The Mighty and Their Fall by Ivy Compton-Burnett
"The Mighty and Their Fall" by Ivy Compton-Burnett is a novel that explores the complexities of family dynamics within an upper-class British household. The story centers around Ninian Middleton, a widower and father, who announces his engagement to Teresa Chilton, a decision that disrupts the existing family order and evokes resistance from family members. As Teresa visits the family, her presence reveals underlying tensions, leading to a series of events characterized by manipulation, hidden motives, and moral dilemmas.
The narrative intricately weaves themes of power, social status, and personal integrity, culminating in a moral test that exposes the flawed nature of the characters. Following the death of Ninian's terminally ill brother, Ransom, the family grapples with issues of inheritance, loyalty, and betrayal, as revelations about familial ties and financial motivations come to light. The story ultimately comments on the human condition and the shared fallibility of each family member, as they navigate love, betrayal, and the consequences of their actions.
In this context, Compton-Burnett's work offers a reflection on Victorian family life, critique of patriarchal structures, and insight into the roles of women and servants, making it a compelling study of moral ambiguity and interpersonal relationships.
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The Mighty and Their Fall by Ivy Compton-Burnett
First published: 1961
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of plot: Mid-twentieth century
Locale: Unnamed town in England
Principal characters
Ninian Middleton , a widower and fatherLavinia , his oldest daughterRansom , his brotherHugo , his adopted brotherSelina , his motherTeresa Chilton , Ninian’s second wifeAinger andCook , servants in the house
The Story:
To this polished, stodgy, upper-class British family replete with house servants and a governess, Ninian Middleton, the father, who is a widower, announces that he is engaged to marry Teresa Chilton. The news is ill-received by all, because the forthcoming event requires redefining family roles and relationships.
Teresa visits the family and conversation turns to such trivial matters as what the children should call their new stepmother. She is made to feel uncomfortable and unwanted by the family. After her visit, she writes a letter to Ninian saying that if he wants out of the engagement all he needs to do is ignore the letter; that is, not reply to it. Lavinia, in a misguided attempt to protect Ninian, hides the letter (not yet read by Ninian), which is not discovered for some ten days after Teresa’s appointed deadline. Ninian contacts Teresa and the two are married, but it remains a mystery as to which family member had hidden the letter. Eventually, it is revealed that Lavinia is the culprit. Ninian and other family members are ostensibly forgiving, but in truth they are not—Lavinia is to be made to live in her family as a sinner.
Ransom, Ninian’s younger brother, arrives home and reveals that he is terminally ill. Dying, he has taken a flat near Ninian’s house; he wants one of the children to come and live with him during his last days. He chooses Lavinia, because the two of them are the family’s appointed reprobates. Before dying, Ransom devises a trick on Ninian that is designed to reveal Ninian’s honesty—or lack thereof. Ransom writes two wills, one in which Ninian is named chief benefactor and the other naming Lavinia. Ransom asks Ninian to burn the will that lists Ninian as chief inheritor of Ransom’s estate. Ninian fails the moral test. Ransom reveals all to the family. Thus, it is proved that the father is as morally reprehensible as both Ransom and Lavinia.
Ransom dies, leaving his wealth to Lavinia. Lavinia and Hugo, Ninian’s adopted brother and Lavinia’s uncle, are to be married. All are in a state of shock, although it is well established that the two are not blood kin. Selina, mother to Ninian and Hugo, then claims that Hugo is a family member by blood. Specifically, that the dead father had brought Hugo home as a bastard son and that Ninian and Hugo are half-brothers. Hugo, professing his love for the now-rich Lavinia, insists that the story is not true. He departs to investigate. Shortly, he returns with proof that Selina is lying and that he is not a blood member of the family. Thus, all is cleared for the wedding.
Selina devises her own plan to control the event from beyond the grave. She, too, has become sick to the point of death; she writes a will in which she makes Hugo her chief benefactor. Upon her death, Hugo succeeds to great sums of money. He decides that he does not want to marry, after all, because he likes his life of debauchery and bachelorhood too much. Lavinia is then welcomed back into the family, since it is agreed that her own treachery in hiding the letter is certainly no greater than her father’s in burning the will, in Selina’s for telling the lie about Hugo’s birth, or in Hugo’s for being so quickly and manifestly bought off from love with money. All of the mighty family members are fallen, a fact commented upon by the servants in the kitchen.
Bibliography
Baldanza, Frank. Ivy Compton-Burnett. New York: Twayne, 1964. Set in the context of the author’s biography and career, The Mighty and Their Fall is discussed in terms of characters, plot, and theme.
Cavaliero, Glen. “Family Fortunes: Ivy Compton-Burnett.” In The Alchemy of Laughter: Comedy in English Fiction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Cavaliero includes works by Compton-Burnett in his examination of comedy in English novels, in which he discusses the elements of parody, irony, satire, and other types of humor in these books.
Gentile, Kathy Justice. Ivy Compton-Burnett. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. Establishes Compton-Burnett as a feminist and adds new and important perspectives to her work, including feminist analyses of all the writer’s novels. Includes an excellent bibliography
Ingman, Heather. “Ivy Compton-Burnett: Tyrants, Victims, and Camp.” In Women’s Fiction Between the Wars: Mothers, Daughters, and Writing. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Explores how Compton-Burnett and five other authors depict the mother-daughter relationship in their work. Ingman argues that Compton-Burnett’s novels “provide a devastating insight into the psychopathology of Victorian family life and a critique of the patriarchal power structures underpinning it.”
Karl, Frederick R. The Contemporary English Novel. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1962. Contains a chapter that delineates the important characteristics of Compton-Burnett’s novels: problems of Victorian and post-Victorian families, moral choices that involve material values, familial attachments and relationships, drawing-room ethics, the roles of governesses and servants, and tragic and semitragic events.
Kiernan, Robert F. Frivolity Unbound: Six Masters of the Camp Novel. New York: Continuum, 1990. One of the masters of the “camp novel” is Compton-Burnett. Kiernan examines the ironically formulaic banality of her work.
Ross, Marlon B. “Contented Spinsters: Governessing and the Limits of Discursive Desire in the Fiction of Ivy Compton-Burnett.” In Old Maids to Radical Spinsters: Unmarried Women in the Twentieth-Century Novel, edited by Laura L. Doan. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1991. Discusses the role of the spinster or “old maid” in the novels of Compton-Burnett. Miss Starkie, the children’s governess, and Selina Middleton, family matriarch, fill the role in The Mighty and Their Fall.