Talk:The Fall of Doctor Onslow

Plot synopsis very overly detailed

I believe this article would be greatly improved by trimming the plot synopsis a great deal; it is very overly detailed and contains many spoilers.-PetraSchelm (talk) 18:47, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

overly long synopsis moved to talk

All of the below should really be trimmed to a few sentences.-PetraSchelm (talk) 17:42, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

The first threat

Dr. Anstey-Ward is a former physician and now an amateur scientist. Though an unbeliever himself, he is shocked that a clergyman might behave as Onslow has done. He writes to Onslow, telling him that he has proof that he is unfit to be a headmaster and demanding that he resign his position immediately. He also insists that Onslow should refuse any high position, such as a bishopric or deanery, that he might subsequently be offered.

When Onslow receives Anstey-Ward’s letter, he cannot disguise his sense of shock from his wife Louisa, who guesses that the letter is about intimacy with a boy. It turns out that Louisa has known for some time about her husband’s tendencies. This is a surprise to Onslow, and he is somewhat repelled by his wife’s lack of innocence. However, when he decides to visit Anstey-Ward in person, Louisa begs to let her accompany him and he feels that he must grant her this wish, as ‘atonement’ for the wrong he has done her (though Louisa actually thinks his behaviour relatively mild, compared with that of a ‘womaniser’.)

The couple arrive at Anstey-Ward’s house late in the evening after missing their intended train and Anstey-Ward offers to give them dinner and to accommodate them for the night. Onslow accepts the offer and no mention is made of their main business that evening. Instead, Onslow and Anstey-Ward get into an intense discussion about science and religion in which, as might be expected, they do not see eye-to eye.

The next morning, Onslow asks Anstey-Ward to let him see the documents in his possession. Anstey-Ward complies and, with scarcely any discussion, Onslow agrees to Anstey-Ward’s terms. But then Louisa, certain that she can persuade Anstey-Ward to reconsider, goes to see him. He is, however, implacable and Onslow bursts in on the discussion, to be met with the humiliating sight of his wife on bended knee imploring Anstey-Ward’s mercy. On the journey back to London, they quarrel and stop speaking to one another.

Onslow contacts Louisa’s brother, Martin Primrose, a generous-hearted clergyman of liberal disposition (unlike Onslow, who tends towards a ‘high church’ position). When asked by Onslow whether he regards him as unpardonably lustful for a clergyman or as a hypocrite, Primrose replies that his chief wrong consists in neither of these, but rather in abusing his authority as a headmaster.

Onslow resigns the headmastership of Charton, as required by Anstey-Ward. His last sermon is a dramatic meditation on loneliness. It moves his congregation and he himself comes close to tears at the end.

Onslow is offered the bishopric of Shrewsbury and then the deanery of Launceston, both of which he is obliged to refuse, opting instead for the poorly paid position of a country parson. The public are left to assume that he is fighting worldly ambition.

In 1860, Onslow, Louisa and Primrose attend the famous real-life debate of the British Association about the religious implications of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce speaks stridently and with ridicule against Darwin’s theory. T.H. Huxley defends Darwin. Anstey-Ward is also present and the polite smile that he gives Onslow on departing is misinterpreted by the latter as gloating triumph.

The second threat

Three years later, Onslow receives a letter from the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, offering him the bishopric of Ipswich. Onslow feels sure that Anstey-Ward would not act now, as the delay in revealing what he knows would make him appear no better than a common blackmailer. So Onslow impulsively accepts the offer. When he tells Louisa, she is horrified, both at the danger and at the fact that he did not consult her first.

When Anstey-Ward hears that Onslow is to be the new Bishop of Ipswich, he is initially at a loss to know what to do. He himself is worried about the implications of the delay and so is afraid to expose Onslow. He considers issuing another threat, but is not sure what to do if Onslow ignores it. In the end he tosses a coin to decide between two options--Heads represents doing nothing at all and Tails represents issuing another threat, which he can only hope Onslow will obey.

When Onslow receives a telegram from Anstey-Ward demanding that he resign immediately, he too is unresolved about what he should do. He decides to follow whatever Louisa advises. She angrily tells him that he must resign. Onslow composes a letter of resignation to the Prime Minister, citing as his reason a fear of worldly ambition.

Meanwhile Onslow’s situation has become a subject of gossip and speculation in some quarters. Primrose meets Bishop Wilberforce at their London club and the bishop informs him that he knows about Onslow’s misdemeanours. (It appears that Arthur Bright has revealed his affair with Onslow to some fellow-students at Cambridge.) Wilberforce has also been told that some unknown person is aware of the relationship and has been using this knowledge to force Onslow to resign the see of Ipswich. Wilberforce himself has written to the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury to tell him all he knows of the matter.

Palmerston is too old and forgetful to act and the Archbishop is too afraid of a public scandal. So Onslow’s predicament remains a secret to all but a tiny few. His reputation as an immensely humble parish priest continues to grow.

In 1865, Onslow writes to Primrose, telling him of an awful thing that has happened. Onslow has lost his Christian faith, apparently having become obsessed with doubts originating with his discussion about science and religion with Anstey-Ward many years previously. Now the sceptical, ’scientific’ world-view seems entirely correct. But although he no longer believes Christian theology, he still accepts Christian morality. So he is burdened with sin, but has no Christ to forgive him. He asks Primrose to decide for him whether he should resign his living and declare himself an atheist. Though supportive, Primrose refuses to make the decision on his behalf. In the end, Onslow decides that struggling to lead a Christian life is, to all intents and purposes, the same as being a believing Christian. ‘Thus Onslow remained for nearly twenty years the beloved rector of Hinterton, and throughout those twenty years he was conscious of the fact that Anstey-Ward’s triumph and his own fall were both complete.’

Onslow as an old man

The last chapter is set in 1892. ‘Old Dr. Onslow’ is giving a dinner for ten people. He is now Dean of Maidstone. (Anstey-Ward's death many years prior to this had made it safe for him to accept a deanery. Louisa and her brother are also dead.)

After dinner, one of the ladies asks Onslow to advise her about which school to send her son to. This inspires a long tirade from Onslow, which shocks the assembled company. He tells them that all the public schools are alike, that they emphasise sport too much and give little attention to intellectual development. They are, he thinks, obsessed with manliness and the ‘stiff upper lip’, condemning spontaneous feeling and expressions of love between boys. Onslow’s outburst both exhausts and exhilarates him.

Within a few days of this event, Onslow dies. His last coherent words concern the boys at Charton: ‘Tell them...that I wasn’t half kind enough.’

References