Lorna Doone

“But God forbid any man to be a fool to love, and be loved, as I have been. Else would he have prevented it.” 

This first quote is an early instance of foreshadowing, hinting at the depth of love John will soon experience. It also shows his idealization of said love and his belief that others could not possibly understand it and hints that, from a certain point of view, such depth of love is not recommended.

“Here was I, a yeoman’s boy, a yeoman every inch of me, even where I was naked; and there was she, a lady born, and thoroughly aware of it, and dressed by people of rank and taste, who took pride in her beauty and set it to advantage.” 

This passage highlights one of the primary themes in the book—classism. As a mere yeoman, John Ridd considers himself to be unworthy of Lorna’s love due to her high birth. This is the first of many instances in which John castigates himself for looking above his class.

“…I knew quite well, while all my heart was burning hot within me, and mine eyes were shy of hers, and her eyes were shy of mine; for certain and for ever this I knew—as in a glory—that Lorna Doone had now begun, and would go on, to love me.” 

While Lorna has not yet returned John’s affections, he takes heart that she will one day grow to love him. This certainty fuels his courtship, which shapes the plot of the book.

“One thing was quite certain—if Lorna could not have John Ridd, no one else should have her.” 

Lorna’s commitment to John is not taken lightly. While she makes it clear that she intends to marry John or no one else, he does not initially understand how literally she means it. When Carver Doone tries to coerce her agreement to marry him through starvation, Lorna resolves to die rather than marry him. In addition to showing Lorna’s commitment, this quote also underlines that John’s doubts as to her steadfastness are ill-founded.

“Not a single blow, Jeremy; unless I knew the man who did it, and he gloried in his sin. It was a foul and dastard deed, yet not done in cold blood; neither in cold blood will I take the Lord’s task of avenging it.” 

John explains that he has no intention of attacking the Doones, even to seek revenge on them for killing his father. While John does eventually attack the Doones on two occasions, this quote highlights his reluctance to take a human life and the mercy he will give to Carver Doone, even though he will go on to regret it.

“It is fit for all the world, your worship; with your honor’s good leave, and will […] when it happens so to people, there is nothing that can stop it, sir.” 

When John’s love of Lorna is challenged by Sir Ensor Doone, John disputes his claim that it is an unworthy, passing fancy. He insists that it is a true love which cannot be fought by either party and as such, is noble even if John’s bloodline is not.

“And if my journey to London led to nothing else of advancement, it took me a hundred years in front of what I might else have been, by the most simple accident.” 

This quote foreshadows John’s eventual knighthood and references the part of fate in orchestrating great changes in his life through seemingly minor, unrelated events. The mechanisms of fate appear frequently in the novel, intertwining with foreshadowing and coincidences. 

“I have spared you this time […] because it suits my plans; and I never yield to temper. But unless you come back tomorrow, pure, and with all you took away, and teach me to destroy that fool, who has destroyed himself for you, your death is here, your death is here, where it has long been waiting.” 

Carver Doone’s harassment of Lorna comes with a direct threat to her life. This passage also foreshadows Lorna’s near death at Carver’s hands when he shoots her at her wedding.

“That little thing had lovely eyes, and could be trusted thoroughly. I do like an obstinate little woman, when she is sure that she is right. And indeed if love had never sped me straight to the heart of Lorna (compared to whom, Ruth was no more than the thief is to a candle), who knows but what I might have yielded to the law of nature, that thorough trimmer of balances, and verified proverb that the giant loves the dwarf?”

John considers Ruth’s positive qualities and how if he had not met Lorna, he could have fallen in love with her. While John insists that he never led Ruth on or thought of her in such a way, this quote is the first to directly show that he has considered Ruth, at least theoretically.

“It must not be supposed that I was altogether so thick-headed as Jeremy would have made me out. But it is part of my character that I like other people to think me slow, and to labour hard to enlighten me […].” 

John admits that he prefers to feign stupidity to manipulate others. This casts some doubt on whether John’s self-deprecating descriptions of his intelligence are accurate or another example of his manipulation, this time on the reader. In either case, this may lend weight to the argument that he is an unreliable narrator.

“And then I thought of little Ruth; and without any fault on my part, my heart went down within me.” 

Despite his many claims that he has done nothing wrong, John’s conscience suggests otherwise after he compliments Ruth and lets her dote on him before callously inviting her to his wedding.

“For although the words of the Counsellor had seemed to fail among us, being bravely met and scattered, yet our courage was but as the wind flinging wide the tare-seeds, when the sower casts them from his bag. The crop may not come evenly, many places may long lie bare, and the field may be all in patches; yet almost every vetch will spring, and tiller out, and stretch across the scatterings where the wind puffed.” 

