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Chapter XXXV–Chapter XXXVIII

Summary: Chapter XXXV

When Madam and Lady Seymour leave the house unexpectedly and the soldiers’ wives leave too, Isabel is alone for the first time in months. She takes the bowl of frozen leftovers left by the privy, bundles up, and heads to the prison. There, Isabel knocks on the door, which is answered by a guard who helps himself to some rice pudding and agrees to let her see Curzon, whom she says is her brother. Curzon is in a small cell with an open window with many others. He has been shot and is in very bad shape, but he manages to tell her what happened at the fort. Curzon helped a comrade load and shoot guns and then witnessed his comrade’s head being blown off by a British cannonball before the rebel army surrendered. Isabel asks for more time when the guard returns the bowl, half empty. A man tries to steal the bowl, but another man steps in and defends Isabel, giving it to Curzon and apologizing for the other man’s rudeness. The men pass the bowl of leftover food around, each taking just a morsel. Before Isabel leaves, she offers Curzon her coat, which he declines, but she gives him the newspaper she’s stuffed inside it to keep warm.

Summary: Chapter XXXVI

Lady Seymour is sickly and bedridden, so Isabel serves her. As the Lady receives the newspapers, Isabel can keep up with what is happening in the war. Isabel continues to visit Curzon in the prison, bringing food that the guard usurps. Lady Seymour wants to help the rebel prisoners, mostly by giving them leftover food, acknowledging that her niece, Madam, would disapprove. Lady Seymour sends Isabel on an errand for ink and paper. At the stationery shop, Isabel engages in a conversation with the owner. They discuss the items on Lady Seymour’s list as well as Curzon, a boy the man recalls. The shop owner tells Isabel to tell the boys in the prison to hold on, that others will support them. He gives her a volume for her mistress to read, knowing Isabel also reads, but she pretends disinterest.

Summary: Chapter XXXVII

To Madam’s disappointment, Lady Seymour’s health improves as Christmas approaches. Sarah, the pregnant head of the soldiers’ wives, confronts another soldier wife, Mary, about chores, and Isabel sees her opportunity to go to the Tea Water Pump near the prison. Sarah and Mary agree that fetching the water will now be Isabel’s daily chore. She goes to the prison with scones and jams and learns that the sergeant is dead. Isabel sees mass graves. She bargains with the man in charged named Dibdin about Curzon receiving care. Dibdin thinks Curzon is less deserving of food because he is a slave. Isabel makes a pact with Dibdin that she will bring food and a blanket if he keeps Curzon alive. But if Curzon dies, she will not return.

Isabel carries food to the rebel prisoners, messages to patriot soldier Captain Morse in the tavern, and water to the Locktons, facing danger on many fronts. The Locktons fight when Lockton announces that he is going to London, leaving Madam behind. On a freezing night, Isabel worries about General Washington’s troops in Morristown. She unwraps the volume from the man at the stationery shop, Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

Summary: Chapter XXXVIII

Christmas approaches. Isabel helps decorate the Lockton house and tearfully recalls past Christmases with her Momma and Ruth as she plans for a day off from work. On Christmas, Madam orders her to serve the midday meal and clean up before her time off begins. As Lady Seymour retires and Lockton prepares to visit an admiral, Madam confronts Isabel with the truth about her visits to the prison and forbids her to go again. She tells Isabel that she should fear the day when she is alone in the house with her. Later that afternoon, Isabel goes for a long walk to the waterfront. She realizes that Madam may legally “own” her body, but she cannot chain her soul, a liberating and novel idea. Back at home, Isabel hears Momma’s voice telling her to “keep Christmas.” She bathes, cooks a bread pudding, and leaves the house with it, headed to the tents in the burned part of the city. Isabel finds a tent housing a family and gives them the pudding for which they are most grateful. She says a prayer and feels at peace.

Analysis: Chapter XXXV–Chapter XXXVIII

These chapters mark the penultimate wave of action in the novel, the section where Isabel resolves to visit Curzon in prison and to help him. She has come quite a long way from the self-centered child who resisted helping the rebel cause. Now, Isabel is willing to risk her life to help Curzon and the others who are in need. The bowl of food she brings to the prison symbolizes her generosity, and the way the food is shared represents the prisoners’ decency. They pass the bowl among themselves, each only taking a morsel, in sharp contrast to the decadence of Madam’s banquet in the chapter before. Lady Seymour even contributes to the support Isabel gives the rebels, willing to contribute leftover food of her own.

Isabel befriends two men at the prison who help her help the men. One is a large prison guard who always takes some of the food she brings but allows her entry and access to the prisoners. The other is a patriot named Dibdin who is the leader of the prisoners near Curzon. In a powerful moment, Isabel tells Dibdin that she will only bring food if Curzon stays alive. These alliances are significant for Isabel because they show that her ability to trust may be returning. Isabel is also once again willing to put herself back in danger by carrying messages. She is her old strong self, now empowered with more time and resources to directly help the cause.

Another significant scene in this section is Isabel’s visit, on Lady Seymour’s behalf, to a local shop that sells ink, paper, and books. The shop owner knows Curzon, and he and Isabel speak about him. He gives her a book for Lady Seymour and intimates that Isabel might be interested to read it, too. The book, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, provides Isabel with the philosophical basis for her actions at the end of Chains. She helps the prisoners and the cause not only out of a sense of self-service but also out of a sense of duty and righteousness. She has truly become one of them, a rebel and a patriot herself.

Perhaps the most poignant scene and symbolic act happens on Christmas night. Isabel completely steps out of her own life and cares to help someone she doesn’t even know. After a morning of hard work and an afternoon spent walking alone around the city and spurred by her Momma’s whisper to “keep Christmas,” she bakes a modest pudding and delivers it to a family who lives in the charred part of the city. When she utters a prayer for nothing in particular but for everything she knows, she is truly reborn. Isabel is unselfish, generous, and compassionate. After all she has been through and because of it all, she has grown up. For the first time in the novel, Isabel feels “at peace.”

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