Christine and the Green Socks, Explained

What happens

Christine Vole is questioned about how close her husband was to Mrs French. She recalls the green socks Mrs French knitted for him: Leonard disliked the colour and the socks were two sizes too large, yet he wore them to give her pleasure. "Leonard has a way with women," runs the remark. When Sir Wilfrid takes over, he warns that Leonard's whole defence rests on their word alone.

What's really going on

Christine is being tested, and she knows it. Asked whether her husband knew about the bequest, she refuses to play the innocent wife: "Is that what he told you?" she fires back, then "Surely you're not suggesting different?" — daring the questioner to accuse her of lying. Her most telling move is the green socks. She turns a damning fact into a charming one: a poor man courting a rich widow becomes a sweet young man wearing an ugly pair of socks out of kindness. It is the same instinct when she snaps, "What hypocrites you are in this country." The scene ends with Wilfrid spelling out the case's real weakness — that Leonard's defence "rests on his word and yours" — and Christine answering, calmly, "I realise that."

Key lines & what they mean

“What hypocrites you are in this country.”

A blunt attack on English double standards: the room acts scandalised by a young man's attentions to a rich widow, yet uses that very charm as evidence against him.

“We accept the evidence of deaf-mutes who cannot speak at all, as long as they tell the truth.”

Wilfrid reassures Christine that her accent will not cost her credibility: a witness's manner does not matter, only whether the testimony is true.

“You realise your husband's entire defence rests on his word and yours?”

He is warning her that there is no other evidence. If she and Leonard contradict each other, the case collapses.

“I only hope he has an all-woman jury. They will carry him from court in triumph.”

A wry line about Leonard's charm: women are so taken with him that a female jury would acquit him, which is also the prosecution's fear.

Theme

• Deception — Christine reshapes each accusation into a warmer story, and the trial will later hinge on whether her words can be trusted.
• Trust — The whole defence depends on the jury believing a wife's word; Wilfrid says it plainly: it rests on her testimony alone.