Billy Budd, Jimmy Rose summary

What happens

1. William Ford inherits an old city house and refuses to replace its faded bird-and-rose wallpaper because it reminds him of Jimmy Rose.
2. Jimmy gains wealth through business and entertains lavishly, but business losses, extravagance, and two shipwrecks leave him ruined.
3. Ford searches for Jimmy and finds him hiding in an empty house, where fear makes him reject friendship and threaten his visitor.
4. After twenty-five years, Ford finds Jimmy poor but smiling, surviving partly through meals at the homes of old acquaintances.
5. A wealthy alderman’s daughter nurses Jimmy during his final illness, though he angrily rejects the books she brings.
6. After Jimmy’s death, Ford connects the wallpaper’s faded birds with lost wealth and its roses with Jimmy’s enduring bloom.

What to notice

Ford treats Jimmy’s compliments as gifts. The line reverses the apparent relationship between wealthy hosts and their impoverished guest.

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