A short story published by Elizabeth Gaskell in 1852, this is the Gothic Horror tale of a nurse-maid who becomes involved in the secrets of the noble family which employs her, and experiences a strange haunting.
Some old tropes appearing in this story include:
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Both played straight with old Lord Furnivall, who abuses his wealth and power to maintain control over his grand-daughters, and averted with (most of) the other Furnivalls, who are portrayed as fairly nice people, even to a mere nurse-maid.
- Break the Haughty:
- The fate of Maude Furnivall. She starts off the arrogant elder grand-daughter of arrogant old Lord Furnivall, proves Not So Above It All when she secretly falls in love with and marries a handsome but worthless musician crony of her father's, and then is expelled and ultimately dies in part because she refuses to explain that she is not having a child out of wedlock.
- To a lesser extent, her younger sister Grace's humiliation when she imagines herself her sister's rival in love for the musician, who has already married Maude. Grace survives, to wed a better man and bear Rosamund, who survives Maude's ghost, due to the Undying Loyalty of Hester the nurse-maid.
- Central Theme:
- Pride Goeth Before A Fall. Lord Furnivall's arrogance prevented him from seeing the threat his musician posed to his innocent grand-daughters. Maude's arrogance prevented her from admitting her secret marriage to her father Lord Furnivall. Lord Furnivall's arrogance prevented him from forgiving her for this, leading to Maude's death.
- Grace Furnivall, in contrast, has a happier life because she weds the lower-born but virtuous Rev. Esthwaite and hires the loyal nurse-maid Hester to care for little Rosamund; Hester saves Rosamund's life as a child after the death of the Rev. and Grace Esthwaite, and Rosamund recognizes her worth and keeps Hester to care for Rosamund's own children. Grace and Rosamund have learned the lesson old Lord Furnivall and Maude failed to heed.
- Children Are Innocent:
- Rosamund is sweet and loving; she more pities than fears the ghosts of Maude and Maude's daughter, recognizing their loneliness and sorrow.
- Also in a sense true of the ghost of Rosamund's first cousin, who is even younger and doesn't seem to be aware that she's dead. For a ghost she doesn't seem too malevolent.
- Creepy Child: The ghost of Maude's young daughter, who cries and beats silently against the windows of Furnivall Manor, begging to be let into the warmth from the cold which killed her.
- Dark Secret: The ultimately-fatal rivalry between the Furnivall Sisters over the love of "the dark stranger," which led to the secret marriage and then death of Maude and her daughter, and the later haunting of Rosamund's daughter Grace.
- Death Touch: Those touched by Old Lord Furnivall's or Maude Furnivall's ghosts faint and then suffer an illness; they die within a day. It is likely that Little Miss Furnivall has the same ability.
- Family Honor: The likely reason Lord Furnivall cast out his grand-daughter Maude, leading to her death and the death of his great-grand-daughter, his own death, the haunting of his home, and general misery for himself and his family.
- Forbidden Love: The Dark Foreign Musician, for Maude. This is because he is of much lower social status than her, and old Lord Furnivall would have almost certainly refused it. This leads indirectly to the death of Maude and her child.
- Framing Device: Hester, now an old woman (hence an "old nurse"), tells the main story to the now-full-grown Rosamund's children, main who must be old enough to understand this, so the Nested Story must be taking place at least a quarter-century earlier.
- Ghost Fiction: With three ghosts, namely Maude Furnivall and her daughter, and her grandfather old Lord Furnivall.
- Ghostly Goals: Three ghosts, each apparently with its own goal.
- Maude Furnivall wants revenge on her family for the death of herself and her infant daughter.
- Lord Furnivall wants to punish Maude for rebelling against his wishes, and Maude's daughter for existing.
- Poignantly, Maude's innocent little daughter seems to want only to be let inside Furnivall Manor to be allowed to get warm.
- Grim Up North: Furnivall Manor is in Northumberland. Which is as far north west as you can go in England without crossing the border to Scotland. And the story takes place in the dead of winter.
- Haunted House: Furnivall Manor, by the ghosts of the old Lord Furnivall, Maude Furnivall and her daughter.
- Honor-Related Abuse: Lord Furnivall's treatment of his elder grand-daughter Maude and her daughter. This includes beating her with a crutch, trying to kill his great-grand-daughter Little Miss Furnivall with that crutch, and casting both of them out into a bitterly-cold night.
- Honor Before Reason: Lord Furnivall, should you really be kicking out your your grand-daughter and her child with no means of support, just because of her Secret Relationship (most Regency or Early Victorian noble families would have given her an allowance as long as she was quiet about it)? And, Maude, maybe you should explain to your father that you're actually MARRIED? This ends poorly for all three concerned, including the innocent child.
