over who
is to sit at the head of the table. Adam sits with the tenants,
even though, as a craftsman (because of his new position tending
the timber), he would normally sit at the lower table. He sees Hetty,
who flirts with him because she knows Mary Burge, who loves Adam,
is watching them.
Summary: Chapter 24
Captain Donnithorne comes in to the dinner, and Mr. Poyser
delivers a speech thanking him for all he has done for the tenants
and hoping that he will soon come into his inheritance. Captain
Donnithorne gives an acceptance speech and then toasts the Squire
and Adam. In his toast to Adam, he announces that Adam will be working
for the Squire, even though Adam has so far kept this information
a secret because he has not yet had a chance to tell Mr. Burge, his
employer. Adam gives a proud acceptance speech. Captain Donnithorne
walks around the table, greeting the tenants. He does not dare to
look at Hetty, who feels slighted.
Summary: Chapter 25
Captain Donnithorne, Mr. Irwine, the Squire, Miss Lydia,
and Mrs. Irwine, along with the Irwine sisters, take up their place
on a raised dais near where the games are being played. Mrs. Irwine
admires the party, the last she says she will likely live to see
unless Captain Donnithorne soon marries. She tells him that if he
does not marry a beautiful woman she will never forgive him. Mrs.
Irwine has selected the prizes for the women winners. She gives
the women only practical gifts because, she says, she does not want
to encourage vanity in women of the lower class. Captain Donnithorne
has selected the prizes for the men and gives them splendid gifts.
After the games, Wiry Ben dances for the crowd, and the nobles laugh
at him while Mr. Poyser and others look on with genuine admiration for
his skill.
Summary: Chapter 26
Adam stays for the dance at the request of Captain Donnithorne, even
though Lisbeth urges him to come home with her. He only wants to
dance with Hetty, who only wants to dance with Captain Donnithorne.
When Adam goes to Hetty to claim her for the dance she has promised
him, she is holding Totty. When they transfer Totty to the maid,
Totty grabs the string of beads on which Hetty’s locket is strung,
and it breaks, scattering all over the floor and sending the locket
flying. Adam picks up the locket and notices the two different colors
of hair inside. He gives it to Hetty, who is extremely agitated and
embarrassed. Adam is miserable at the thought that she might have
a secret lover, but he rationalizes on the way home that she probably
bought the locket for herself and put pieces of her dead parents’
hair inside with a piece of her own. On their way home, Mr. Poyser
remarks to Mrs. Poyser that Hetty will one day be able to tell her
children that she danced with a nobleman in his military dress.
Analysis: Chapters 22–26
Although little seems to happen in the third book, these
chapters actually serve as the central turning point in the novel.
Captain Donnithorne’s coming-of age-party is important for two reasons.
First, the party brings into sharp focus the class issues that pervade
life in Hayslope. By bringing together all the characters in the
novel, the third book allows the minor characters to take center
stage, especially during Wiry Ben’s dance, when Wiry Ben and other
members of the lower class become more important than at almost
any other time in the novel. A similar celebration comes almost
at the end of the novel, in the Harvest Feast. Although it is not
as complete a roster of the characters of the novel, at the Feast,
the reader gets a chance to see some villagers of Hayslope after
the affair of Hetty Sorrel. Second, the party also displays the
main characters in their last moments of innocence: Adam believes
Hetty may love him, although the incident with the locket raises
his suspicions. Similarly, up to this point the Poysers have believed
that Hetty’s worst faults are in her reluctance to do her chores,
and everyone, especially Mr. Irwine, has believed in Captain Donnithorne’s
good character. All of that is about to change, and the narrator
spends a good deal of time describing some of the villagers’ impressions
of Hetty so that the reader understands just how profoundly Hetty’s
downfall will rock the world of Hayslope. The third book occurs
during one half of one day and depicts the last time the characters
are all together before the major events of the novel unfold, which
largely take place between the action of the fourth and fifth books.
