Egg was clearly influenced in his approach by Holman Hunt's 'The Awakening Conscience' of 1853 (Manchester City Art Galleries). The house of cards is collapsing, signifying the breakdown of the couple's marriage. The cards are supported by a novel by Balzac - a specialist in the theme of adultery. An apple has been cut in two, the one half (representing the wife) has fallen to the floor, the other (representing the husband) has been stabbed to the core. As a parallel, the two pictures on the wall depict the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden (labelled 'The Fall'); and a shipwreck by Clarkson Stanfield (labelled 'Abandoned'). The couple's individual portraits hang beneath the appropriate image.

In the background of the picture the mirror reflects an open door, denoting the woman's impending departure from the home. The position of her arms and the bracelets round her wrists give the impression that she is shackled. In Victorian England a man could safely take a mistress without fear of recrimination, but for a woman to be unfaithful was an unforgivable crime. As Caroline Norton, an early feminist, wrote, 'the faults of women are visited as sins, the sins of men are not even visited as faults' (quote in Lambourne, p.374). The set of pictures was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858 with no title, but with the subtitle, 'August the 4th – Have just heard that B – has been dead more than a fortnight, so his poor children have now lost both parents. I hear she was seen on Friday last near the Strand, evidently without a place to lay her head. What a fall hers has been!'

Further reading: Lionel Lambourne, 'Victorian Painting', London 1999, pp.374–375, reproduced p.376, in colour. Christopher Wood, 'Victorian Painting', London 1999, pp.52–53, reproduced p.52, in colour. Frances Fowle December 2000