48 pages • 1 hour read
Marie BenedictCarnegie's Maid
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 18-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 18-19 Summary
Clara seeks Andrew’s advice about how to rise from poverty. Over the course of several months, the two meet in the park for half-hour sessions to discuss the issue. Andrew says that he worked harder than anyone else in his company to rise to his current position of division superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He also invested in other companies by buying stock and earning dividends. He used knowledge about the inner workings of these businesses to capitalize on his investments. Clara gently frets, “Mr. Carnegie assured me of its legality, although neither one of us spoke of its morality” (132).
Andrew emphasizes the importance of thorough research, a practice he began when he was still a boy. His turning point came when a rich benefactor allowed him access to a private library. Here, he was able to educate himself on all facets of business. He tells Clara, “I cannot describe to you the impact that library had on my life and my success. It quite literally made me who I am today” (134). Clara points out that the average working man wouldn’t have access to private libraries, and this observation sets Andrew thinking about how to solve that problem someday.
As they stroll back through the park toward the house, Andrew once again declares his love and says that he has written countless letters to Clara, but “[t]hey seemed such an inartful expression of the admiration and, dare I say it, adoration I carry for you” (138). As he takes her hand in his, they are startled by the approach of Miss Atkinson. Clara flees into the shrubbery, hoping she hasn’t been seen.
Three days later, Clara receives a letter from her sister confessing that all isn’t well at home. Lord Martyn, who owns their property, has rescinded the Kelley family’s tenancy and redistributed the acreage that they had previously farmed. Mr. Kelley’s earlier association with the Chartists and the Fenian movement is perceived as a threat to English control of Ireland. The Kelley family is evicted, and they must move in with relatives in Galway City. Clara is devastated by the news and breaks down in tears and mourns that “[u]nless their fortunes changed in some dramatic and inexplicable way, the fate of my entire family now rested upon me” (142).
Chapters 20-21 Summary
By mid-December, Clara’s thoughts are full of her family’s woes and fear of the gossiping Miss Atkinson. Mrs. Carnegie is hosting a dinner party from which Clara hopes to be excused, but her mistress asks Clara to stand by with the chatelaine—a box containing household items that might be needed, such as “scissors, thimbles, thread, combs, powder, brushes, and smelling salts” (146). The smelling salts might be necessary because one of the guests, Mrs. Pitcairn, is prone to fainting fits.
As Clara waits in an adjoining room, she hears the ladies talk about their servants. They all compliment Mrs. Carnegie on her choice of Clara as lady’s maid. Taking this opportunity to interject gossip, Miss Atkinson says that she spied Clara walking in the park one afternoon. Clara knows that this truancy from her post might be grounds for dismissal. Before Miss Atkinson can mention Andrew’s presence, the elder Carnegie son arrives, and the conversation shifts.
The meal proceeds without incident until dessert is served. Suddenly, Clara is called to assist because Mrs. Pitcairn has fainted. The smelling salts don’t revive her, so Clara springs into action, loosening the older woman’s stays. Everyone is banished during this operation, and a doctor is summoned. After repeated efforts, Clara revives Mrs. Pitcairn, and the latter is grateful for her timely intervention.
After the party ends, Clara readies her mistress for bed, but Mrs. Carnegie says nothing about Miss Atkinson’s earlier accusation. Later, Clara meets Andrew in the hall, and he invites her into the library. There, he resumes his earlier declaration of love: “I feel something for you, Miss Kelley, that I’ve felt for no other lady. I know our circumstances are unusual, but I’m hoping we might reach a time where they might be less so” (155). Even though Clara secretly returns his affection, she doesn’t say so and points out the disparity in their positions in life. Clara says that she cannot endanger her family’s livelihood by indulging her personal feelings.
Chapters 22-24 Summary
Two days later, Clara is on her way to the parlor when she overhears Andrew telling Mrs. Carnegie that he is contemplating a diplomatic post in Scotland. Clara assumes he wants to leave because she rejected him. Mrs. Carnegie is upset because her favorite son is planning a trip abroad. She tells Clara, “The only thing that would console me right now is the allegiance of my eldest son. And I do not think that is something you can deliver” (161). Clara realizes that she may be the cause of his disloyalty.
By February, Clara receives another disturbing letter from home. Her family is struggling in Galway City since work is hard to find. The Carnegie mansion has become gloomy as well because of Andrew’s frequent business trips. As a result, Mrs. Carnegie grows ever more dependent on Clara for emotional support.
In April, Andrew learns that the consular position in Scotland won’t be available, but he still spends much of his time away. On one of his infrequent returns, he has a conversation with Clara about the opulent displays of wealth in the parlor. The artwork, furniture, and curios are meant to convey an impression of the culture and taste of the Carnegie family.
On April 14, Mrs. Carnegie arranges a dinner to celebrate the end of the war. However, President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination turns the party into a memorial as well. During the evening, Andrew takes the opportunity to meet Clara in a back hallway. He says that he is going to Europe and asks if her feelings have changed. She says that her duty to her family must take precedence over her personal feelings. Andrew offers financial support for her family, but Clara isn’t sure what he would expect in return. Their conversation is interrupted when Mrs. Carnegie comes looking for her son.
