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Chapter 59
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
War: Horror, Beauty, and Humanity
Power, Reality, and Absurdity
History and Storytelling
Politics and Friendship
Family, Opportunity, and Gender Dynamics
Summary
Analysis
The narrator notes that later, Pelagia would look on the time during which she nursed Corelli as the beginning of her sorrows. She's thin and weak and passes her extra food on to Corelli. Once Corelli can walk, Velisarios moves him to Casa Nostra. Pelagia sits in the trapdoor and crochets, Corelli's ring in her hands. Corelli begins to visit at night and they lie together and talk about the past and the future. They discuss Weber and the reasons young men join the Army; they decide that if they have a daughter they'll call her Lemoni and they'll call a son Carlo. Corelli promises to leave Antonia with Pelagia as a hostage and then creeps back out to Casa Nostra. Pelagia knows that Corelli has to leave, so Bunnios arranges for Corelli to leave Cephalonia.
By deciding to name their children after Lemoni and Carlo, Corelli and Pelagia illustrate another way to expand one's family by honoring friends in this way. This will tell the world that Lemoni and Carlo are and were important people to Pelagia and Corelli. Corelli's decision to leave Antonia with Pelagia shows that he still views music as a connecting force between them, and he believes that it'll continue to connect them even when he's away.
Themes
