# Mrs. Jones — What’s Wrong with the World character guide

> Mrs. Jones in What’s Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Jones

**First appearance:** 0001-what-s-wrong-with-the-world

## Snapshot

Chesterton's emblem of the ordinary wife and mother, the unspecialized Jill-of-all-trades whose broad common sense keeps the household world turning.

## Who they are

She stands for the half of humanity Chesterton says must not be narrowed into a single trade, the woman whose work is cooking, storytelling, and lighting the home rather than excelling at one clever thing. Her tension is with a modern age that measures worth by specialization and ambition, leaving no room for the universalist whose 'all' outranks any man's 'best.' She matters because Chesterton builds his argument for domesticity and social sanity on her shoulders, insisting that without her the whole edifice of civilization quietly collapses.

## Relationships

### [The English](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/characters/the_english)

_social_

Mrs. Jones represents a domestic or common perspective in contrast to the broader English identity.

## In the story

### [II: Wisdom and the Weather](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/ii-wisdom-and-the-weather)

Referenced as 'Jones' in the context of weather-talk; represents the common person.

### [Part III: Feminism: Or the Mistake About Woman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/part-iii-feminism-or-the-mistake-about-woman)

Used as an example of the traditional, anarchic woman in the home.

### [The Emancipation of Domesticity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/iii-the-emancipation-of-domesticity)

Used as an example of a woman whose domestic task is huge, not small; the narrator pities her for the hugeness of her task.

### [The Modern Slave](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/xii-the-modern-slave)

Mentioned as an example of the modern working woman who bears the double burden of office and home.

### [Part V: The Home of Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/part-v-the-home-of-man)

Used as an example of the domestic woman's anarchic freedom.

### [I: The Empire of the Insect](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/i-the-empire-of-the-insect)

Referenced as 'our friend Jones' whose 'little house and garden' is threatened by the insect empire.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/characters/mrs_jones
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/characters