Places Discussed
(Critical Guide to Settings and Places in Literature)
Allington
Allington. Estate of Squire Christopher Dale in Anthony Trollope’s fictional district of Barsetshire in southern England. The squire lives in the estate’s Great House and his widowed sister-in-law, Mrs. Mary Dale, and her daughters, Bell and Lily Dale, live in its Small House, which is connected to the Great House by adjoining gardens and lawns. The gardens are the setting for Lily’s and Bell’s walks, games, and talks with friends and lovers. Their lively and loving household is also the scene of disappointment and sadness; it is here that Bell refuses to please her uncle by marrying his nephew Bernard, which would ultimately make her mistress of the Great House. Here Lily is joyously pledged to Adolphus Crosbie, hears with pain that he has jilted her, and refuses John Eames’s subsequent offer of marriage.
The Small House represents the dependency of the widow Dale on her brother-in-law, who has provided this dwelling so that she and her daughters might have a comfortable and socially suitable residence. However, when the squire seeks to pressure Bell into marrying his nephew, Mrs. Dale announces that she will leave the comforts of the Small House and their dependency on the squire, for inexpensive lodgings in nearby Guestwick. In the end, tempers cool, Bell is happily married, and Lily and her mother decide to remain in the Small House, near enough to cheer the old squire, who also relents and generously offers to have the whole house freshly painted.
Courcy Castle
Courcy Castle. Home of the dysfunctional family of the Earl de Courcy, that provides Trollope with occasions to expose the small-mindedness, greed, and malice of the nobility. At a showy Christmas reception given at the castle, social criticism is leveled at both the earl’s family and their guests, who are shallow snobs, social climbers, and gossips....
(The entire section is 775 words.)
