March

The following morning, Marmee wakes up in her cot and tells herself to make the most of a desperate situation. She goes to the hospital to see her husband. When she walks into his room, he is thrashing wildly in his bed, which is “smeared with the watery green excretions of his illness” (225). Next to him is an untouched bowl of soup. There are no nurses around. Marmee realizes that, if her husband’s condition is to improve, she must take care of him herself. She removes his clothes and bedding. She goes in search of clean sheets and again encounters the rude nurse, who tells her she shouldn’t be interrupting hospital routines. Marmee accuses her of being neglectful and demands to know where clean bedding is kept. The nurse threatens to throw Marmee out of the hospital and Marmee tosses the bowl of soup into the nurse’s face.

A wounded young man, Cephas, tells Marmee to follow him. He pours her a mug of tea and tells her that that nurse is indeed considered a terror by the hospital’s residents. He tells her that he’ll find someone to take better care of Mr. March. A hospital chaplain gives Mr. March’s belongings to Marmee. She asks the chaplain if he knows what caused Mr. March to fall into such grave health. He doesn’t know the details, but suggests she consults Nurse Clement (Grace), who seems to know much more about Mr. March’s case. All of Mr. March’s belongings are in a small brown packet, which Marmee opens. Inside is a leather folder, a piece of dirty fabric, and a silk pouch. There was also some cash and the ambrotype of Canning’s fiancée, which perplexes Marmee. On the piece of fabric there are smudges that appear to have originally been words written in charcoal.

Cephas returns and tells Marmee that the rude nurse is no longer around. She returns to her husband’s room and, from a distance, sees that his bed is now in pristine condition. She watches Grace feed him broth. Grace smooths his hair and runs the back of her fingers down his cheek and over his lip. Marmee, whom Grace still has not noticed, considers this to be “the gesture of a lover, not a nurse” (232). Mr. March holds Grace’s hand to his lips and says, “Thank you Grace, my dear” (232). Marmee feels mixed emotions. She is thrilled that he is conscious, but shocked and saddened by their intimacy. Mr. Brooke bursts into the room to share the news that Mr. March has regained consciousness. Grace steps back without awkwardness and continues with her work. Mr. March sees Marmee and extends a hand to her. She takes it, but her feelings remain complicated.

From his bed, Mr. March tries to speak to Marmee. He rasps, “Seeing you makes me better…” (233). He is on drugs that make him fall asleep at regular intervals. During a period of consciousness, she asks him about Grace, suggesting that she knows there is something between them. He replies with disjunctive words that don’t add up to a sensible response. Marmee retrieves the silk pouch and opens it. Inside, she finds the curl of black hair and believes it is from Grace. She becomes determined to confront Grace about her relationship with Mr. March. After much inquiry, she learns that Grace lives with Dr. Hale.

She walks through the rain to the doctor’s mansion. A butler opens the door and Marmee demands to see Grace. Mrs. Hale comes to the door and invites Marmee inside, giving her tea and a dry robe. Marmee tells her that she needs to speak to Grace because she knows the history of her husband’s medical condition. Mrs. Hale criticizes Marmee for bothering Grace outside of a work setting and doesn’t trust her motives. Grace walks into the room and tells Mrs. Hale that she will speak with Marmee. Mrs. Hale leaves the room and Grace tells Marmee that she has known her husband since he was 18 years old. Marmee feels shocked and stricken. In a plainspoken manner, Grace explains what happened at the Clement plantation when they were younger. She also recounts their reunion during the war. Marmee feels shattered.

Grace explains that, after Mr. Clement died, she followed Mr. March’s advice and found a position in the North. She details the conditions of the ship, Red Rover, on which she worked, and to which the ailing Mr. March was brought. She tells Marmee about the deaf woman who had brought Mr. March to Union territory, and Marmee wonders if this woman was also her husband’s lover. Grace explains that Mr. March is deeply tortured by his wartime experiences, and, in his fevered state, sometimes vocalizes the scenes that torment him. Marmee suddenly blurts, “He loves you” (242), but Grace insists he does not.

