Work record

A Clergyman's Daughter

Name: A Clergyman's Daughter
Author: George Orwell

George Orwell

1935 · Early 20th Century · Novel · English

Copyrightedlow medical relevanceFive-minute digest

Abstract

Written: Published March 1935
Setting: Early 1930s; Knype Hill, Suffolk; Kent hop fields; London
Author: George Orwell
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Genre: Social novel
Form: Novel in five chapters
Recommended: Grades 11–12 (Loss of faith, poverty, some coarse scenes.)

Premise. The anxious, devout daughter of a selfish country rector runs his house, dodges creditors and serves the parish, mortifying herself when her prayers wander.

Amnesia. After a stressful evening she wakes in London with no memory and drifts with a band of vagrants to the Kent hop fields for seasonal work.

Scandal. A village gossip claims she eloped with an older unbeliever, and the papers repeat the story. Her father refuses to help.

Trials. She sleeps rough in a London square, then teaches in a grim little school whose owner cares only for fees and appearances.

Ending. Brought home, she refuses a proposal and resumes her parish work, having lost her faith but holding on to duty.

For students. The novel raises honest questions about faith, doubt and service. Compare it with the Psalms of lament. The author drew on his own months picking hops in Kent, sleeping rough in London and teaching in small private schools, and he later regretted publishing the book. Dorothy's story, published in 1935, stays in US copyright through 2030, so its Trafalgar Square play-chapter and hop-field scenes are summarized here and must be read in a borrowed or bought copy.

Main characters

Dorothy Hare: rector's daughter
Rev. Charles Hare: her father
Mr. Warburton: unbelieving friend
Nobby: young tramp
Mrs. Creevy: school proprietor

Portrait of George Orwell. Source · Public domain

Summary

A Clergyman's Daughter is George Orwell's second novel, the story of Dorothy Hare, the devout, overworked daughter of a selfish, impoverished Anglican rector in the Suffolk town of Knype Hill. Dorothy runs the household, struggles with debts to tradesmen, visits the poor, makes costumes for church pageants, and disciplines herself with pins pressed into her arm when her mind wanders in prayer. Her only friend is Mr. Warburton, a middle-aged, unbelieving bachelor who tries to seduce her. One night, exhausted, she suffers a sudden loss of memory and finds herself in London with no idea who she is. She falls in with a group of young tramps and goes with them to the hop fields of Kent, where she works as a hop-picker, a vivid section drawn from Orwell's own experience. Meanwhile a scandal-mongering local gossip spreads the rumor that she has eloped with Warburton, and the newspapers take it up. When her memory returns, her father, ashamed, does not help her; she sleeps rough in Trafalgar Square in a chapter written as a play, then becomes a teacher at a squalid private school run by the money-grubbing Mrs. Creevy, where she tries to teach real learning to girls whose parents want only good handwriting and respectability, and is dismissed. Finally her cousin arranges her return home. Warburton proposes marriage on the train, warning her of a lonely life, but she refuses. Dorothy has lost her faith during her ordeal, but she returns to her duties, making costumes for the church play, and the novel ends with her concluding that faith and its absence matter less than doing the work at hand, though the book leaves the reader with a sense of loss. Orwell later disliked the novel. For Christian readers it raises honest questions about faith, duty and the meaning of a life of service when belief seems to disappear. As the 1935 novel stays in US copyright through 2030, Dorothy's story is told here in summary only.

Virtues in this work

Industry: Dorothy never stops working for others.
Fortitude: She endures poverty, disgrace and drudgery without self-pity.

Plot or Argument

Chapter 1: Knype Hill
Dorothy's life of duty and anxiety in her father's parish.
Chapter 2: Hop-picking
Dorothy loses her memory and works in the Kent hop fields.
Chapter 3: Trafalgar Square
Destitute and alone in London, she sleeps rough in Trafalgar Square among the homeless.
Chapter 4: The school
She teaches at Mrs. Creevy's private school.
Chapter 5: Return
Dorothy refuses Warburton and returns home without faith but with duty.

Characters

Dorothy Hare, heroine
Devout, overworked rector's daughter.
Rev. Charles Hare, father
Selfish, snobbish rector.
Mr. Warburton, friend
Charming unbeliever.
Nobby, tramp
Cheerful companion in the hop fields.
Mrs. Creevy, headmistress
Mean school proprietor.

