English Literature

Hearts and Hands Summary

Hearts and Hands Summary

In this article, you will be reading hearts and hands summary, one of the works of O. Henry, an American writer. His real name was William Sydney Porter. His work, Heart and Hands, is full of gentle humour, conciseness and surprise endings. The story shows the compassion of a marshal towards his convict. Also, it depicts the misleading quality of appearance. Mr Easton is the convict in the story. His marshal saves him from embarrassment in front of his old acquaintance Miss Fairchild. This shows his sympathetic behaviour even though his appearance was rough. Also, he had a good sense of human behaviour. Let us study Hearts and Hands Summary in detail.

Hearts and Hands Summary

Hearts and Hands Summary in English

The backdrop of the Hearts and Hands Summary is a train, eastbound B.M. Express. An elegantly clothed, luxurious pretty woman named Miss Fairchild meets an old acquaintance of her. His name is Mr Easton. He greets the lady with his left hand as his right hand was handcuffed. It was handcuffed with the left hand of another glum-faced, heavily built and roughly dressed man who was seated beside him.

Miss Fairchild was surprised to see them handcuffed. The man sitting next to Mr Watson sensed his embarrassment. Thus, he comes to his rescue. He explains Mr Easton to be a marshal taking him to Leavenworth prison.  He has been sentenced to jail for a period of seven years for counterfeiting.

This relieves Miss Fairchild to some extent as she started thinking ill of his friend. Afterwards, they continue their conversation. Mr Easton tells her that he left his luxurious life in Washington to take up a job of a marshal in the west. Miss Fairchild seemed to be interested in Mr Easton. She wants to get closer to him. This is clear when she says she also loves the west and wants to live there.

Although talks of Mr Easton fascinated her, she keeps on looking upon his glittering handcuffs. Sensing her discomfort, the man tells her that the marshals handcuff themselves to the prisoners so that the latter could not escape. This shows his humble behaviour. He doesn’t even care for his own reputation to save him from an embarrassing situation.

However, the other man demands Mr Easton to take him to the smoker as he hasn’t smoked for all day long. Thus, Mr Easton rises and leaves with that man saying good-bye to the woman. Two other passengers were sitting in a nearby seat. They heard the entire conversation. One of the comments on Mr Easton being too young for the post of marshal. The other man comments that he has never seen an officer handcuffing his right hand with the left hand of a convict. This clears that Mr Easton was a convict. This also cleared that the roughly Dressed man was a marshal in reality.

Conclusion of Hands and Hearts

The story is interesting. It delivers a message that things should not be judged by their outward appearance. Sometimes, even the well-dressed person could be deceptive and roughly dressed one be truthful. Also, the story shows a contrasting relationship between a prisoner and an officer. Despite this, the officer felt pity for him. Even a heavily built, glum-faced marshal could be selfless and kind. His sympathetic behaviour leaves a powerful message for all the readers.

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3 responses to “My Greatest Olympic Prize Summary”

  1. Tanjil says:

    The wonderful summary thank you for this.

  2. Niharika negi says:

    They did not belong to the family of gorden cook and you also didn’t write the spelling correct it’s James cook 😶😑

  3. hmMmm says:

    What’s funny is that Miss Fairchild said the line- “Money isn’t everything. But people always misunderstand things and remain stupid-” when she herself misunderstood the situation.

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