The French Lieutenant's Woman

Filled with anxiety, Charles tries to end his engagement to Ernestina. He insists that he is “not worthy” (379) of her love, claiming to have married her for financial reasons and dishonorable intentions. Despite her surprise, Ernestina refuses to accept the ending of their engagement. She struggles to maintain her composure, feeling outraged for herself as an individual and for Charles’s insult against marriage as an institution. She even threatens legal action against Charles, as the end of their engagement threatens to ruin her reputation. Eventually, she begs Charles to stay with her. She acknowledges her immaturity and promises that she can change. She wants to help him feel worthy of her love. As Ernestina begins to cry, Charles decides to be more truthful. He admits that he has rediscovered his love for a woman he knew many years before. Ernestina feels ashamed and threatens to kill herself. Taking on a suddenly cool demeanor, Ernestina suggests another course of action. Everyone will find out what Charles has done to her. She guesses that the other woman is an aristocrat. People of Charles’s social class, she says, believe that they can do as they please. Charles refuses to divulge any information about the other woman, and Ernestina threatens to destroy Charles’s reputation with her father’s help. Charles begins to leave. Behind him, Ernestina desperately repeats his name. She drops dramatically to the floor. Charles leaves, anyway, promising to write to her father. He tells Mary to sit with Ernestina while he visits Grogan.

Charles meets with Grogan and reveals that he has ended his engagement with Ernestina. Fetching his medical supplies, the doctor guesses that Sarah is the reason for Charles’s behavior. Charles defends Sarah’s character but asks Grogan “not to reveal” (389) what he knows to Ernestina.

Charles returns to the Ship Inn and asks Sam to fetch him a brandy. Charles admits what he has done to Sam, who is interested only in how this will affect him and Mary. After hearing Charles’s explanation, Sam offers his resignation. The men argue, and Sam storms out of the room. Sam smirks when Charles slams the door. Outside, however, Sam feels alone. He knows that the argument is not his only transgression. Charles hurls his drink into the fire, now doubting his actions. He tries to write a letter to Mr. Freeman. The thought of Sarah comforts him until Grogan knocks on his door.

The narrative shifts backward to the time when Aunt Tranter returned home to find everything in a state of “catastrophe” (392). She discovers Grogan treating Ernestina, who refuses to explain what Charles said to her. Grogan gives Ernestina medicine to help her sleep and then exits, promising to talk to Charles. Aunt Tranter hears what has happened from a tearful Mary, who mentions that Sam has quit his job in horror at his employer’s behavior. Mary is afraid for her future now that Sam has no job. Aunt Tranter promises that she will help the young couple if she can. Mary leaves, going to Sam who is waiting for her behind the house. She tells him about Aunt Tranter’s assurance of help.

Grogan leaves Ernestina and meets with Charles. The doctor is critical of Charles’s behavior and his effect on his now former fiancé. Nevertheless, he offers Charles some sympathy, as they are friends. He urges Charles to be a better man to make amends for the pain he has caused; if he does not, then the pain will have served no purpose. Charles confirms that he plans to marry Sarah, believing she has accepted his proposal. Grogan wishes Charles well and departs, informing him that he should leave Lyme Regis soon.

Charles travels back to Exeter. When he reaches the hotel, however, Sarah has already taken the train to London and has left no clues as to where he can find her. After a brief investigation, Charles discovers that Sam lied to him: Sam never delivered the letter. Charles is angry. He feels helpless, but he is determined to find Sarah. For the first time in many years, he prays.

Charles takes a train to London. Though he would prefer privacy, he is joined in his cabin by a stranger with a beard. They sit in uneasy silence as the journey begins. The narrator reveals that the bearded stranger is actually himself, entering into the story. The narrator discusses the problems with concluding the plot in a satisfying manner. He observes Charles, who is now asleep in the corner. The narrator believes a good novel should force a character into conflict with their own desires. He knows who has won, but he believes that the audience’s inability to guess makes him a talented writer. Despite this, the narrator has a change of heart: He will let Charles and Sarah decide their future, rather than imposing one on them. To accomplish this, the narrator will offer up “two versions” (409) of the story’s ending. In one ending, Charles will win. In the other ending, Sarah will win. Though the narrator is tempted to end the story with Charles on the train to London, he knows that this is not satisfying. The narrator flips a coin to decide which ending to portray first. The train pulls into the station and, as Charles stirs, the narrator has “disappeared in the throng” (410).

Charles hires four detectives to locate Sarah, but they are unsuccessful. During this time, a lawyer delivers a letter from Ernestina’s father, who wants to discuss a possible breach of Charles’s engagement. Charles visits his friend, Harry Montague, who is also a lawyer, to discuss this. Montague sees a positive outcome, in which Charles confesses to his dishonorable behavior, but a legal confession is better than a possible lawsuit.

Charles and Montague attend the meeting. The suggestion that Sam is a witness angers Charles. Charles is humiliated during the meeting, but he agrees to sign a document that places all the guilt for the breakup of the engagement on him. The contract pays particular attention to the economic side of the engagement, framing the engagement like a business deal. In the event that Charles plans to marry again, Montague suggests, Mr. Freeman will present the contract to Charles’s prospective new father-in-law. Charles continues his search for Sarah after the meeting, but he still cannot find her and eventually abandons his search. He accepts Montague’s suggestion that he spend some time abroad.