Marmee tells Grace to admit that they’d been lovers and pulls out the curl of black hair. Grace removes the scarf from her head and lets her hair fall, noting that she has her father’s hair, which is not curly. She suggests that the curl is from a child. Grace askes Marmee where she is staying and gives her more tea. She won’t let Marmee leave until the rain has stopped and her coat is dry. Grace says she will check on her when she returns to the hospital. Marmee leaves the mansion, knowing she will forgive Mr. March for his “momentary weakness,” but she does not know that she can forgive him for “the years of silence, and the letters filled with lies” (244) 

Later that day, Grace comes to check on Mr. March. When she touches him, Marmee feels a wave of jealousy. Grace tells Marmee that, if Mr. March regains consciousness, she should “find a way to speak with him that will diminish the guilt he feels about the past” (245). Marmee thinks about the ways that her husband has hurt her. Not only had he failed to provide a comfortable material life and run off to war without her approval, he also betrayed her by having feelings for a different woman. Still, she knows she must store away her anger, at least for the time being.

Marmee tries to write a letter to their girls, but she cannot figure out how to draft her words in a way that would bring them any relief. This, she realizes, is the same dilemma her husband faced while writing from the battlefields. She abandons the letter and eventually goes to sleep. At the lodging, a letter from Mrs. Hale arrives for Marmee. In it, Mrs. Hale invites Marmee to stay at their home, and notes that Grace has explained Marmee’s situation. The offer heartens Marmee and she accepts. Soon, she settles into a beautiful room in the Hales’ mansion. Marmee returns to the hospital and finds that Mr. Hale is now providing Mr. March with close care. Gradually, Mr. March shows signs of significant improvement. She writes to the girls to share the good news.

When they discuss the possibility of him returning home, Mr. March says he cannot go back because his work is not finished. He explains that he is guilty and must redeem himself. Marmee starts to lash out and then calms herself. She highlights the positive impact of his teachings, but he won’t hear it. He specifies instances in which he believes his actions caused others’ deaths. She insists that the war killed these people, not him. He still holds himself responsible. Internally, she knows that if he decides to return to the war, she could not hold him back. Still, she loves “this inconstant, ruined dreamer” (259). He tells her to leave the room because he needs to sleep, and then closes his eyes. As she walks out, she looks back and sees that he is staring at the ceiling.

In his bed, Mr. March feigns sleep so that he doesn’t have to continue explaining to Marmee his desire to return to the battlefield. He “let[s] the ghosts come” and eventually falls asleep, but the ghosts also inhabit his dreams. In the morning, Brooke tells him that Marmee suddenly left for Concord upon hearing that Beth is battling a serious case of scarlet fever. Brooke hands Mr. March a letter from Marmee, in which she implores him to return home. Beth is a frail girl and Mr. March is worried about her.

Mr. March instead remains at the hospital. The next morning, he receives news that Beth is recovering. Marmee’s plan is to remain in Concord, and she expects Mr. March to soon join them. Still, Mr. March remains resolute in his desire to return to the war effort. Mr. March slowly regains his strength. He finds satisfaction in assisting Grace with her nursing tasks. She does not want him to overexert himself in his efforts to help her and suggests that he instead rests. When she tells him that she will be relocating from the hospital to assist with a war regiment, he is surprised and hurt.

Grace tells him he should return home, but he insists his guilty conscience won’t let him. She tells him that he is “not the only one who has to live with a troubled conscience” (264), and later reveals that she killed Mr. Clement’s son, her white brother, when he tried to rape her. It had been believed that Clement’s son died in a hunting accident, and this weighed on her heavily. However, she had come to believe the worst violation is that Mr. Clement had kept her for her sons, for just such a purpose. Still, she feels guilty, holding onto the belief that the plantation came undone as a result of her actions.

Mr. March insists that it was her right to defend herself, but she says she does not need his absolution. She just wants him to go on with his life and do good. He offers to continue working with her, but she does not want his help. She tells him to go home to his family because they need him. Implicitly, she is saying that she does not need him.

Mr. March returns home, feeling “like an imposter” (270). He does not feel like the same man who left the house to join the war effort. He considers himself “a fool, a coward, uncertain of everything” (270). He enters the home and his daughters rush to hug him. In the following hours, “[he] knew [he] was being touched, but [he] could not feel the contact on [his] flesh” (271). He knows he is present, but he feels far away. He notices a burn on Meg’s hand and sees Jimse’s “melted flesh” (272). While he interacts with his family, he yearns for Grace, knowing that he would probably never again see her. He looks at Amy and recalls Cilla, and then pictures Cilla’s corpse. He knows that “the ghosts of the dead [will] be ever at hand” (273).