The Armor of Light: A Novel

“Books and newspapers fill their heads with half-understood ideas. It makes them discontented with the station in life that God has ordained for them. They get foolish notions about equality and democracy.”

The bishop voices many of the concerns shared by the upper classes regarding workers’ rights. While the bishop may not be a mill owner, he is from the same social class and he shares his peers’ fundamental belief that working class people cannot be trusted with an education. He speaks in favor of the status quo, believing that better working conditions are akin to “foolish notions” (34) because they threaten his status.

“Hope drained out of Sal. An argument with one of those who ruled always ended like this. The gentry were right because they were the gentry, regardless of laws, promises or logic. Only the poor had to obey the rules.”

Sal is exhausted by the bleak situation of the workers. Laws and logic mean nothing when the rigid British social class structure dominates everything. The aphoristic final statement in this quote encapsulates The Pernicious Effects of Social Inequality.

“Kate and Becca were like husband and wife in every way that mattered. They loved each other and shared a bed.”

Kate and Becca’s queer relationship defies conventional expectations of romance in 18th-century Britain. People like Spade acknowledge that their informal, secret marriage is, in effect, exactly like every other marriage, but pervasive anti-gay bias means that their lives are defined by The Tension Between Romantic Love and Social Expectation. Spade’s experiences with his sister inform his broader political views and motivate his campaigns for social justice and equality.

“Call it whatever you like, as long as it doesn’t sound subversive.”

Spade is an advocate for workers’ rights, but he understands the importance of appearances. He is playing a subtle game, trying to disguise the truly radical ideas he wants to discuss by naming the society something mundane. This appearance of conformity permits the workers to hide their radicalism beneath a mask of social conformity.

“He noticed that the workers were all sitting on benches at the back, while the well-dressed had chairs near the front. That had not been planned, he knew; people must have instinctively created a social division. He was not sure whether that was amusing or just a bit sad.”

The meeting of the Socratic Society brings together people from many different walks of life. The way in which they arrange themselves in the meeting hall shows the extent to which class divisions have become internalized. No one has told the crowd to organize themselves along class lines, but they are so used to the divisions in society that they naturally do so. This illustrates the importance of Spade’s work to combat class distinctions and shows the scale of the task ahead.

“It was thought to be essential to law and order and military discipline. People said it deterred crime and misbehavior. Spade doubted that.”

Spade is always keen to reject conventional wisdom. The use of public flogging, for example, is commonplace in the maintenance of law and order in the society in which he lives. Yet Spade takes a distinctly modern attitude to corporal punishment, believing it to be ineffective. His attitude toward contemporary ideas positions Spade as a man ahead of time.

“I make a point of ordering at least one flogging a week, to keep the men in line.”

If Spade is a forward-looking man who represents encroaching modernity, then Will Riddick represents a reactionary adherence to the past. Will orders floggings not because they are effective (both he and his militia are notably ill-disciplined throughout the book) but because such practices have always been used. He is stuck in the old ways, using violent tactics not so much because they are effective but because they are a spiteful reminder of his class privilege.

“‘I hate the name Joey. Call him Joe for short, if you must.’ He did not care to be reminded of the time when he had been a scrawny kid scavenging London’s rubbish heaps and his name had been Joey. But he did not need to explain his feelings. His family would do what he said without asking why.”

Hornbeam shares a name with his grandson, but he does not want his grandson’s name to trigger his traumatic memories of the past. Even the name Joey is enough to transport Hornbeam back to a time he wishes to forget. As such, Joe Hornbeam represents the complexity of Hornbeam’s past and present: He is an illustration of everything Hornbeam loves and an embodiment of what he has achieved, while also a perpetual reminder of the trauma that motivates this drive for success.

“The new mill was long and narrow, and made of the same stone as the cathedral.”

In the late 18th century, the mill transforms Kingsbridge as much as the cathedral did in the 12th. As shown in Pillars of the Earth, the construction of the cathedral changed Kingsbridge forever. The mill is not only similarly revolutionary, but it is built from the same material. By the 18th century, commerce and factories perform the same revolutionary function in society that the cathedral once performed. That they are built from the same material invites a point of comparison across the centuries.

“Every pregnancy is the result of one act of intercourse.”

Throughout the novel, pregnancies (particularly those that result from an affair) change the lives of the characters. Spade and Amos become fathers to illegitimate children; one moment of passion, the singular “act of intercourse” (368), is not just enough to change their lives, but to bring another life into the world. Each pregnancy is the result of one moment of passion, but these passionate moments become local points around which the entire narrative (and the lives of the characters) pivot.

“I think he’s terrified of falling back into the poverty of his childhood. It’s not rational, it’s probably a feeling he can’t shake. No amount of money will ever be enough to make him feel safe.”

Hornbeam’s cruelty derives from his fear. His childhood trauma, his experience of poverty, and the memory of his mother being hanged have instilled in Hornbeam a fear of the past. In this way, he embodies The Pernicious Effects of Social Inequality. His experience of childhood poverty was so traumatic that it precludes empathy.

“But Amos could not live with the guilt. He had sinned today, a sin he had never committed before.”

