The Old Wives' Tale

This is one of the novel’s turning points. Six months after the closing events of Chapter 4, the Poveys are awakened from their sleep to find Daniel frantically seeking help in the middle of the night. Samuel accompanies him to his home and finds that Daniel’s son, Dick, has broken his leg on the stairs while trying to go check on his mother, who hadn’t answered his call. His mother hadn’t answered, though, because she was dead. Daniel confesses that he has killed his wife, though perhaps not intentionally. A habitual drinker, she was a terrible wife and mother, and in trying to shake her from a drunken stupor, Daniel took her by the neck and killed her.

Daniel is arrested for murder. Samuel devotes himself to pleading Daniel’s cause: “Thenceforward he had a mission, religious in its solemn intensity, to defend and save Daniel” (256). He pursues this mission even at the cost of his health, ignoring a lingering cough and pushing himself harder at every step. The whole town of Bursley (except Mr. Critchlow) advocates for Daniel’s freedom, but to no avail: At the trial, Daniel is convicted and sentenced to death. Samuel organizes a massive petition to plead for overturning the conviction.