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1-Page Summary of I Capture The Castle
Overview
“I Capture the Castle” is a story of a family who lives in a castle in England. The story is told through the journal entries of 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain, and it covers six months during which their fortune changes due to circumstances beyond their control.
Cassandra’s family consists of her father, James. He was a writer but stopped writing for some reason that no one else understands. Cassandra’s biological mother died several years ago and her father married an artist named Topaz who adores him and tries to be his muse. Cassandra has a 19-year-old sister named Rose and a 15-year-old brother named Thomas. The family also took in Stephen, the son of their former maid.
The family lives in poverty due to Mr. Mortmain working as a janitor and giving most of his wages to his family, which at least provided some food for them; Stephen also worked for a local farmer and gave some of his money earned. They sold off all the valuables they had including most of their furniture in order to survive. Rose especially suffered from being poor and sets her sights on someone while she waits for an opportunity at survival—Simon Cotton, who is the younger son of a wealthy American named Simon Cotton Sr.. The Cottons relieve Mr. Mortmain’s desperation by giving them supplies that will help him regain strength both mentally and financially so he could write again; this made it easier on Rose when she got with Simon because he would provide everything she needed even though Mr. Mortmain was still sickly along with having other health problems later in life. ” ‘
The Mortmains’ situation improves dramatically when Simon becomes engaged to Rose. They do not really love each other, but she helps the family out and is a good friend to Cassandra in particular. In time, Cassandra befriends Neil but realizes that it is Simon whom she loves. She tricks her father into writing again so the family can take care of itself without help from their friends, the Cottons. Rose realizes that it is not right to marry Simon because it is Neil whom she really loves and they run away together to live in America where there are opportunities for them both. Simon and Rose are in love too, so he promises to return for her one day so they can live happily ever after with no more money problems or worries about providing for their families.
I. The Sixpenny Book, Chapters I, II and III
The novel starts with a 17-year-old girl named Cassandra Mortmain writing in her journal while sitting on the drain board of the kitchen sink. Her family lives in a crumbling castle and she notes that it’s cozy because they have candles to light up the space. She writes shorthand because she can’t afford paper, but plans to buy some when she gets paid for babysitting. Her sister, Rose, irons an old dress since they can’t afford new ones and their father refuses to write anymore after his last book was successful. He also used a knife against his wife during an argument and was sent to jail as punishment; however he became nicer after being released from prison but still refused not to write again.
The librarian, Miss Marcy, helps the family and especially Thomas. She lends books to Mr. Mortmain and tries to help Topaz who is the current wife of Mr. Mortmain as well as Stephen Colly who was a former maid’s son but now 18-years old and works with hens and gardens. He gives Cassandra poems written on scraps of paper but she can’t bring herself to hurt his feelings when she tells him that he should stop writing poetry because it’s not good enough for her standards so she just ignores them instead which makes him feel bad about himself because he thinks that maybe they’re bad poems or that maybe it’s something else wrong with him so then one day while working in the garden, Cassandra finds some more poetry under a rock that says “I love you” by Stephen which makes her upset because she knows how much Stephen loves her but even though everyone else would be happy if they found out their boyfriend loved them back, this time is different since Cassandra feels like being in love isn’t always right no matter how hard someone tries.
