An Eye For An Eye by Anthony Trollope

“And England is what it is because there are still some left among us who are born to high rank and who know how to live up to the standard that is required of us.”

One of Anthony Trollope’s Irish novels, An Eye For An Eye is a fairly short book that examines snobbery, inheritance and prejudice through an ill-fated love affair.

The Scroopes of Scroope Hall are an old, distinguished and wealthy family, but the Scroopes faces a dilemma in the subject of inheritance. Elderly Lord Scroope, a morose, melancholy and inflexible widower had two children–a boy and a girl. The hopes of the family rested on Scroope’s son and heir who proved to be a complete wastrel, running up debts, and “thoughtless” and “lavish,” the son eventually married a French prostitute. Completely ostracized from the family, the heir to the Scroope estate died. The daughter, Lady Blanche Neville married well but died childless.

The question then becomes who will inherit the Scroope estate, fortune and good name. Lord Scroope, who is estranged from his younger brother, has two nephews he has never cultivated, Fred and Jack Neville. Lord Scroope and his second wife invite Fred to gloomy Scroope Hall with the intention of making this nephew the sole heir of the Scroope fortune.

While Lord and Lady Scroope intend for Fred to immediately assume the lifestyle of the heir and make a suitable match, Fred has other plans. An officer in the army, he pleads for a year with his regiment soon to be stationed in Ireland. Citing obligations, the truth is that Fred wants adventure, and burying himself in the heavy gloom of Scroope Manor doesn’t appeal to his youthful imagination. So Fred leaves to join his regiment in Ireland–much to the silent disapproval of Lord and Lady Scroope.

Fred soon becomes entangled with a young beautiful Irish-catholic girl, Kate O’Hara. Kate lives with her impoverished mother alone in a little house perched on a cliff, and Fred, a frequent visitor, falls in love with Kate, and promises Mrs O’Hara that he will make Kate his wife. But Fred is forced to choose between Kate and the approval of his Scroope relatives.

While Fred is attracted to Kate for her lack of pretensions, her simplicity and natural grace, he very soon experiences a change of heart. This change of heart begins to erode Fred’s feelings for Kate in direct proportion to his acceptance of his familial responsibilities as the new Earl of Scroope. When Fred first arrives in Ireland, his fixation on wantonly slaughtering seals and seagulls is indicative of his thoughtless, randomly destructive nature. A day of hunting on the cliffs of Ireland is the sport of the wealthy, and Fred wastes his days in the empty pursuit of carcasses. He falls in love with the untamed Irish coast at the same he falls in love with Kate, but it’s a love that’s based on its contrasts with the stuffy confines of Scroope Hall and its looming responsibilities.

Fred is portrayed as a somewhat weak character who is caught between the cast-iron personalities of Lord Scroope and Mrs. O’Hara–both very strong-willed individuals who won’t give an inch. Fred, who’s both amiable and weak, tragically tries to please all sides in the dilemma–even fancifully imagining he can keep his promise to both Mrs. O’Hara and the Earl of Scroope. And, of course in the end, Fred ends up pleasing no one.

An Eye For An Eye is not Trollope’s best novel. It is not one of Trollope’s humorous tales, and I do tend to think that Trollope is at his best when he lays bare the vanities and foibles of human nature. An Eye For An Eye zeros in on snobbery, and anti-Irish sentiment is central here, but this is a simple tragic tale that weighs questions of morality against social conventions, prejudice and snobbery.