Chapters 39 and 40 Summary and Analysis
Summary
The next morning Basil meets Doctor Prance and discovers that Miss Birdseye passed away about an hour after he left. Doctor Prance is returning to Boston, as she has patients waiting for her. He receives a note from Verena, stating that he must not expect to see her for a few days. She want to be alone to think. She asks him to leave for a while, so he goes to nearby Provincetown. Eventually, he returns to the cottage. Verena comes out to tell him that it is impossible that the two of them should be together after all. Infuriated, Basil takes her out in a boat to talk to her alone.
Olive is calm in the face of this, knowing that Verena has once again vowed to stay with her. Yet as the day goes on and evening approaches, Verena’s continued absence disturbs her. She returns to the cottage to find Verena sitting in the dark. Nothing is said between them, but the next morning, when Basil comes to see Verena, Olive tells him that she is gone. He demands to know where she is; Olive refuses to tell him. Basil swears he will find out for himself and he leaves, with Olive’s maniacal laughter ringing in his ears.
Ten weeks later, Basil arrives in Boston, determined to find Verena. Her parents’ home is closed up. He goes to Olive’s home on Charles Street and learns that Mrs. Luna is there. Braving her sarcasm and her contempt, Basil asks her where Verena can be found. Mrs. Luna refuses to tell him anything about Verena, but insists on telling him about herself. She is returning to Europe, ostensibly for the betterment of her son Newton’s education. Basil could not care less, but he plays along, hoping to discover Verena’s location. Mr. Pardon arrives, hoping to find Verena there. He has been searching for her whereabouts in order to get information for the newspaper for which he is writing. He is intrusive and belligerent, trying to find any scrap of information that he can use in his article. Mrs. Luna threatens to come to his office and making a scene when he declares he will include information about her feelings about the reform movement and her return to Europe.
Analysis
With Miss Birdseye’s death (and Mrs. Farrinder’s seeming disappearance in the wake of the newcomer), Verena is thrown into the position of figurehead of the women’s rights movement. She is thrown on her own resources and evidently does not have as many resources as she believed. She tends to side with the person with whom she is spending the most time. When she is walking with Basil, she is swayed by his arguments. When she is with Olive, she cannot bring herself to think of leaving her to become Basil's wife. The true weakness of her character is revealed and the there is doubt about which side she will eventually choose.
Basil has let more than three months pass before he takes any serious move to find Verena. This causes the reader to wonder about his own commitment to her, and whether he is truly as shallow as he was initially portrayed. Now that he and Verena have some areas of agreement concerning their opinions, one would think that, with his proposal, he would have taken more assertive action to locate her. In addition, the protracted absence could only more solidify her stance with Olive, who now, according to Mrs. Luna, acts as if she has gained the ultimate victory.
The character of Mrs. Luna has served as a minor...
(This entire section contains 911 words.)
Unlock this Study Guide Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
distraction to Basil, but she has accomplished the role of outside observer, providing information about Olive and Verena to Basil in the occasions in which they have met. However, her bitterness at not winning Basil for herself has made her recalcitrant in the giving forth of details. Her usefulness is now at an end, and thus it is of no consequence regarding whether or not she returns to Europe.
Despite the long period in which he let Verena alone, Basil has gained considerable self-confidence since the publication of his article. He has established himself as a man of ideas and of opinions, as strongly as Verena has risen to be the female version of the same. Verena’s power is now seen to be only contained within her status as a celebrity, and that celebrity is a fleeting fame. Once the reforms have been achieved for which she is fighting, Verena, like Miss Birdseye, will fade into the background and be little more than a caricature of what she was. In addition, such fame is under the control, not of the celebrity herself, but in her “handlers” (in this case, Olive Chancellor). Verena still has no measure of independence; her choice is either to be controlled by Olive or be controlled by Basil. Her inconsistency in what side she is learning toward makes it doubtful that she could handle the independence that she preaches. However, it is not because she is a woman that she might fail, but because she is a reed in the wind, blown by whatever influence is closest to her. If, like Olive, she pours out her entire identity into that of a being defined only by her gender, that she will never be able to stand up and be the individual that she seemed destined to become.
