The film stars Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. Mrs. Poulteney confronts Sarah about this behavior, and they come to a compromise: Sarah must not be caught looking out from the Cobb, but she can walk by the sea on occasion. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. It is this aura of strangeness about Sarah Woodruff that first attracts Charles Smithson's attention. They kiss, and Charles pushes Sarah violently away - as he rushes away from the barn, he meets Sam and Mary, and asks Sam not to mention this encounter to anyone. The French Lieutenant’s Woman does not so much conclude as simply halt; its author refuses to constrain the freedom of his characters or to deny his readers the exercise of their own imaginations. She refuses this offer. Thanks to Darwin's ideas, the Victorians are beginning to realize that everything "is in reality a continuous flux," and... why does Sarah decide to leave Charles after consumating their relationship. How does Fowles present the theme of change? and any corresponding bookmarks? Sarah is also presented as a "victim of the caste system" in this chapter, and she represents yet another class of character in the novel: one who has grown up in the rural lower class, who has elevated her status slightly by education, and who now has fallen on very hard times because of her perceived sexual immorality. Not affiliated with Harvard College. But if she is not destined to become the heroine herself, as is the case in this story, she becomes the bright and pretty rich girl who is a foil for the poor but intense young woman who is the actual heroine. Charles and Ernestina part, and Charles leaves for his hotel, while Ernestina returns to her room. Read the Study Guide for The French Lieutenant’s Woman…, The Conclusions of The French Lieutanant’s Woman and the Author’s Clear Preference, The French Lieutenant’s Woman and the Possibility of Feminism, View Wikipedia Entries for The French Lieutenant’s Woman…. Regardless of the fact that these church leaders represented a mere 1% of France's total population, they controlled almost 10% of its land in France. The theme of class struggle and revolution, already hinted at in the earliest chapters of this novel, is explicitly developed here. Mrs. Fairley, the housekeeper, is her "spy," who succeeds in making Sarah Woodruff's life miserable after she agrees to come and live with Mrs. Poulteney. Charles is both disturbed and fascinated by the mystery and romance that he perceives in the woman, though he will not admit that his curiosity goes beyond what he considers to be merely scientific. This chapter is primarily concerned with class and the class system; in particular, with the age-old relationship between master and servant, and how this relationship is in the process of developing and changing during the Victorian era. The relationship between Charles and Sam is friendly, although to the reader Charles often appears patronizing in his condescending remarks to Sam. The French Lieutenant’s Woman ... LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The French Lieutenant’s Woman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Charles reluctantly agrees, and a small girl child is brought to him - he understands that she was conceived during his first and only sexual encounter with Sarah. She wants Charles to make a choice, not feel as if he were forced to choose because they consumated their relationship. In an attempt to avoid this dire future, he tells Sam that they are staying the night in Exeter, and he goes to Sarah Woodruff's hotel. The narrator spends the next three paragraphs outlining the geological conditions that make Lyme Regis such a good place to look for fossils, describing the history of fossil-collecting there (Mary Anning, probably the most famous fossil-finder of all time, made her discoveries in this area, and the Charles pays a visit the shop she set up). The next letter is from Sarah, and contains nothing but her new Exeter address. Anna (Meryl Streep) and Mike (Jeremy Irons), who play the … Yet as the train pulls into Exeter, he travels on to Lyme without stopping by to see her. Charles finds Sarah asleep in a barn. The French Lieutenant’s Woman Chapter 51 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. The author combines an intriguing story, narrated in the typical Victorian manner, with a detailed account of Victorian England. Charles selects a piece of ammonite that is "pretty enough" for Ernestina to like, and resolves to give it to her (46). This detail holds no significance for the reader, and its significance is not explained in the remaining lines of the chapter. Charles begs Sarah to come marry him, but she says she doesn't want to marry anyone - she is very happy with the life she is leading. A playful, self-conscious narrative voice situates the opening of The French Lieutenant’s Woman in Lyme Regis in 1867. Sam is a Cockney and a member of the lower class, but he aspires to rise in society, and cultivates an interest in horses and fashion in the hopes that these markers of class will raise his status. She wants Charles to make a choice, not feel as if he were forced to choose because they consumated their relationship. Marx has already been mentioned in Chapter 3 as a contemporary of the characters of The French Lieutenant's Woman (16), and Chapter 7 tellingly begins with an epigraph from Marx's famous work Capital, written in 1867 (36).