In the Midst of Life · Chapter
IV: An Appeal to the Conscience of God explained
Jenner Brading, a bachelor attorney, lives in a cottage at the edge of town near the forest.
What happens
Jenner Brading, a bachelor attorney, lives in a cottage at the edge of town near the forest. One night he is awakened by a noise at his bedroom window and sees two gleaming eyes. He fires his revolver, believing he has shot a panther. Upon searching, he finds the body is not a panther but a human—the daughter of Old Man Marlowe, who had rejected Brading's marriage proposal. The chapter ends with a reference to the headstone and the sorrow of Old Man Marlowe.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Resolution.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
In this excerpt, the narrator’s emotional and psychological peak occurs as she confesses her intense, almost i…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Isolation and Alienation
Brading lives alone in a cottage at the edge of the forest, and his failed marriage proposal highlights his emotional isolation.
- Madness and Psychological Trauma
The terror of the night encounter and the shocking discovery of the human victim suggest psychological trauma and the fragility of reason.
Characters to notice
- Charles Marlowe
Old Man Marlowe, the recluse father of the woman Brading courted; his daughter is the victim found in the woods.
- Irene Marlowe
The beautiful but eccentric daughter of Old Man Marlowe; she rejected Brading's marriage proposal and is later found dead in the forest.
Key passages
“Being a bachelor, and therefore, by the Draconian moral code of the time and place denied the services of the only species of domestic servant known thereabout, the 'hired girl,' he boarded at the village hotel, where also was his office.”
As an unmarried man, local custom prevented him from hiring a female servant, so he lived and worked at the village hotel.
Explains the social constraints on bachelors in that era.
“With a little thrill of the nerves he sat up in bed and laid hold of the revolver which, with a forethought most commendable in one addicted to the habit of sleeping on the ground floor with an open window, he had put under his pillow.”
Startled, he sat up and grabbed the revolver he wisely kept under his pillow because he slept on the ground floor with the window open.
Highlights Brading's preparedness and the danger of his sleeping arrangement.
“But it was no panther. What it was is told, even to this day, upon a weatherworn headstone in the village churchyard, and for many years was attested daily at the graveside by the bent figure and sorrow-seamed face of Old Man Marlowe, to whose soul, and to the soul of his strange, unhappy child, peace. Peace and reparation.”
The body was not a panther but a human, as recorded on a headstone in the churchyard, and Old Man Marlowe's daily grief at the grave testified to the tragedy of his strange, unhappy daughter.
Reveals the shocking truth and the lasting sorrow of the father.