“Upon that there was no more forbearing; but I kissed, and clasped her, whether she were Countess, or whether Queen of England; mine she was, at least in heart; and mine she should be wholly. And she being of the same opinion, nothing was said between us.” 

John is overwhelmed with happiness when he discovers that the prospect of even higher social class and money have not swayed Lorna’s heart from its constancy in loving him. In this moment, he is certain that they will marry and be happy together, no matter what her parentage proves to be.

“I know it, dear; I have known it long; but it never frightens me. It makes me sad, and very lonely, til I remember […] Until I do remember, love, that you will soon come back to me, and be my own for ever. This is what I always think of; this is what I hope for.” 

Lorna explains to John that, though she loves him deeply, she does not expect to be able to marry him. She believes that some external forces will prevent their happiness due to the “selfishness” of its depth. Rather than having faith in a positive outcome for their relationship in life, she takes comfort in the fact that she believes they will be reunited after death.

“If any poor man steals a sheep, having ten children starving, and regarding it as mountain game (as a rich man does a hare), to the gallows with him. If a man of rank beats down a door, smites the owner upon the head, and honours the wife with attention, it is a thing to be grateful for, and to slouch smitten head the lower.”

This statement is at the heart of the most prevalent theme in the book—classism. While the aristocracy can commit all manner of crimes without reprisal, the poor are punished harshly. This observation is validated by Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys’s execution of 500 men, 90% of which were innocent, according to John.

“Gone. And I never shall see her again. It serves me right for aspiring so.

When Lorna is whisked away to London, John despairs, believing that she will stop loving him once she becomes used to the advantages of her title and fortune. This quote also shows his sense of inferiority due to his lower social class and tendencies towards losing faith in Lorna’s love for him as a result.

“There is nobody who understands me as you do. Lorna makes too much of me, and the rest they make too little.” 

John’s best friend is his sister Annie. In this excerpt, he has gone to visit her in order to receive some comfort in the wake of Lorna’s removal to London. He asserts that only Annie sees him as he is as Lorna considers him to be better than he is and everyone else considers him to be worse. This reflects John’s perception of himself as much as his perception of his relationships. It also indicates self-pity, as his mother has not coddled him as she usually does when he is upset, so he considers her among those who do not value him enough, despite his previous indications that she actually thinks too highly of him, just like Lorna.

“In the first place, it is quite certain, that neither you nor I can be happy without the other. Then what stands between us? Worldly position, and nothing else.” 

When John finds Lorna in London, she surprises him by acknowledging him and declaring that her love has not faltered. Despite John’s worries and her sense of impending doom, she still intends to marry him and spend the rest of her life loving him. This quote encapsulates Lorna’s “We had borne our troubles long, a wise and wholesome chastisement; quite content to have some few things of our own unmeddled with. But what could a man dare to call his own or what right could he have to wish for it, while he left his wife and children at the pleasure of any stranger.” opinion on the social disparity: she believes it to be wholly irrelevant given their mutual love.

“We had borne our troubles long, a wise and wholesome chastisement; quite content to have some few things of our own unmeddled with. But what could a man dare to call his own or what right could he have to wish for it, while he left his wife and children at the pleasure of any stranger.” 

John makes this observation regarding the townspeople’s new insistence that the Doones be dealt with. It shows that they feel a line has been crossed and that it is their duty to fight back or consider the attacks to be their own fault due to their continued inaction.

“Try to lead us; and we will try not to run away.” 

The townspeople make this succinct plea in their attempts to cajole John into leading an attack on the Doones. They do not claim to be hardened warriors any more than John claims to be a general, but they swear to do their best if he will do his.

“Darling eyes, the clearest eyes, the most loving eyes—the sound of a shot rang through the church, and those eyes were dim with death.”

When Lorna is shot, John believes her to be dead in his arms. It is this moment, and his general tendencies towards pessimism, that cause him to doubt that she will live. The apparent death of his wife is also enough to spark his reckless pursuit of the man responsible and initially override his unwillingness to take a human life.

“Unarmed, and wondering at my strange attire (with a bridal vest, wrought by our Annie, and red with the blood of the bride), I went forth just to find out this; whether in this world there be, or be not, God of justice.”

John recklessly takes off after Carver Doone rather than attending to his wife who is, in fact, alive. This quest for vengeance shows his commitment to ending Carver Doone’s life in retaliation for the attack on Lorna, which has seemingly robbed John of his happy ending with his love.

“On me lay overwhelming sorrow, having lost my love and lover, at the moment she was mine.”

Once John has seen Carver Doone drown in a black bog and returned home, shot and broken, his anger runs dry. Instead, he is left with the grief of losing his beloved wife before they could truly begin their lives together. This despondency leads to his depression and willingness to die with Lorna and reunite with her in heaven.