- Kindly Housekeeper: As an older woman, Hester has implicitly become this to Rosamund and her children. Though it is not clear whether or not she literally keeps house for them (Victorian servants were often rather specialized).
- Kind Restraints: In the climax, little Rosamund wants to run out to join the ghosts of Maude Furnivall and her daughter. Hester, at risk to herself, runs to grab Rosamund and prevent her from this fatal action, saving Rosamund's life.
- Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Old Lord Furnivall tosses his grand-daughter Maude and her infant daughter out into a dangerously-cold night miles from shelter, causing their deaths. Maude[['s ghost then murders old Lord Furnivall and later Mr. Esthwaite and Grace, her brother-in-law and sister respectively. She also tries to murder her niece Rosamund Esthwaite]]. Old Lord Furnivall[['s ghost then slays his own daughter Miss Furnivall]].
- Maid and Maiden: While Hester is only in her late teens during the major events of this tale, Rosamund is just around 5 years old, and hence the relative age dynamics still apply.
- Nested Story: Given that an (older) Hester is narrating the events of the main story to a grown Rosamund's children, the main story must be taking place or a quarter-century or more before the Framing Device. What's more, given the biography of Rosamund's mother Grace, the Furnivall family scandal must have taken place at least 5-10 years earlier, creating a second level of nesting.
- Old, Dark House: Furnivall Manor is a Haunted House with at least one Dark Secret, which has been partly shut up for about half a century.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The three ghosts all share the ability to present images of themselves as they seemed in life, seem to be unable to speak, and possess a delayed Death Touch.
- Parental Substitute: Rosamund lost both her parents around age 4-5, and her nurse-maid Hester becomes the closest thing to a mother the orphan still has. Hester is fiercely loyal to her young charge, even being willing to defy the Furnivalls if it will protect Rosamund from harm. The framing story makes it obvious that Rosamund reciprocates this love, as Hester is still with Rosamund, caring for Rosamund's children, 25 or so years later.
- Plot-Triggering Death:
- If Rev. Esthwaite and his wife Grace hadn't died shortly before the start of the main story, their young daughter Rosamund and her nurse-maid Hester would never have gone to dwell at Furnivall Manor.
- If Maude Furnivall and her daughter hadn't died a decade or so before the events of the main story, there would have been no ghosts around Furnivall Manor.
- Pride: Certainly the Fatal Flaw of the elder Lord Furnivall, probably of Maude Furnivall, and possibly of Grace Furnivall — until she learned from her sister's fate, and instead married a humbler but better man than did Maude.
- Pride Before a Fall: The fates of the elder Lord Furnivall (deprived of his elder grand-daughter and great-grand-daughter), and then his life; also of Maude Furnivall (who dies along with her daughter).
- Proud Beauty: Definitely applicable to Maude and probably also to Grace Furnivall, before Grace learned better.
- Roaring Rampage of Romance: The love between Maude Furnivall and the Dark Foreign Musician leads to the deaths of Maude, their daughter, her grandfather old Lord Furnivall, her sister Grace, her brother-in-law Mr. Esthridge, and ultimately her aunt Miss Furnivall.
- Secret Relationship: Maude secretly marries the foreign musician and bears his daughter. The fact that she is too proud to tell old Lord Furnivall leads to her subsequent death.
- Snow Means Death: both figuratively and literally. Things get creepier and more dangerous as the winter progresses; the ghosts are of Maude Furnivall and her little daughter, who died in the snow many years ago; and they seek to lure little Rosamond out to die in the same manner.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: The Dark Foreign Musician flees, fearing old Lord Furnivall's anger, which is the last Maude sees of him.
- Start of Darkness: The second-level Nested Story describes how all three of the ghosts were made.
- Plucky Girl: Three examples in-story:
- Maude Furnivall: Defies her father, old Lord Furnivall, to love and secretly marry the foreign musician; further defies him by refusing to tell him the truth when he discovers the existence of her daughter. It doesn't end well for her, but not even death prevents her from seeking vengeance for this.
- Hester the Nurse-Maid: Defies her employers and risks her life to protect her charge Rosamund Furnivall from the ghosts.
- Rose Furnivall: Though no more than five years old, is motivated by More than Mind Control to run out to "her little girl" (the ghost of Maude's daughter — she wants to comfort and protect the frightened younger child!
- Undead Child: the ghost of Maude's daughter, who noiselessly beats on the windows of Furnivall Manor, begging to be let in from the cold.
- Unreliable Narrator: Hester seems a little shaky on details such as how long and how completely Furnivall Manor has been shuttered. Given her experiences there, it's not surprising if she didn't want to think about any unnecessary details of the place afterward.
