[In the following essay, Edwards examines the role of the first-person narrator of Castle Rackrent.

Since Castle Rackrent was published in 1800, nearly all the critics have agreed that Thady Quirk, the narrator, is aptly described as "faithful Thady," an unintelligent or naïve servant with a "misplaced sense of family honour." Consistent with this is Ernest A. Baker's reference to Thady's "muddleheadedness and repugnance" and George Watson's assertion that "this absurdly loyal family retainer" has a simplicity which makes him a butt. Many other critics have reinforced this view.

Thus James Newcomer's "The Disingenuous Thady Quirk" comes as a surprise. In his article Mr. Newcomer contends that Thady is "artful rather than artless," that he is always the realist, that he has a calculating mind which "shows itself in relation to his niece Judy and Jason." In effect, Newcomer asserts that Thady exploits rather than aids the Rackrents; that Thady's major concern is not loyalty but profit. Defending this position, he seeks to demonstrate that Thady and his dishonest son Jason are allies pitted against the Rackrents. Newcomer contends that the nature of this alliance is subtly conveyed to the reader when Thady calls Jason "my son" or "my son Jason" at least thirty times; when Thady admits he has been privy to Sir Condy's private correspondence with Jason; and when Thady himself gives "out in the country that nobody need bid against us" (italics mine)—meaning Jason and Thady—for a valuable piece of the Rackrent estate put on sale. Arguing that Thady actively seeks to destroy Sir Condy, Newcomer points out that the old retainer not only gives the stranger in the bar information that destroys the Rackrents, but also fills the drinking horn with the whisky that finally kills Condy.

Newcomer's argument is impressive, but cannot be accepted without extensive qualifications, since Castle Rackrent contains evidence that Thady (i) is not always shrewd, (ii) exhibits great loyalty on occasion, and (iii) is not allied with Jason at the end of the book. For example, if Thady were shrewd, he would not have revealed his bigotry, his intolerance of Jews and Scots; he would not have revealed his cruelty in letting the "Jewish" die; he would not have admitted that Lady Murtaugh induced him stupidly to repeat the word "Allyballycarricko 'shaughlin" twelve times. If he were disloyal throughout the novel, he would not have wept when Castle Rackrent was signed over to Jason; he would not have tried to borrow money for the ruined Sir Condy, who is in no position to reward him; he would not have engaged in a six-day bedside vigil alongside his dying master. If he had been in league with his son, he would have told Jason about the £500 settlement Condy made on his wife; he would have shared his son's knowledge that Lady Rackrent will not live through the night; he would not have aroused the people against Jason so that Jason is forced to give Condy the Lodge.

What these points suggest is that Castle Rackrent contains evidence which conflicts with Newcomer's interpretation of Thady without confirming the traditional view. Thady is neither completely disingenuous nor completely calculating; he is neither completely loyal nor completely disloyal. Instead, he is a sentimental, generally unreflective old man whose love of money causes him to ally himself with Jason, who for some unexplained reason abandons him. Consequently, the father develops an antipathy for the son while remaining sentimentally attached to him long after such an attachment is no longer warranted. Signaling the inception of this antipathy, Thady says: "Now I cannot bear to hear Jason giving out after this manner against the family, and twenty people standing by in the street. Ever since he had lived at the lodge of his own, he looked down, howsomever, upon poor Thady." In the pages that follow this passage, Thady—out of habit, perhaps—calls Jason "my son" six consecutive times, but then calls him simply "Jason" twenty-four consecutive times and so signals the decline of their relationship.

What accounts for the alienation which develops between Jason and Thady? This question cannot be answered fully since the reader knows nothing about Jason other than that he is avaricious and cunning. Much more is known about Thady, however. For example, the assertion is made in the preceding paragraph that Thady is a sentimentalist who lacks self-awareness. This assertion might be modified to read that Thady's sentimentality and unawareness are inextricably bound up in one another. Thady does not know himself partly because he is sentimental. That this is true can be ascertained if we follow the advice which Miss Edgeworth gives us in the Preface, where we read:

We cannot judge either of the feelings or the characters of men with perfect accuracy from their actions or their appearances in public; it is from their careless conversations, their half-finished sentences, that we may hope with the greatest probability of success to discover their real characters.

Following this procedure, the reader learns that Thady—as sentimental as he is—does not like many people. Referring early in the novel to Lady Murtaugh, Thady says: "But I made the best of a bad case, and laid it all at my lady's door, for I did not like her anyhow, nor any body else. . . ." In at least two other passages this point is reinforced. In the first, Thady records that nothing more than a pipe and tobacco is needed to keep his heart from breaking "for poor Sir Murtaugh." In the second, Thady, revealing his predisposition to dislike his master, says: '"Tis an ill wind that blows nobody no good; the same wind that took the Jew Lady Rackrent over to England brought over the new heir to Castle Rackrent." Since he did not like Sir Kit and Sir Murtaugh, Thady prejudicially decides he will not like Condy, his new master.