Chapters 25-27 Summary
November 1865 seems particularly gloomy to Clara because Andrew has gone on a European tour with two of his friends. In Andrew’s absence, Mrs. Carnegie attends business meetings downtown with her son Tom, and Clara accompanies her and discovers how “[s]he came alive in this new role, and I realized how brilliant she was. And I learned about the industrial forces in play in post-Civil War America” (174). At the same time, Tom has begun courting Lucy Coleman. The union of the two families would represent a valuable business alliance. During these months, Andrew writes frequently about the culture he is absorbing overseas. Mrs. Carnegie exults in her son’s transformation into a gentleman.
In early December, Mrs. Carnegie is having tea with her inner circle and brings out one of Andrew’s letters to read to her friends. The mother of one of Andrew’s travel companions, Mrs. Vandevoort, brings up the topic of the Committee on Matrimony. Apparently, the young men have started compiling a list of attractive women in Pittsburgh who might make good prospective spouses. Clara thinks, “My reaction to this talk of Mr. Carnegie paired with someone else made patent my continued affection” (184). Later that evening, Mrs. Carnegie expresses concern that her son might come home with a bride in mind.
The day after Christmas, Clara is allowed a few hours off to visit with her cousins in Slab Town. Mr. Ford has packed a food basket for her to share with her family. During their meal together, Clara learns that her father is still involved with the Fenian movement. Cousin Patrick says, “The Fenians had planned an uprising simultaneously in New York and Ireland. They were backed by arms smuggled in from the United States and by American soldiers who’d just finished with the Civil War” (190-91). Mr. Kelley is still a Fenian leader but never told his children about it. Clara is angry at her father for risking the family’s livelihood and questions, “How could he have asked for such sacrifice from his daughter? And family? All for a cause that, though worthy, had such little chance of success” (192). Cousin Maeve says, “We all tell tales, Clara. Sometimes for ourselves, and sometimes for others” (192).
Chapters 18-27 Analysis
As in the previous segment, this set of chapters sets up an examination of the theme of The Class System. We see the extent to which Clara’s life is ruled by its dictates. The pressure she feels to submit to her domineering employer is based on her need to support her family financially. As she tells Andrew, “You’ve explained to me how the memory of poverty motivates you and inspires your strong sense of duty to your family. Well, the same memory haunts me and drives my decisions” (157). Rather than aspirational, the pursuit of wealth is shown as fear-driven.
Ironically, Clara’s financial pressures are the direct result of her father’s defiance of the class system. She learns that he has been actively involved in two militant organizations that seek to wrest power from the upper classes and give it to the common folk. In retaliation, his landlord revokes the family’s tenancy without warning. This action conveys to the reader just how dependent tenants are on the goodwill of the upper class. Clara is in a similar position since a walk in the park may be enough grounds for her dismissal. She is equally vulnerable to malicious gossip since Miss Atkinson can easily damage her standing by spreading rumors. Clara is temporarily saved when she comes to the aid of another upper-class woman, Mrs. Pitcairn, who has a fainting fit. Nevertheless, Clara’s entire livelihood depends on pleasing her despotic and moody mistress.
The only defense Clara possesses is to make herself indispensable to her employer and navigates Roles and Identities. She says, “The only consolation for me was that as Mrs. Carnegie grew ever more despondent, her dependence upon me grew. Although I loathed the reason behind this, I knew that I’d achieved the indispensability I’d sought” (165). To a great extent, the rigid nature of the class system forces everyone to play a role. This applies to the upper as well as the lower classes, and had effects on even the most intimate and personal of relationships. Andrew and Clara find themselves caught in the roles of superior and servant but manage to sneak away for private conversations. During these, Clara is able to demonstrate her keen mind and sharp business instincts. At the same time, Andrew is able to let his guard down and reveal his real feelings to her. Yet, it is only in private that the two can temporarily escape their class-determined roles.
Even as the characters in the novel must all play roles that reinforce their place in the social hierarchy, inanimate objects perform much the same function. Andrew makes this clear when he describes his parlor as a room that tells a story. He explains, “This room is actually meant to be read like a book, with each object functioning like a word in a story” (167). Those who visit the home are meant to be impressed by the wealth, cultivation, and taste of the owners. The parlor reinforces the social class of the Carnegies just as their clothing and get-togethers do. In this way, the parlor also speaks to the theme of The Purpose of Wealth. Wealth affords people like the Carnegies the ability to make their story legible to anyone through spectacular imagery. Further, the Carnegies have the ability to curate their “story” through the objects of wealth, telling only what they want to be told.
The novel begins to link wealth with literacy when Andrew talks about the wealthy benefactor who allowed him free use of the man’s library, which led him to become a smart and therefore successful businessman. Indeed, Clara’s comment that not everyone has access to the knowledge Andrew did sticks with him and foreshadows the libraries he will build later in life for the public at large. In this way, The Purpose of Wealth is shown as that which enables a more equal society.
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