35 pages • 1 hour read
George OrwellKeep the Aspidistra Flying
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1936A 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 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Gordon prowls the streets of London, yearning for a woman’s company. However, he vows not to get married since he sees marriage as another “trap set for you by the money-god” (103-4). He comes across Rosemary, who claims she was coming to see him. She is upset at his letter; she quickly forgives him and says she loves him, but she still refuses to sleep with him. Gordon blames this on his poverty, and Rosemary admits that they would have sex if they were married, which they can’t afford. Gordon rants that all women just want men with money. Rosemary listens patiently: “[W]hat he was saying was such palpable nonsense that it did not even exasperate her” (113).
Rosemary tries to get Gordon to agree to go into the country or join her for dinner at an Italian restaurant, but he says he is broke. Rosemary offers to pay for dinner, but Gordon protests that that wouldn’t be proper. Gordon keeps refusing, causing an argument that upsets Rosemary. She ends up having to go home without dinner, but Gordon promises they will go to the country on Sunday. However, he insists on raising the expense of the fare himself.
Chapter 7 Summary
Gordon goes to visit Julia—something he never does except to ask her for money. Despite her own poverty, she gives him the money to take Rosemary to the country. They take the train to the countryside just outside of London and explore a field. The two then go into a village looking for a place to eat. Gordon selects a pub, but Rosemary thinks it looks too badly run. Instead, they end up at the Ravenscroft Hotel. Gordon is reluctant to eat there because it looks pricey, but Rosemary gets him to go in. They feel judged by the “upper-middle-class eyes” of the customers (133). Both Gordon and Rosemary order only cold beef and bread despite the waiter pressuring them to order more. Their meal ends up being very bad.
Gordon pays the bill even though Rosemary offers to contribute; doing so leaves him almost out of money. Despite the great time they had in the country, Gordon feels the “whole day [is] ruined now—and all for the sake of a couple of plates of cold beef and a bottle of muddy wine!” (137). In the woods, they nearly have sex, but Rosemary puts a halt to it when she realizes he isn’t using contraception. This upsets Gordon: “What do you mean, you ‘can’t’ have a baby? You mean you daren’t; because you’d lose your job and I’ve got no money and all of us would starve” (142).
While walking back to the train, Rosemary apologizes and offers to make love with Gordon, threat of pregnancy or no. However, Gordon is too embarrassed, knowing he will have to let Rosemary pay for the train ticket home: “For the second time he had behaved grossly badly and yet had made her feel as if it were she who was in the wrong” (146). When the train returns, Gordon refuses to let her pay his fare. Rosemary stuffs a pack of cigarettes into his pocket and runs away before he can protest. Walking home, Gordon is inspired to write a stanza about people facing the winter while hoping they do not lose their jobs.
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
These chapters illustrate Gordon’s refusal to accept money from anyone except his relatives. He has previously declined to let Ravelston lend him money, and now he refuses to be indebted to Rosemary. His reasoning is rooted in Victorian middle-class values. As Rosemary asks Gordon, “Are we living in the reign of Queen Victoria?” (118). Both Rosemary and Ravelston suggest that Gordon, despite his war on money, still thinks in very middle-class ways.
This part of the book also introduces Gordon’s relationship with Rosemary. When Rosemary rejects him sexually out of fear of pregnancy, Gordon becomes angry with her. Even though he claims he believes money is at the root of all his problems, he still blames Rosemary for “acquiesc[ing]” to financial considerations (142). This is despite the fact that becoming pregnant would jeopardize Rosemary’s job, apartment, and family relationships, as Chapter 11 will demonstrate. What’s more, he vehemently opposes using birth control. His reasoning is ostensibly radical—he describes contraception as a form of social control—but the revulsion he expresses at the idea seems moralistic in tone. While Gordon himself is still beholden to middle-class culture, he holds other people accountable for not meeting his standards of social defiance.
Notably, Gordon writes more in this section than he previously has in the book. This seems to contradict his claim that poverty necessarily inhibits creativity, but on the other hand, his work itself centers on money and capitalism. In this sense, his work actually hinges on his poverty, which is why he abandons it when he embraces middle-class life at the end of the novel.
Related Titles
By George Orwell
