Lysander Analysis in Code Name Verity

Lysanders were large military planes that the RAF and Special Duties used during World War II.

Lysander Quotes in Code Name Verity

The Code Name Verity quotes below are all either spoken by Lysander or refer to Lysander. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

The ground crew was aghast at the idea of a girl flying the broken Lysander.

“She won’t be strong enough. With the tail set for takeoff yon slip of a lass won’t be able to hold the stick hard for’ard enough for landing. Don’t know if anyone could.”

“Someone landed it here,” Maddie pointed out.

Related Characters: Maddie Brodatt (speaker), Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity

Page Number and Citation: 107

Explanation and Analysis:

We were flying low over the long sands at Holy Island, and it was beautiful, but the plane kept trying to climb and I was fighting and fighting to keep it down. Just like the Lysander. Scared and worried and tired all at once, angry at the sky for being so beautiful when we were in danger of crashing. Then Julie, sitting alongside me, said, “Let me help.”

In the dream the Puss Moth had side-by-side dual controls like a Tipsy, and Julie took hold of her own control column and gently pushed the nose forward, and suddenly we were flying the plane together.

All the pressure was gone. Nothing to be afraid of, nothing to battle against, just the two of us flying together, flying the plane together, side by side in the gold sky.

Related Characters: Maddie Brodatt (speaker), Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity

Page Number and Citation: 264

Explanation and Analysis:

Lysander Term Timeline in Code Name Verity

The timeline below shows where the term Lysander appears in Code Name Verity. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...an airplane. Then, the narrator notes that she knows one other type of aircraft, the Lysander. That’s what Maddie was flying when she and the narrator arrived in France. They were... (full context)

Random Aircraft. The narrator lists aircraft types, including the Puss Moth, the Lysander, and the Avro Anson. (full context)

...pilots and bombers refused to fly in. On Maddie’s first day, she was assigned a Lysander with a broken tailplane handwheel. (full context)

...officers briefed Maddie on the route, since she’d need two hands to fly the broken Lysander and so couldn’t use maps. The ground crew was aghast that a girl would be... (full context)

...Theo, the dead pilot’s brother. Theo noted that the boys always gave the girls the Lysanders, and it’s not fair that they gave Maddie a broken one for her first try.... (full context)

Theo then noted that Lysanders were great to land—they didn’t need much runway—and then showed Maddie how the runways lit... (full context)

...Von Linden didn’t want the narrator to talk about the 11 wireless sets in Maddie’s Lysander, so the narrator was a bit confused as to what she could say. (full context)

Maddie took a nap in the Cottage, but she woke up when the loud Lysanders returned from France with American airmen, French ministers, champagne, and bottles of Chanel No. 5.... (full context)

...pilots invited Maddie to supper (meanwhile, Queenie’s admirers whisked her away). On this night, two Lysanders were flying to France together, and a new squadron member, Michael, was going to follow... (full context)

Maddie was thrilled. From the back of Michael’s Lysander, she got to enjoy the view. Still, over the Channel, she reminded Michael that he... (full context)

...Maddie watched the runway flashlights flicker on. She made three attempts to land the broken Lysander, but it just wanted to climb. Finally, Maddie let it climb so that Queenie could... (full context)

Maddie writes that she crash-landed near Ormaie on October 11, 1943, in a Lysander. She couldn’t descend, due to the broken tailplane adjustment cable, and made Julie parachute out.... (full context)

...not long before she landed, and they had to do something with the body. The Lysander was a gift: they dressed the sentry in Maddie’s clothes, tucked him into the plane... (full context)

It took an hour to get the Lysander ready to burn, and then the Resistance fighters stashed Maddie in a hidden loft in... (full context)

...German soldiers stomped around the farm where Maddie is hiding and took photos of the Lysander. Getting to rest is amazing; she’s sore from fighting with the plane. She’s falling asleep... (full context)

Another Lysander recently came down; the field was so muddy that they couldn’t get it out and... (full context)

Finally, the Lysander arrived, but the wind was so strong it couldn’t land. Maddie doesn’t blame the pilot;... (full context)

...wasn’t peacetime, either. Maddie was fighting with the plane, which wanted to climb like the Lysander she crashed. But Julie asked to help. The plane suddenly had dual controls, and Julie... (full context)

...dummy code sets, one for each of the wirelesses planted in the back of the Lysander. Julie gave the Germans nothing but fake code. She didn’t even give them Käthe Habicht’s... (full context)

Code Name Verity

Elizabeth Wein

Lysander Term Analysis

Lysander Quotes in Code Name Verity

Lysander Term Timeline in Code Name Verity