Previous
Book 3, Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Wings of the Dove, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class Hierarchy in English Society
Illness and Mortality
Moral Ambiguity and Responsibility
Transactional Relationships
Secrecy, Deception, and Misunderstanding
Summary
Analysis
Milly is amazed that only two days later, she and Mrs. Stringham are dining at Maud’s house. Milly feels almost as if Mrs. Stringham is her fairy godmother. For the meal, they’re accompanied by Kate and Lord Mark. Milly is struck by Kate’s beauty. While eating, Milly sits next to Lord Mark and speaks to him at length, but she finds him hard to pin down. She surmises at one point that it seems like Lord Mark has somehow learned much more about her than she has about him, and Milly wonders what his motives might be.
Milly and Mrs. Stringham are two Americans who, through Mrs. Stringham’s connection to Maud, have entered into high society in England. Notably, while Milly is pleased to have so easily found friends in London, her immediate reaction to high society in London seems to be one of confusion, as she struggles to understand Lord Mark. Lord Mark’s interactions with Milly, and his possible ulterior motives in those interactions, also continues the pattern of characters behaving secretively.
Themes
Though Milly doesn’t quite understand Lord Mark’s intentions or his personality, she engages in witty dialogue with him throughout the dinner party. Lord Mark remarks that Milly is a social success. He then tells Milly that he’s been around the world and seen and heard all there is to see and hear. Milly grows frustrated and tells him that that’s his problem. He seems to know a lot, but he doesn’t understand anything. He’s filled with facts but not enlightenment. In short, he lacks an imagination, Milly says. Lord Mark says he’s heard that before. He loudly guffaws, drawing the attention of Maud, who shoots Milly a knowing glance.
This passage sets up a conflict between Lord Mark’s pragmatism and Milly’s (perhaps naïve) idealism. Lord Mark is jaded and considers nothing to be remarkable. Milly, though, continues to be delighted and struck by the wonder of life. It remains to be seen whether the novel endorses one viewpoint over the other and whether, for example, Milly’s apparent naivety is something to pity or something to aspire to.
Themes
Milly wants to get away from Lord Mark—or, more accurately, she wants to get away from the person she becomes when she’s around him. To that effect, she changes the subject of the conversation to Kate. She tells Lord Mark that Kate seems to be “better than” anyone else at the dinner party. Lord Mark is struck by Milly’s comment, and he says that he has struggled to completely understand Kate. Privately, Milly wonders why it seems that Lord Mark has understood Milly so easily but struggles to understand Kate, who is from his own social milieu. Milly thinks that there truly must be something notable and particular about Kate as a person.
Whereas Mrs. Stringham believes that Milly is a unique and remarkable person, Milly seems to see the same characteristics in Kate. The novel thus establishes Kate and Milly as foils to each other, with each character’s traits emphasizing the contrasting traits in the other.
Themes
