64 pages • 2 hours read
Ford Madox FordParade's End
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1928A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaCharacter Analysis
Christopher Tietjens
Christopher is the youngest son of an old and affluent family in Yorkshire, the Tietjenses of Groby. He is the novel’s primary protagonist. Christopher is large, strong, possesses an encyclopedic knowledge, is astute in mathematics, and styles himself as the last Tory, though he stands more in the middle ground between Toryism and liberalism—he supports women’s suffrage, for example. He is often described as a meal sack with bulging blue eyes. He has a very strained relationship with his wife, Sylvia, with whom he has a son and from whom he cannot get a divorce. He is in love with Valentine Wannop, though it takes a while for him to admit it to himself. Christopher walks the boundary between an older Britain and the emerging, modern Britain. He struggles to maintain his unwavering moral standards in an increasingly immoral society. He is somewhat of a dynamic character in that he undergoes a mild change of character through the war which pushes him in a direction he had always wanted to embrace, to some degree.
Christopher begins the novel working for the Department of Statistics. He is very good at his job, since he is an excellent mathematician, but his strong moral code prevents him from faking numbers for political ends. He displays egotism and feelings of superiority to those around him. However, he can be compassionate, which is how he meets Valentine Wannop for the first time, when he protects her and her friend Gertie from harm after protesting for women’s suffrage on the golf course of Christopher’s club.
After meeting and falling for Valentine, Christopher becomes embroiled in a web of lies and troubles brought about by his vindictive wife, Sylvia. Although Sylvia has almost no peer in physical beauty, she and Christopher have virtually nothing in common that can hold them together. They admire traits about the other, but often those traits are also a source of aggravation. With Valentine, however, Christopher meets someone interesting and on the same intellectual level as himself. Christopher describes it has having someone to talk to, which for him is more important than physical attraction, though he is also physically attracted to Valentine.
After war breaks out, Christopher joins the army. He does so for patriotic reasons and out of a sense of duty, but also because he wants to get away from the rumors that are making his life miserable in England. Going to war will also allow him to avoid Sylvia, and to avoid the complex feelings he has for Valentine. Through his experiences in the war, Christopher garners the enlightenment he needs to separate from his Tory past and move into a world more of his choosing. He finally can admit wanting something strictly for himself; he also finally admits his love for Valentine. Following the war, Christopher moves to the English countryside with Valentine and lives a frugal life with money earned through his own efforts.
Sylvia Tietjens
Sylvia Tietjens is the main antagonist in the novel. She is an enigma of contradictions. Sylvia is young, comes from a wealthy family, and is exceptionally beautiful. However, she has a mean streak and tendencies towards sadism. She is a static character. Even though she has a crisis of conscience towards the end, she had already stated earlier that there was a line she would not cross. Plus, there is no need to believe that she has undergone any change in character after she leaves Valentine and Mark.
While she was a very young woman, Sylvia had an affair with a man named Drake. She feared she might be pregnant from that affair, and so she quickly seduced Christopher Tietjens and convinced him to marry her. She grew bored with her life with Christopher and ran off with another man. However, she became even more bored with him and returned. She increasingly developed a love-hate relationship with Christopher. There were many aspects of his character she admired, and many that infuriated her. She especially disliked his stubborn adherence to outdated morals and his unemotional reactions to life. She was also offended and astonished by the fact that Christopher appeared to have no sexual attraction to her, when she could attract almost every man and manipulate him as she saw fit—Perowne is a perfect example.
Despite her game of toying with and ruining Christopher after he falls in love with Valentine, Sylvia is also a devoted Catholic. Even though she could have any man she wants, she lives a chaste life, technically speaking, after her affair with Perowne.
Unlike her husband, who decides to live a frugal life and be with someone for love, Sylvia is much more interested in maintaining or increasing her social status. She detests General Campion but is willing to marry him for said status.
Valentine Wannop
Valentine Wannop is the novel’s secondary protagonist. She is Christopher’s love interest and Sylvia’s rival. Her father is a renowned professor, and her mother is a well-known author. The Wannop family and the Tietjens family have been close ever since Christopher’s father supported Mrs. Wannop financially after her husband’s death, which allowed her to continue with her writing. Valentine is physically fit and an intellectual equal to Christopher. She is not as beautiful as Sylvia, but Christopher loves the beauty of her mind far more than her physical beauty.
At times during her life, Valentine has needed to work difficult jobs. These times brought her in close contact with the economically disadvantaged—especially women. Many of these experiences caused her to shy away from sexual intimacy; however, most importantly, they fuel her fight for women’s suffrage. Valentine is arguably an early feminist. She is an anti-authoritarian, a Latin scholar, independent, and self-sufficient. She is the perfect companion for Christopher, who learns to shed his class obsessions and make a life for himself after the end of the First World War, and after everything else has been lost through Sylvia’s treachery.
Mark Tietjens
Mark Tietjens is the eldest of the Tietjens children and the owner of Groby following his father’s death. He is 14 years older than Christopher and works in the Department of Transport. He is said to be indispensable at his job. He is wealthy, since he is a Tietjens of Groby and the heir to the family fortune, but he lives relatively frugally. He does not believe in marriage and carries on a life-long love affair with a French woman named Marie Léonie. However, he does marry her in his last years for two reasons: He wants her inheritance secure, and this is necessary because Christopher refuses Groby. Although Christopher likes to stylize himself as the last Tory, Mark is easily more of a Tory than Christopher. His outward appearance is stereotypical of the English gentleman; for example, he wears a bowler and carries an umbrella.
Mark serves as a counterbalance to Christopher. They are half-brothers with different mothers, and their differences and similarities tend to mirror one another. Mark, like Christopher, chooses his own path in life and does not strictly follow the wishes of their father. Mark dislikes the façade of the English country gentleman as much as Christopher; however, as the eldest son, he has a much stronger sense of familial duty. Although he cares little about Groby personally, he does care for the tradition in upholding the family lands. He continues to hope that Christopher will take it over so he will be unburdened by the responsibility, but he also knows Christopher likes Groby and will take good care of it. Mark is also important for cohesion between the other characters. He is somewhat of a go-between for Sylvia and Christopher. Mark respects his youngest brother and is beyond Sylvia’s wiles, meaning he cannot be corrupted.
