48 pages • 1 hour read
Marie BenedictCarnegie's Maid
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Living Quarters
The living quarters occupied by the novel’s characters are described in great detail because they symbolize the relative status of each individual and speak to the theme of The Class System. These distinctions are at play from the story’s earliest pages. Clara travels to America in steerage, or the cargo hold of the ship where passengers can’t even bathe and are barred from mingling above deck with the other passengers. When Clara gets into the coach with Mrs. Seeley’s other two hired girls, they are put off by Clara’s dirty, bedraggled appearance because they traveled in second class. The space in which one is allowed to live conveys one’s value—both in quality and amount.
When Clara takes up her residence in the Carnegie mansion, distinctions are still maintained. Mrs. Carnegie’s opulent bedroom is contrasted with Clara’s own sparse accommodations. Although spartan, Clara’s bedroom is a palace compared to the filthy lean-to where her cousins live in Slab Town. Similarly, her family in Ireland loses their cozy cottage and must move into the deprived areas of Galway City. The living quarters are so wretched and the air quality so poor that Clara’s younger sister contracts a disease and dies there. Living quarters can be fatal.
New York demonstrates its own social distinctions by relegating Clara to a room on the top floor of the St. Nicholas Hotel while the Carnegies enjoy an opulent suite. She must sit on a hard bench in the opera house rather than join the Carnegies inside the auditorium. However, the Carnegies are also taught their place as indicated by the level of the opera box that they occupy. It isn’t in the top tier, “the upper tens,” reserved for the Knickerbockers. In life, as in real estate, the class system prevails, and location is everything.
Libraries
Libraries are frequently the setting for Clara’s interactions with Andrew. They symbolize learning and self-advancement related to the theme of The Purpose of Wealth. On a superficial level, a rich man’s library telegraphs a message to his guests about his education, culture, and taste. Possessing many first editions demonstrates his patronage of the arts as well. Any tycoon might possess such a room, but Andrew has a personal story to tell related to libraries. He explains that all his success in life is attributable to the generosity of a rich benefactor who allowed workers access to his collection. Andrew used these books to learn the fundamentals of business and to advance his career.
Clara uses his library for much the same purpose. On her first day as a lady’s maid, she borrows a book on housekeeping to guide her in her duties. When Andrew discovers her there, they engage in their first conversation about literature. Their final encounter takes place in the same location. When Clara is furious that Andrew’s company mergers have cost her cousin his job, she confronts his hypocrisy there: “I thought you came from a Chartist family who cared about equality and who understood how the poorer folk are harmed when those in control [...] unwittingly alter the world around them” (304). Her angry words awaken Carnegie’s latent conscience and reshape his perspective on the proper use of wealth. It seems that a library changes his life not once but twice, and both times for the better.
Letters
The novel contains many examples of correspondence among the characters. In opposition to clothing and possessions, these letters symbolize authentic communication and relate to the theme of Roles and Identities. While the characters indulge in role-playing, they seem to have more difficulty being duplicitous in their letters to each other. The novel’s Prologue consists of a letter that Andrew writes to himself, outlining his future plans for his life. He also articulates his new awareness of the proper use of his wealth. In this and in his other correspondence, he seems to be his most authentic self.
Clara is similarly candid in her letters home, even though she glosses over her actual role in the Carnegie household as an upper-level servant. When she contemplates making up stories about her employers, she finds it impossible to do so. Clara is also quick to detect Eliza’s attempts to conceal the family’s troubles in her letters. When confronted with Clara’s anxiety, Eliza tells the truth about the loss of the tenancy and the family’s poverty. The novel ends with two letters that Clara receives belatedly. One is from Mr. Ford with the happy news that his family has been found. The other is a discarded draft that Andrew left in his study and Ford retrieved. It constitutes the farewell that he never had the chance to deliver to Clara in person. In Carnegie’s Maid, letters reveal identity because they provide less of a temptation to don a false mask.
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By Marie Benedict