Strangely, it is because he is sentimental and has no conscious dislike of his masters that Thady eventually comes to like Sir Condy. When Newcomer states that Thady has traditionally been viewed as having "an unthinking and prejudiced loyalty," he reveals how Thady can be attached to men he doesn't like—at least initially. Acting out the role of the "loyal retainer" without respecting his masters, Thady speaks in glowing general terms about the Rackrent family and thus gives himself the opportunity of coming to like Sir Condy. Once he discovers that Condy, like Sir Pat, is well-liked, his fondness for his last master deepens until it culminates in the bedside vigil which ends the book.

The bedside vigil contrasts so strikingly with Thady's reference to the ill wind which brought Sir Condy to Castle Rackrent that one feels compelled to look for other inconsistencies in the old retainer. Such inconsistencies abound. For example, Thady dislikes lawyers, but likes his lawyer son in the first half of the book. He dislikes his mistresses, but respectfully calls them "my lady." He dislikes individual Rackrents, but speaks proudly of the Rackrent family. These inconsistencies are understandable if one keeps in mind that Thady is prejudiced, loyal, and unthinking. This is simply another way of saying that impressionable Thady has those qualities which cause him both to like and to dislike what convention dictates, even when a like and a dislike conflict. Since convention dictates that a servant like a popular master and dislike a stingy one, Thady likes Pat and Condy and dislikes Kit and Murtaugh. Since convention dictates that a man like his blood relatives, Thady sides with his son and niece during most of the book.

Emphasis should be placed on the fact that it is not only convention that causes Thady to like Sir Pat, Sir Condy, Jason, and Judy. Thady's other characteristics contribute also, as the scene involving the stranger illustrates. In this scene, one is struck, first of all, by Thady's willingness to talk to a stranger in a crowd and, secondly, by his eagerness to sound the exploits of his master while drinking with the stranger in a bar. Aided by liquor and a sense of companionship, Thady becomes "a little merry" and so unwittingly delivers to an enemy of the Rackrents evidence which finally destroys Condy.

This scene, placed strategically in the book, bridges the gap between the naive Thady who consciously sought to aid Jason and the disillusioned Thady who withholds information from his son. (Six pages later old Thady voices his disapproval of Jason's "giving out . . . against the family.") In the last third of the novel it is not Thady, but other servants, who provide Jason with the information needed to destroy the Rackrents. Miss Edgeworth does not comment on this directly. Instead, she allows us to see the servants either revealing what they know or actually acquiring information to be used later. Naturally, Thady has access to some of this information as he suggests in saying: "All this the butler told me, who was going backwards and forwards unnoticed with the jug, and hot water, and sugar, and all he thought wanting. Since he is privy to what the other servants know, he is able to repeat the end of this conversation which Mrs. Jane has reported to him and to record that the butler wrote down information concerning Sir Condy and sent it to Jason. Elsewhere we are shown how the servants acquire information to be used against Condy. For example, it is recorded that "the servant who waited that day behind my master's chair was the first who knew" that Isabella and Condy were to be married and that Mrs. Jane very conveniently decides to fix Isabella's hair while Isabella is reading a latter.

It must be obvious at this point that Thady is not the only one who has access to the information which destroys the Rackrents. It is other servants, rather than Thady, who aid Jason in the latter part of the novel, although Newcomer's assertion that Thady "has been privy to the correspondence of Sir Condy" is true. That Thady doesn't tell Jason all he knows about Sir Condy has already been shown. The reason for this is very simple: Thady likes Condy. It is not without significance that the pipe which sufficed to comfort Thady for the death of Sir Murtaugh fails to provide comfort for the mere absence of Sir Condy. When Thady fills Sir Condy's drinking horn, he does so not "to help him to his dying," as Newcomer contends, but because he wants to please his master. When Judy fails to aid the stricken Sir Condy, Thady, genuinely in anguish, cries, '"Judy! Judy! have ye no touch of feeling? won't you stay to help us nurse him?'" Then follows the six-day bedside vigil. Sentimental, money-loving Thady is also faithful Thady, but he is not faithful entirely without discrimination. He has learned to reject his son. He has viewed Sir Murtaugh and Sir Kit with suspicion, although the latter has given him guineas. He sees, finally, that Judy is corrupt. Blinded by emotion and a love of money, hindered by cliché-ridden thinking, he is slow to learn, but he does learn, or at least has learning thrust upon him.