The Way of All Flesh

Out of a sense of duty to Alethea, Overton visits Ernest, but he is not pleased with Ernest’s choices and plans. On his way out, he chats with Mrs. Jupp, Ernest’s chatty landlady, who says that Ernest reminds her of someone she knew who died by suicide.

Ernest finds himself at a loss how to proceed. He visits a few people at his rector’s request but finds he cannot meet their needs, even as he longs for larger, seemingly more important, work.

After a few losses on the stock market, Ernest entrusts his funds to Pryer.

Overton compares Ernest to a young horse eating garbage who cannot decide whether it likes it or not.

Feeling guilty, Ernest voices his desire to preach publicly to Pryer, who dismisses the idea as nonsense. Ernest listens but does not agree.

Over time, Ernest comes to believe in cliché expressions, which he hears from Pryer and others, that poor people are much nicer than the rich. One day, he happens to pass Towneley, whom he still admires very much. When Towneley indicates that he does not share Ernest’s feelings about the poor, Ernest feels disillusioned and begins to doubt Pryer. He wonders if Pryer is taking care of his money.

The next day, Ernest resolves to preach to his neighbors, even if he now realizes that he doesn’t like them very much. He decides to begin with Mr. Holt, the tailor who lives above him, who is known for beating his wife. After Mr. Holt frightens him, Ernest switches his attention to Mr. and Mrs. Baxter, who are Methodists, on the top floor. In his conversation with the Baxters, he comes away more favorably impressed with their church that they are with his. Mrs. Baxter advises him to stay away from Miss Snow, who lives on the second floor, hinting that she is a prostitute. She also questions the character of Miss Maitland, another of the building’s residents. Ernest plans to meet with them and the other residents regardless and tells Mrs. Jupp of his plans. She suggests he start with Mr. Shaw, a tinker.

Ernest meets with Mr. Shaw, who quickly exposes weaknesses in Ernest’s logic. Ernest retreats to study, which only further shakes his faith. The next day, he seeks clarification from Pryer, who seems about to confide in Ernest regarding his own research into sin, when their conversation is cut short by the arrival of a visitor.

Ernest goes home and compares the account of the resurrection in the four gospels, as Mr. Shaw invited him to do, finding them contradictory. Mrs. Jupp informs him that Miss Snow is ready to meet with him that night, and he wonders what to do, torn between his conflicted faith and lustful thoughts. At the appointed time, he visits Miss Snow, whom he finds very attractive. Just as they are beginning to talk, Towneley arrives early for a tryst with Miss Snow. Embarrassed, Ernest leaves. Setting his Bible aside, he decides to visit Miss Maitland under the assumption that she, too, is a prostitute. Frightened by Ernest’s advances, Miss Maitland leaves the house and returns with policemen. They arrest Ernest.

Overton demonstrates Ernest’s longstanding “aptitude for mischief” (205) by referring to some amusing sermons he gave. Returning to the narrative, he clarifies that Miss Maitland did not intend have Ernest arrested; instead, she encountered a police officer who interrogated her and decided to act. Towneley, seeing Ernest’s plight, sends Mrs. Jupp to get Overton. On the way to the station, she chatters about how Ernest is a nice but foolish boy, then voices her dislike for Pryer.

At the station, Ernest is charged with assault. Towneley visits Miss Maitland at her father’s house; he refuses to make any concessions. The next day, Towneley and Overton hire a lawyer for Ernest, who advises Ernest simply to apologize instead of making an elaborate defense.

They accept the lawyer’s advice. Ernest admits that Pryer controls his money but is hopeful of getting it back. In the courtroom, Ernest recognizes the judge as the man who sat across from him on the train the day he left Roughborough. After the rector, Overton, and Towneley testify as character witnesses, the judge expresses his shock that someone with Ernest’s favorable background could commit such an offence. Because it is his first crime, the judge sentences him to six months imprisonment instead of holding a formal trial. Towneley manages to keep publicity to a minimum.

Overton visits his lawyer and asks him to retrieve Ernest’s money. He also pays a visit to Theobald. Though he feels some resentment towards them for the way they treated Ernest, he recognizes that the overarching system is more to blame than the people in it. Meeting Theobald, Overton recounts what happened, placing Ernest in as positive a light as possible.

Theobald immediately disowns Ernest, only offering a small sum of money in case he cannot get his funds back from Pryer.

Ernest feels well until he thinks of the pain his actions will cause to his father and mother. He collapses and spends the first few months of his term recovering in the infirmary. As he recovers, he reads the Bible in a more objective mindset and finds that he no longer believes it. Relieved at the prospect of leaving the clergy, which he hated without realizing, Ernest now adopts “rationalism pure and simple” (215) as his philosophy. He plans to leave the country after his release.

Ernest concludes that most people prefer convenience over the truth. To spare others the pain he feels, Ernest plans to confront and win over a high-ranking religious official. He practices his approach on Mr. Hughes, the prison chaplain, with no success.

Ernest confides his desire to emigrate to Mr. Hughes, who informs him that Pryer vanished with Ernest’s money. Overton plans to let Ernest make his way unassisted for the time being, though he is willing to give him some of Alethea’s money early if necessary. Overton gives his opinion that financial ruin is arguably the most painful of life’s experiences.

Overton visits Ernest and offers to help him following his release. Ernest is delighted to learn that Overton considers Ernest’s parents to be “horrid.”

Ernest decides to make a clean break from his parents, then start at the bottom of the social ladder and work his way up. A letter from his parents indicating their desire to meet him on the day of his release only strengthens his resolve.

Overton considers that Ernest, in a way, became a Christian by disregarding convention to seek his personal happiness. During the second half of his prison term, Ernest takes up work as a tailor and serves as organist in the chapel despite his lack of faith. He realizes that most religious and nonreligious people share the same ideal of human behavior, as embodied in the “most perfect gentlemen” (230); the problem is not dogma itself but holding to any particular dogma too rigidly.

Ernest’s parents, whom he now regards “as the most dangerous enemies he had in all the world” (232), unexpectedly meet him as he leaves prison. Determined not to let them regain influence over him, he allows his mother to hug him, but tells Theobald not to speak to him. He weeps as he leaves them, then makes his way to Overton’s house.