The Union and Sir Kit's marriage

Knowing that the novel is quite political in nature, it is hard not to see Sir Kit and his wife, Jessica, as representations of England and Ireland, although neither can be said to only England or Ireland.

The respective representation of these countries is first seen in their marriage, because that clearly alludes to the union between England and Ireland. The difficulty of defining who represents what country begins immediately though. Sir Kit brings over Jessica to Ireland, which would seem to connote that the Irish are the “head of the household,” but history clearly tells us that Ireland never had the upper hand in its relationship with England. Jessica’s blue-blood Englishness is clearly seen when she goes on a tour of Sir Kit’s estate and doesn’t know anything about the landscape, and even laughs at the name of the bog. Sir Kit clearly acts Irish because he takes on the stereotype that the English held about the Irish: “He used to swear at her behind her back, after kneeling to her to her face, and call her in the presence of his gentleman his stiff-necked Israelite, though… he used to call her… ‘my pretty Jessica.’ (80). Here is a perfect example of the two-faceness the English thought the Irish had; a system of thought that was especially prevalent in Victorian literature. 

Sir Kit and Jessica visibly represent the union, but their attitudes and actions make it hard to distinguish who represents what country sometimes.