Mr. Bentley (Philip) and Mrs. Bentley are the central characters of the novel. Philip is employed as a preacher in a protestant church in a small town named Horizon. His desire to become a painter and his commitment to the church create conflict in his personal, familial and public life. He regrets his decision to join the protestant church for material benefits and feels contempt for his own helplessness. Like his father, he is also trapped between the disciplined life of a parson and the creative life of a painter. He paints in secret and suppresses his artistic urges in public life. His twelve year long marriage with Mrs. Bentley also proves to be futile. Their first baby was a stillborn. The novel portrays the miserable life of a parson who longs to become an artist amidst a hostile small town folks of the prairie.
Mrs. Bentley's first name is not given in the novel. She plays piano and is proud of her skill. Her married life with Mr. Bentley do not help her to survive amidst the dreary, dull habits of the small town folks. She feels guilty of not able to give a son to Philip. Mr. Bentley ignores her and his income is inadequate to meet her needs. She befriends with Mr.Paul, Judith and Mrs.Bird, the doctor's wife.
In one of their gatherings, Mr. Paul, a school teacher from the country, introduces a twelve year old orphan boy named Steve to the Bentley's. Philip feels empathy for the child and plans to adopt him. Mrs. Bentley supports as she feels the presence of the boy will warm up their family life. The boy reminds Philip of his own miserable childhood. The adoption of a Roman Catholic boy by a Protestant parson creates problem among the small town people. In addition to this, Mrs. Bentley thinks that their income is inadequate to meet the demands of Steve. However, they provide shelter to Steve.
Steve and Philip are of contrasting temperament. The first is a highly boisterous young boy who enjoys riding the horse named Harlequin and fighting with other children at the school and the latter is a priest who leads highly self regulated life. Steve's fight with the twins of Mrs. Finley lands the parson in trouble but he is determined to support the boy. Mrs. Bentley feels that Philip is obsessed with Steve and dares to do anything for his sake. Engaged with Steve, Philip ignores her and she feels isolated and moody. She undergoes a self trial and examines her relationship with Philip. She realises that she has not succeeded to understand him.
Mrs. Bentley realizes that Philip is spoiling the boy and refuses to intervene as she is aware of her insignificance in the life of Mr Bentley. She also thinks that the boy manipulates Philip's desire to father him and makes high demand over him. In order to meet Steve's demand, Philip has written to church authorities where he worked earlier and requests them to pay his delayed salary. Mrs Bentley is excited when she received the money orders from the small town church authorities , but soon gets disappointed because Philip informed her that he had written letters to them to send money. She feels alienated because he was not willing to write letters and collect money for her needs and she always lived poor.
In the meanwhile they made arrangements to spend their holidays in the ranch with Paul's family and relatives. Their days with Stanley and his wife Laura help to satisfy phillip’s desire for artistic freedom and he enjoys the life in the country. Mrs.Bentley also gets excited with the companionship of Laura and she dances with cowboys in the ranch. The life in the country revive their passion to live and Philip is able to overcome the restrictions imposed on him by the church board. Mrs. Bentley also frees herself from the trimmed role of a parson’s wife. They returned to Horizon at the end of the vacation with a horse named minnie for Steve.
At Horizon, Mrs. Bentley plans meticulously to escape from the limited life of the priest and his wife and she is determined to collect one thousand dollars to install a bookshop and musical store. In the mean while, Steve is taken away by the Catholic church authorities and the couple are left to fend themselves. The absence of Steve restores the depressed life of Philip and he loses his drive to live.
When Mrs. Bentley falls sick, Judith comes to take care of the household chores. She's attracted to Philip and later they have had an adulterous relationship. Mrs. Bentley gets depressed to witnesses a sexual intercourse between her husband and Judith. The latter gets impregnated and she leaves for the house in the country. Mrs. Bentley forgives Bentley and ask him to visit Judith. Later, Judith gives birth to a male baby and dies in childbirth. Bentleys adopt the child and prepares to leave the small town to begin a new life.
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