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1. Novel Barchester
Tower
By
Antholy Trollope
Prepared by UMER
HAYAT
For M.A English

2. Antholy Trollope
Born 24 April 1815
London, England
Died 6 December 1882 (aged 67)
Marylebone, London,
England
Occupation Novelist; civil servant (Post
Office)
Spouse(s) Rose Heseltine (1821-1917)
Relatives Thomas Anthony Trollope
(father), Frances Milton
Trollope (mother), Thomas
Adolphus Trollope (brother)

3. Introduction of the
Novel
Barchester Towers, published in
1857 by Anthony Trollope, is the
second novel in his series known as
the "Chronicles of Barsetshire".
Among other things it satirises the
antipathy in the Church of
England between High
Church and Evangelical adherents.

4. Intro….
• He wrote constantly and made
himself a writing-desk so he
could continue writing while
travelling by train. "Pray know
that when a man begins writing
a book he never gives over", he
wrote in a letter during this
period. "The evil with which he

5. Continue…..
• In his autobiography, Trollope
observed "In the writing
of Barchester Towers I took great
delight. The bishop and Mrs.
Proudie were very real to me, as
were also the troubles of the
archdeacon and the loves of Mr.
Slope". When he submitted his
finished work, his publisher,

6. Conclusion Intro….
• Recent critics offer a more
sanguine opinion,
"Barchester Towers is many
readers' favourite Trollope",
wrote The Guardian, which
included it in its list of "1000
novels everyone must read".

7. Characters of the novel
The High Church faction
• Archdeacon Grantly, Dr Theophilus Grantly,
is the son of the former Bishop of Barchester, Dr
Grantly senior, who dies at the start of the novel.
Married to Susan Harding, he has three sons
(Charles James, Henry, and Samuel) and two
daughters (Florinda and Griselda) and lives at
Plumstead Episcopi. His sister-in-law is Mrs
Eleanor Bold, née Harding.
• Mrs Susan Grantly, Mr Harding's elder
daughter and the Archdeacon's wife.
• Mr Septimus Harding is the meek,

8. Characters of the novel
• Mr Francis Arabin, vicar of St Ewold,
Fellow of Lazarus College and former
professor of poetry at Oxford University.
He is a former follower of John Henry
Newman and adheres to the High Church
faction of the Anglican Church. Arabin is
sought out by Dr Grantly as an ally against
the evangelical faction of Bishop Proudie,
his wife and chaplain Obadiah Slope.
• Dr Gwynne, Master of Lazarus College,

9. The Low Church faction
• Bishop Proudie, apparently henpecked, weak-
willed and under the influence of his wife Mrs
Proudie and chaplain Obadiah Slope concerning
the matters of the see.
• Mrs Proudie, a proud, vulgar, domineering wife,
who promotes evangelical causes such as
Sunday schools and is adamant in eliminating
high-church rituals.
• Mr Obadiah Slope, a wheedling, oleaginous
chaplain who has much influence over Bishop
Proudie. Midway in the novel Slope decides that
he will marry Mrs Eleanor Bold (née Harding).
Formerly Mrs Proudie's ally, he comes into
conflict with her over the wardenship of Hiram's
Hospital and she regards him as a traitor. The
narrator speculates that he is a lineal
descendant of Doctor Slop from the

10. Others
• Mrs Eleanor Bold, widow of John Bold
with an infant son and younger daughter of
Mr Septimus Harding. She has three
potential suitors, Mr Obadiah Slope, Mr
Bertie Stanhope and Mr Francis Arabin.
• Dr Vesey Stanhope is the rector of
Crabtree Canonicorum and of
Stogpingum, in the diocese of Barchester
and a prebendary of Barchester Cathedral.
He and his family lived for twelve years in
Italy before being recalled by Bishop

11. Others
• Ethelbert "Bertie" Stanhope is the only son
of Dr Vesey Stanhope. An idling, carefree
man who never settles down, he is a gifted
artist, who borrows and spends a great deal
and earns nothing. His sister Charlotte
advises him to woo the rich and beautiful
widow Eleanor Bold.
• Charlotte Stanhope is the polymath elder
daughter of Dr Vesey Stanhope; she
challenges Eleanor Bold to comment on the
theological arguments concerning intelligent
life on other worlds as presented by William

12. Others
• Mr Quiverful, a poor clergyman with 14
children who becomes the new Warden of
Hiram's Hospital.
• Mrs Letty Quiverful, his wife.
• Wilfred Thorne, the squire of St Ewold's.
A bachelor of about fifty who comes under
the charms of Signora Neroni.
• Miss Monica Thorne, his spinster sister
of about sixty, who is an extreme
traditionalist. She throws a party at their

13. Others
• Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni née Madeline
Stanhope is the beautiful younger daughter of
Dr Vesey Stanhope, given to inflation of her own
status- "her father had been christened Vesey as
another man is christened Thomas, and she had
no more right to assume it than would have the
daughter of a Mr Josiah Jones to call herself Mrs
Josiah Smith, on marrying a man of the latter
name"; her card bears "a bright gilt coronet",
despite the fact that her husband, Paulo Neroni,
"had had not the faintest title to call himself a
scion of even Italian nobility". Lamed by her
abusive Italian husband, she is disabled and