Lessons

Faith and duty
Dorothy loses her faith but keeps serving.
- Is duty without faith enough?
- How might Psalm 73 answer Dorothy?
Related across the library
- Lepanto, Stanza 8
  The hidden room in man's house where God sits all the year, The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear. Pope Pius's chapel, where in prayer he sees the battle from afar.
- The Professor, Lesson: Earning one's bread
  Earning one's bread. William refuses patronage and works for his living.
- The World as Will and Representation, Lesson: Compassion as seeing through individuality
  Compassion as seeing through individuality. For Schopenhauer, morality does not rest on duty or reason but on the recognition that the same will suffers in every being. When the veil of Maya grows transparent, another's pain becomes one's own. The ethics extends to animals and draws openly on Hindu and Buddhist thought.
- Theaetetus, Wax tablet, c. 191c-195a
  Memory is modelled as impressions in wax of differing size, hardness and purity; Socrates explains quick learners, forgetful ones and confused ones by the quality of their wax.
- A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, The Paradise of Children
  Hope spiritualizes the earth; Hope makes it always new; and, even in the earth's best and brightest aspect, Hope shows it to be only the shadow of an infinite bliss hereafter. Closing the tale, the storyteller admits the Troubles are still in the world but says he cannot help being glad that Pandora let Hope out.
Education
Mrs. Creevy cares only for appearances and fees, never for what the children actually learn.
- How does Dorothy try to teach?
- What is real education?
Related across the library
- Essays on Education in a Republic, Lesson: Education for usefulness
  Education for usefulness. Rush judges every subject by whether it prepares young people to serve their families, their professions and their country. That standard leads him to favour English, modern languages, history, commerce, chemistry and law, and to argue that Latin and Greek should come late and be learned for reading. His view sparked replies in his own day, and the debate he joined continues wherever schools weigh the classics.
- The Quiet American, Watchtower episode
  Fowler and Pyle trapped in danger reveal fear, pain and dependence beneath political disagreement.
- Biographia Literaria, Lesson: Imagination and fancy
  Imagination and fancy. Coleridge distinguishes the shaping, unifying imagination from fancy, which only rearranges. The distinction is still used in criticism.
- Six Metaphysical Meditations, with Hobbes's Objections and the Replies, Meditation VI
  I have heard from those, whose Arm or Leg was cut off, that they have felt _pain_ in that part which they _wanted Phantom-limb pain is among his reasons for once distrusting even the inward senses, later explained by the nerves running to the brain.
- Confessions, Book IX.2, 4
  Chest pain and difficulty breathing support his resignation from teaching; a severe toothache relieved after prayer.
Gossip
Mrs. Semprill's lies ruin Dorothy's reputation.
- How does gossip harm Dorothy?
- What does James 3 say about the tongue?
Related across the library
- My Ántonia, Lesson: Memory shapes and idealises
  Memory shapes and idealises. Jim's portrait of Ántonia tells us as much about his nostalgia as about her. The novel invites readers to see how memory creates meaning, and what it leaves out.
- The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium, Lesson: A Christian empire
  A Christian empire. The New Roman Empire was the setting of the ecumenical councils, the Nicene Creed, Hagia Sophia, the icons and the monastic tradition of Mount Athos. Kaldellis narrates its church politics, from Christological controversies to hesychasm, as part of public life, and readers can see how theology and government were intertwined.
- The World as Will and Representation, Lesson: The body is the will made visible
  The body is the will made visible. Schopenhauer's key move is to begin metaphysics from the inside of one's own body, where willing and movement are the same event. Desire is not a mental addition to a physical machine; the organs themselves express it. This anticipates later views that put embodiment and drive at the centre of the mind.
- Beyond Good and Evil, Lesson: Moral values have histories, and their history is not innocent
  Moral values have histories, and their history is not innocent. The contrast of master and slave morality claims that 'good' and 'evil' have different origins in different social positions. Readers can test the genealogical method without accepting Nietzsche's contempt for herd morality or his aristocratic politics.
- Confessions, Lesson: Memory and time as mysteries of the mind
  Memory and time as mysteries of the mind. Books X and XI turn autobiography into philosophy, asking how the mind holds the past and future. Augustine's insight that time is experienced in the present mind remains influential.

Context

Orwell drew on his experiences hop-picking in Kent (1931), sleeping rough, and teaching in small private schools (1932-33).

Composition

Published by Victor Gollancz in March 1935; Orwell later asked that it not be reprinted.

Reception

Considered one of Orwell's weaker novels but valued for its documentary sections.

Faith / Religion Doubt Meaning Class / Society Education Gender Women Memory / Time

Comparisons

Jane Eyre
Another heroine who is cast out and returns.
Down and Out in Paris and London
Orwell's memoir drawing on the same experiences of poverty.
Middlemarch
Eliot's heroine who seeks a life of meaningful duty.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

Dorothy's religious practices.
The hop-picking chapter.
The play-script chapter in Trafalgar Square.
How the ending treats faith without belief.

Key terms and names

Rector: Clergyman in charge of a parish.
Hop-picking: Seasonal harvest work in Kent.
Amnesia: Loss of memory, often after shock or strain.
Private school: Fee-paying school, often poorly run in the 1930s.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension How does Dorothy lose her memory?
Comprehension What happens at Mrs. Creevy's school?
Interpretation Why does Dorothy lose her faith?
Interpretation Why does she refuse Warburton?
Interpretation What does the ending suggest?
Big Question Can a person serve faithfully when faith feels absent?

Faith Connections

Psalm 73:26 (Scripture)
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart.
James 3:5-6 (Scripture)
The tongue is a fire; gossip ruins Dorothy.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A life of duty may outlast the loss of faith, but the novel exposes the emptiness that loss leaves.

Rhetorical device: experimental chapter. The Trafalgar Square chapter is written as a play script.

Debate: Resolved: that Dorothy was right to return home.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace Dorothy's spiritual journey through the novel.

Comparison with Jane Eyre: Compare Dorothy and Jane as women cast out from home.

Medical Lens

Dorothy suffers sudden amnesia, and later hunger and exposure.

Dementia Memory Starvation Nutrition

Chapter 2
Dorothy's sudden amnesia and its aftermath.
Dementia Memory

Creative Prompts

Essay
Is Dorothy's loss of faith convincing?
Fiction
Write Dorothy's prayer on the last page.
Classroom
Compare Mrs. Creevy's school with a classical school.