Down

Down is the most significant setting of the book, as it is where Charles and Emma move and raise their family in Chapter 16: Down in the Country. The Down House is also featured among the pictures between pages 156 and 157. Down represents the counterpoint to Charles’s concerns about whether or not to marry. It also represents the question, similar to the question of his marriage, of whether or not he would have achieved his greatness if he had stayed in London.

In the opening of the book, Charles writes in his cramped London apartment about his love of London, and one of his concerns about marriage is that his wife will not like London. Charles also worries that living in the country will make him simple and lazy, and he will miss the opportunity to engage with clever men in the city. However, once the children arrived, it...