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Part 1: Ormaie 25.XI.43 JB-S
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Code Name Verity, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
War, Women, and Gender Roles
The Horrors of War
Resistance and Courage
Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
The narrator notes that Mary, Queen o’ Scots had a little dog that she hid under her skirts when she was beheaded. The narrator figures Mary was only so brave because she had her dog with her. Over the last three days, the narrator has been looking over her story. Engel will, of course, be disappointed that it doesn’t have a “proper ending,” but they’ve both seen the pictures. It would absolutely make a better story if Maddie made it back to England. The account, on its varying papers, doesn’t stack well. The narrator likes the flute music best, though seeing its former owner’s name at the top, Esther Lévi, makes her sad. Esther will no doubt never see her music again, but hopefully someone else will see these pages.
At this point, the narrator seems to have no choice but to face the fact that soon, she’s probably going to die. The story, in this sense, isn’t going to end well—both she and Maddie are going to miss out on their “proper ending[s].” While this account is, in many respects, a way for the narrator to memorialize Maddie and their friendship, she acknowledges that she’s memorializing others as well—such as Esther Lévi. And noting that someone else will hopefully read this account again suggests that the narrator has an ulterior motive—von Linden is, of course, already reading, so it wouldn’t make sense to be referring to him here.
Themes
Not even von Linden has said anything about the fact that the narrator has been writing for three weeks but has never written her full name. Now, she’s going to write it: Julia Lindsay MacKenzie Wallace Beaufort-Stuart. On dance cards, she’d preface that with “Lady.” But the narrator thinks of herself not as her full name, not as Eva or Queenie, but as Julie. Julie is what her brothers and Maddie called her.
Revealing her full name makes the section titles in Part One make more sense: JB-S is, presumably, Julie Beaufort-Stuart. Julie makes the case that while she goes by many names in the course of her work and at school, the identity that matters most to her is the one that her close friends and family members see.
Themes
Julie can’t stop writing. They’ll take her account away, and she’ll have nothing to comfort her while she waits for von Linden’s decision. Why did she write this in the first place? All it did was buy her some time; there’s nothing useful in the story. But ironically, she did tell the truth. She does remember some “electrifying famous last words,” such as those of Edith Cavell. She was a nurse, and there’s a statue of her engraved with “Patriotism is not good enough—I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone,” her supposed last words. Julie prefers “Kiss me, Hardy.” But now, Julie is done. She’s going to keep writing until someone takes her pen away. She writes “I have told the truth” over and over again. There’s a code at the bottom of the page.
Julie realizes full well that this account may become her last words—who knows who will be around to listen when she is killed. Deciding that she prefers “Kiss me, Hardy” to Edith Cavell’s last words shows just how much Julie values friendship. It’s true that she’s serving her country as a wireless operator, but when she dies, she’d rather people remember her as a friend than as an operator. Writing that she’s told the truth also gives more weight to the assertion—as “I have told the truth” will, presumably, be Julie’s final written words if events unfold as she believes they will.
Themes
