“Awww, she’s ugly.” Mr. Hartright’s Disappointing Revelation

When Mr Hartright first meets Miss Halcombe, he begins his description without even having viewed her face. He describes her as “…tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, yet not fat” (34). This is yet another instance where Hartright is unable to place the person he is describing into a category. It all comes to a head when Miss Halcombe turns around and discovers, much to his horror, that “the lady is ugly!” (34). He feels betrayed by Miss Halcombe’s figure causing him to expect a beautiful young woman. He states that the adage “nature cannot err” has never been “more flatly contradicted” by his discovery (34). Even though he says that after Miss Halcombe turns around, contradiction permeates throughout his description of her before her face is revealed to him. This contradiction though takes on a Goldie Locks like effect when he describes her body. She is the perfect height and the perfect weight. Her movement was elegant and caused him to grow excited seeing her face. Her face, on the other hand, brought Mr. Hartright back down to earth and he was disgusted by it. Her face contradicts her body. Her body was perfect in every way, but her face was dark to the point where it seemed she may have even had a mustache. This duality of Miss Halcombe, her womanly body and her manly face, puts Mr. Hartright on edge. He is easily able to move past her facial features that he deems ugly and is able to become good friends with Miss Halcombe, but he never views her in a romantic light again. I believe this scene, though, sets up the reader, and Mr. Hartright, to be prepared to be deceived by how a character may seem when they first appear, just as Hartright feels that he was deceived by Miss. Halcombe’s body in thinking that she was a beautiful woman.