Amos is a devout Methodist and thinks profoundly about his sins. Yet he is as prone to lapses in judgement as anyone else. After committing adultery with Jane, he fears for the state of his soul. Amos’s moment of “sinful” passion with Jane lives on through the birth of their son. Henry becomes a living reminder to Amos of his sin. His intense self-criticism over this momentary lapse is ironic in that other characters—Hornbeam especially—seem untroubled by far more serious moral transgressions.

“It’s more like a death sentence.”

Kit loves Roger and is excited to start a business with him, but their hopes are dashed when Kit is conscripted into the army. Previously, the war was a passive, ambient intrusion on the lives of the characters. The war caused inflation or limited international trade; now, Kit’s dreams are dashed explicitly because of the war. Kit feels like this is a “death sentence” (492), not only because of the danger he may experience, but because his dreams of being with Roger are threatened.

“Grandpa, why did he have to be hanged?”

When Joe asks Hornbeam why Tommy Pidgeon was hanged, he unexpectedly puts Hornbeam in a difficult position. Already, the young boy’s facial features remind Hornbeam of his late mother. Now, he is reminded that he hanged a boy for the same offense which led to his mother’s execution. Joe is unconsciously asking Hornbeam to justify the execution of his own mother, as well as Tommy.

“A Methodist is a revolutionary who doesn’t want to chop off anyone’s head.”

Amos’s quiet activism is cloaked in his Methodism. He may not be a dramatic figure capable of violent revolution, but Amos’s religious beliefs mean that he is just as sincere as any other radical. He cannot chop off heads, but he is dedicated to social justice with a religious fervor.

“Most of this morning’s audience were not enfranchised, and many resented that.”

The meeting brings together many people who have a vested interest in politics but cannot vote. As such, the discussion of politics is a pointed reminder of their own powerlessness. The political debate effectively taunts the disenfranchised, intensifying the radicalism by reminding the workers how little they have to lose.

“Kenelm had always been attached to the ceremonial aspect of Christianity. He attributed great importance to robes and jeweled vessels and processions.”

Kenelm is a self-interested priest. While a layman like Amos might be deeply religious, Kenelm is only interested in the trappings of religious authority. Elsie notes that the pomp and ceremony of Anglicanism are more appealing to Kenelm than the spiritual side of the religion. Kenelm’s experiences in the army will move him away from this shallow appreciation of religion.

“If Kit and his mother had stayed in their village they would both still be poor agricultural laborers who never travelled farther than Kingsbridge. How their lives had been transformed by industry and war.”

Industry and war have changed the social fabric of Great Britain. Sal and Kit are working class people who, in an earlier century, might never have left Kingsbridge. Yet the changing times have given them the opportunity to see more of the world. This opportunity, however, comes at a cost. The Napoleonic wars cause much bloodshed, so the increased opportunities for working class people come at the expense of many lives.

“Kit had to respect her choice. After all, he had done the same thing by joining up with Roger. Both couples would march into France with the army and be part of the attack on Bonaparte’s forces.”

Kit fears for his mother’s life, but he cannot criticize her decision to follow her lover into the army, as he has done exactly the same. Kit’s self-awareness shows in his refusal to entertain hypocrisy. At the same time, this insight shows that he considers his relationship with Roger to be just as legitimate as Sal’s marriage to Jarge. Kit’s sexuality may not be permissible in his society, but he has no doubt that his love is sincere.

“The French can have Europe, as far as I’m concerned. I just want my family back home and alive and well.”

The Napoleonic Wars are fought between nation states at the cost of ordinary people’s lives. Working class individuals like Sal are removed from any of the abstract ideals that motivate the war. She does not care about patriotism, for example, as she has spent so much of her life worrying about how to find food and work. She just wants a quiet, happy life with her family, so the war means little to her. People like Sal die in these wars for causes which will not necessarily benefit them in the immediate term.

“Most of the French—officers and men—were of low-class origin, and owed their rise to the revolution and Bonaparte.”

Wellington is taken by surprise when Napoleon returns from Elba and rallies his forces so quickly. The reason so many people fight for him is that the French army offers a chance for social mobility. Working-class people are motivated to fight for such an army, while the British military must rely on tactics such as press ganging to maintain the status quo of an inequal society. The realization of this social opportunity is a chance for the British officers to reflect on what differentiates them from the French, though only Kit (a working-class man) seems to care about this point.

“Both men fell.”

Jarge sacrifices his life to save the grandson of the man who has tormented him. In this moment, the Guard swings a bayonet at Joe, and Jarge intervenes. Joe, born into a wealthy family, is saved by the working-class Jarge from an attack by the Guard who fights for a nation which has sought to abolish traditional class structures. The scene is a conflagration of class violence, ironically ending with the reactionary preservation of the status quo, with the working-class man sacrificing himself for the master in the face of revolutionary change. Jarge dies the ironic death of a hero, symbolically preserving the same social order he has rallied against for so long. The brief, declarative sentence emphasizes the dramatic impact of this moment.

“In the army I became close to a lot of working people, and I found them pretty much like the rest of us.”

The chaos of war clarifies the artificial nature of social class. Joe learns that all men are made of the same flesh and bone and spill the same blood. In the face of this bloodshed, social class seems like an anachronistic absurdity. The war has not just changed Joe, but laid the foundations for the social change that will sweep through Britain, fueled by the experiences of combat.