More than a year later, Mary and Sam are married, living in London, and expecting another baby. Mary takes a walk through a park and is surprised to see Sarah stepping out of a carriage. When she tells Sam, he is worried. He still feels guilty about not showing her the letter from Charles. Nevertheless, he and Mary have been successful in their endeavors and are moving up in the social world. Now, he has a job at Mr. Freeman’s haberdashery, achieved partly in exchange for information about Charles’s infidelity. He hopes to use this experience to one day open his own haberdashery. Mary is frequently amazed by their “good fortune” (427), especially as she is able to hire a young girl to help her with raising their children. Mary compares her current situation to the time when she was a servant. She wears the brooch Charles intended for Sarah.

In Europe, Charles travels listlessly from country to country, but he cannot engage with anything. His keeps a diary of his travels, but his true emotions are expressed only through his forays into poetry. He does not let anyone read these poems, which capture a mood of loneliness and “self-riddling gloom” (430). Gradually Charles begins to suspect that the Sarah he fell in love with may never have actually existed. Instead, he built a version of her in his mind and fell in love with his own imaginary creation. He still carries this imaginary version of Sarah with him. He may not have abandoned all hope of ever finding Sarah, but he feels less compelled to seek her out. In England, Sir Robert is now married, and he has fathered a son, meaning that Charles is officially disinherited. In Europe, Charles has sex with women but feels nothing. An encounter with two friendly American men prompts Charles to visit the United States; their “unsophisticated pleasure” (432) intrigues him. He feels the country is a good match for his own rebellious nature, and the United States is both similar and different to Britain in many ways. During this time, Charles embraces his identity as an outcast. He no longer envies the young couples he meets while travelling. Instead, he is thankful that he did not get married for the sake of convention. This small comfort helps him through a difficult time.

Charles travels across America. The United States is culturally very different to Victorian Britain. The United States is still recovering from the aftermath of the American Civil War, but Charles is impressed by the buoyant culture. The people are open and friendly. He remains haunted by the “dreadful document” (437) that he signed for Mr. Freeman.

In London, Sam feels guilty. He goes to Montague and shares Mary’s account of having seen Sarah. When a cable arrives from Montague, Charles learns that Sarah has been spotted in London. Despite his affinity for America, Charles immediately sets sail for England. Sarah still has a profound effect on Charles, even though they’ve spent 20 months apart.

The narrator presents two possible endings. In the first ending, Sarah lives in London under the false name “Mrs. Roughwood.” She is working, Charles discovers, as a model and assistant for an artist named Rossetti whose work is well-known for shocking Victorian sensibilities. Montague advises Charles to stay away from Sarah, but Charles cannot help himself. On seeing her, he is shocked that she does not seem to need his help. He had imagined him rescuing her from poverty or an immoral situation, but she seems content in her new job. She is well-paid, well-dressed, and confident. She is part of a new, artistic world that looks to the future, rather than Ernestina’s traditional moralistic society. Charles is caught between these two versions of society. He is slightly perturbed by the freedom and unconventional nature of Sarah’s world, but he admires her conviction and strength. She reminds him of his time in America. When he speaks to her, she is not as pliant as he imagined. She declines to marry him, as she does not want to marry anyone and insists that Charles will never understand this. She simply wants to enjoy her pleasant life. Charles is shocked, especially when she admits that she knew that he was looking for her and hid from him deliberately. As Charles is about to leave, Sarah says that she “cannot let [him] go” (457). She wants to introduce him to a person who can explain this new view of the world more convincingly. Charles waits, and Sarah leaves. Then, a young woman brings a small child into the room then leaves. As Charles plays with the child, he realizes that this child is the product of the brief affair between himself and Sarah. When Sarah returns to the room, he kisses her on the top of the head.

The narrator appears in the novel again. This time, he takes the form of a theater director. He delights in playing the puppet master with his characters, having them play different roles for his pleasure. After orchestrating the reunion scene between Charles and Sarah in Rossetti’s house, the narrator leaves. He rewinds his watch by 15 minutes and, in doing so, he turns back time. He returns to the reunion between Charles and Sarah right before Sarah introduces the child. Rather than admitting her love for Charles, Sarah says nothing. Disgusted at himself and at Sarah, Charles leaves. On his way out, he passes the child (his daughter) but pays her no heed. Charles feels lonely and bitter. He wants to make a new life. The narrator notes that his minor intrusion on the story and his change to the unfurling of events may actually make Charles and Sarah stronger. They will both learn to face the world on their own, something their child will have to do in the future. Nevertheless, the meeting with Sarah teaches Charles that he has an unacknowledged strength. He is free to love, regardless of the social implications. The narrator is pleased with this version of the ending. Rather than the conventional ending in which lovers are reunited, this ending emphasizes the importance and strength of the individual. Both endings, the narrator suggests, can function in unison. Charles walks beside the river, finally understanding the nature of life.