14. Plot summary
• Barchester Towers concerns the leading
clergy of the cathedral city of Barchester.
The much loved bishop having died, all
expectations are that his son, Archdeacon
Grantly, will succeed him. Owing to the
passage of the power of patronage to a
new Prime Minister, a newcomer, the far
more Evangelical Bishop Proudie, gains
the see. His wife, Mrs Proudie, exercises
an undue influence over the new bishop,
making herself as well as the bishop
unpopular with most of the clergy of the
diocese. Her interference to veto the
reappointment of the universally popular

15. Continue….
• Even less popular than Mrs Proudie is
the bishop's new chaplain, the
hypocritical and sycophantic Mr
Obadiah Slope, who decides it would
be expedient to marry Harding's
wealthy widowed daughter, Eleanor
Bold. Slope hopes to win her favour by
interfering in the controversy over the
wardenship. The Bishop or rather Mr
Slope under the orders of Mrs Proudie,
also orders the return of
the prebendary Dr Vesey Stanhope

16. Continue…
• The younger of Dr Stanhope's two
daughters causes consternation in the
Palace and threatens the plans of Mr
Slope. Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni
is a disabled serial flirt with a young
daughter and a mysterious Italian
husband, whom she has left. Mrs
Proudie is appalled and considers her
an unsafe influence on her daughters,
servants and Mr Slope. Mr Slope is

17. Continue…
• Summoned by Archdeacon Grantly to assist
in the war against the Proudies and Mr Slope
is the brilliant Reverend Francis Arabin. Mr
Arabin is a considerable scholar, Fellow of
Lazarus College at Oxford, who nearly
followed his mentor John Henry
Newman into the Roman Catholic Church. A
misunderstanding occurs between Eleanor
and her father, brother-in-law, sister and Mr
Arabin, who think that she intends to marry
Mr Slope, much to their disgust. Mr Arabin is
attracted to Eleanor but the efforts of Grantly

18. Continue…
• At the Ullathorne garden party held by
the Thornes, matters come to a head.
Mr Slope proposes to Mrs Bold and is
slapped for his presumption; Bertie
goes through the motions of a proposal
to Eleanor and is refused with good
grace and the Signora has a chat with
Mr Arabin. Mr Slope's double-dealings
are now revealed and he is dismissed
by Mrs Proudie and the Signora. The

19. Conclusion of the summary…
• The old Dean of the Cathedral having
died, Mr Slope campaigns to become
Dean but Mr Harding is offered
the preferment, with a beautiful house
in the Close and fifteen acres of
garden. Mr Harding considers himself
unsuitable and with the help of the
archdeacon, arranges that Mr Arabin be
made Dean. With the Stanhopes' return
to Italy, life in the Cathedral Close

20. Themes: CHURCH
DOCTRINE AND REFORM
• The major theme of Barchester
Towers is the ongoing struggle
between the conservative and liberal
factions of the Church of England. The
conservative, or high-church, faction
seeks to preserve the ceremonies and
traditions of the older church, usually
involving great elaborate musical and
spiritual exercises. In Barchester, the
Archdeacon and his followers
represent the conservative side. The

21. CHURCH DOCTRINE AND
REFORM
• The conservative side is shown as
seeking to maintain the status quo at all
points. It is also regarded as boring and
unconnected to real life by many of the
common churchgoers. Many members of
the clergy, particularly Dr. Slope, are
shown to have taken advantage of the lax
accountability among established
churchmen and have constructed ways in
which they can receive a salary for work
they have no intention of doing. Many of
these clergyman see their church

22. Continue….
• The liberal side, however, focuses on
evangelical rhetoric to win followers.
Common churchgoers respond to
sermons delivered in this way
because they are different and more
interesting than the ones given by
the conservative preachers. The
liberal side presses individual
church doctrinal issues in order to
force reform. Issues like the

23. Continue…..
• In Barchester, these religious issues take
on personal significance as each side
rejects the other’s ideas about what
makes the church. Rather than seeing
each other as opposite sides of the same
organization, both sides work to establish
their own dominance and to make sure
that the other side cannot enforce its own
views. In doing so, many insignificant
issues become very important because
they reflect the struggle for power.
• The wardenship at the hospital, the
deanery of the cathedral, and the smaller
concerns of the Sabbath schools all have

24. HUSBANDS AND WIVES
• Several sets of husbands and wives, and
potential husbands and wives, are
presented in the story. Each set shows
some variation on what the author
considers to be natural and unnatural
relationships between men and women.
• Dr. and Mrs. Proudie are presented as an
unnatural couple because Mrs. Proudie is
the dominant partner. The author offers
various statements of how Dr. Proudie
should rise up and reclaim his rights as
the man in the relationship and dismisses
him as weak and ineffectual because he

25. Continue….
• The relationship between the Archdeacon and
his wife is set up in contrast to the Bishop’s.
Their relationship is based on mutual respect
and it is out of respect that the Bishop’s wife
believes that she should obedient to him.
When the Archdeacon decides to cut off their
relationship with Eleanor, his wife does as he
says despite her own feelings on the matter.
• Eleanor and Mr. Arabin present what the
author assumes is the perfect couple. They are
mutually respectful of each other while at the
same time recognizing Mr. Arabin’s
dominance. Eleanor, who because of her
private income from her husband’s death has