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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Secrets, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Secrets and Curiosity
Death, Love, and Legacy
World War I and the Lost Generation
Grief and Healing
Summary
Analysis
The unnamed protagonist is “called” to see his Great Aunt Mary on her deathbed. She has been in the process of dying for days. This evening, the protagonist has come back from his girlfriend’s house, where they were studying together, to find his aunt in her final hours of life.
The first sentences of the story contrast the protagonist’s youth with Aunt Mary’s old age. The protagonist is studying for the A-level exams, which may help determine his career path, and is involved in a relatively new romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Aunt Mary is in her final hours of life. This contrast introduces the theme of legacy in death, asking readers to consider the way life continues after someone passes away. Additionally, by describing the protagonist being “called” to be present at the end of Mary’s life, the story establishes that its characters are coming from a religious background. Readers can therefore be alert to religious connotations throughout the story.
Themes
The protagonist kneels on the threshold of Aunt Mary’s bedroom, which is crowded with family members. He observes the shrunken figure of Aunt Mary on the bed as she twists her head, her white hair damp with sweat, her hands unable to clutch the crucifix someone has placed there. She makes a horrible sound deep in her throat as she breathes, as if she’s drowning, and is unable to open her eyes fully. The protagonist’s mother takes Mary’s dentures out of her mouth, causing the lower half of Mary’s face to appear to collapse.
The gruesome description of Mary’s dying body represents death as a force of destruction, erasing Mary’s personality. In death, Mary is physically shrinking and collapsing. In light of her devout Catholicism, her inability to hold the crucifix may also suggest that her soul is leaving her body, as her body loses its hold on this spiritual symbol. Finally, she is becoming closed off to the world, struggling to take in breath and sight. She is therefore disappearing in death. The protagonist’s position on the threshold of the room resonates metaphorically with this transitional state between life and death. Additionally, by kneeling on the threshold, he also demonstrates his role as a bystander, unsure of his place at Mary’s death. This bystander role is an early key into the tenuous nature of his relationship to Mary, as well as an important element to his grieving process.
Themes
The sound Aunt Mary is making becomes intolerable to the protagonist, making him mourn the loss of her dignity. He retreats to her sitting room, where he sits “trembling with anger or sorrow,” staring at the vase of withered irises on the table. Finally, he hears women weeping in Aunt Mary’s bedroom.
Mary’s dignity is yet another personality trait that she is losing as she dies, again bringing up the theme of death as loss. This passage also further develops the distanced nature of the protagonist’s grief. As compared to the emotion of the women weeping, the protagonist seems separated from his emotions, unable to discern between anger and sorrow. He also physically distances himself from the room where Mary is dying, thus avoiding a show of emotional vulnerability. Finally, the irises on the table carry multiple symbolic meanings. First, like Mary’s body, they seem to be shrinking in death, “withering from the tips inward.” Second, in the Catholic Church, irises symbolize Mary’s suffering in the Bible. Their presence on the table suggests that, like her biblical namesake, Aunt Mary has also led a life of suffering and martyrdom.
Themes
The protagonist flashes back to his memories of Aunt Mary. She is a small person, with fresh skin and white, wavy hair. She wears no jewelry except for a gold locket and a worn cameo ring, which the protagonist stares at when she reads to him. At first, she reads fairy tales, but as he gets older, she reads extracts from famous novels, her favorite extract being Pip’s meeting with Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. He sometimes interrupts her to ask about the ring, and loves to hear how her grandmother gave it to her as a brooch. But she tires quickly of his questions and turns back to the story, telling him, “Don’t be so inquisitive.”
The protagonist’s memory of Aunt Mary establishes her as unmarried (she wears no wedding ring), dignified, and loving. The reference to Miss Havisham is ambiguous at this stage in the story, but the reader already has a sense that, like Dickens’s famous jilted bride, Mary may be struggling to move on from the sorrows of her past. Mary’s impatience with the protagonist’s questions about her grandmother’s ring reinforces this character trait, as it demonstrates her secrecy about her past. This passage also establishes the protagonist’s curiosity as a child. Specifically, he wants to know more about his aunt and her ancestors. In this way, the passage highlights a key tension between secrecy and curiosity.
Themes
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One day, the protagonist enters Aunt Mary’s room as she sits at her desk “copying figures,” the vase of irises on the table vibrating slightly. He asks if she has any stamps for his stamp collection, and she walks over to the bureau in the corner and unlocks it. Inside, letters, postcards, and bills bulge out of the bureau’s pigeon holes. She gives him the postcards so that he can steam the stamps off of them, but she warns him to be careful not to damage the cards. She then returns to her writing.
This passage is important in establishing Mary as a highly organized character. The phrase “copying figures” implies she is writing meticulously, while the pigeon holes in her bureau reveal her method of organizing documents. The presence of the vase of irises on the table, repeated from the scene of her death, suggests that she regularly keeps fresh irises in her room, thus revealing her dedication to routine. Additionally, the locked bureau demonstrates another element of Mary’s secrecy: she locks her documents away, presumably from the eyes of her family members. Yet the fact that she allows the protagonist to see inside the bureau demonstrates the trust that they share.
Themes
The postcards have interesting images from faraway places, and odd stamps the protagonist has never seen before, from Spain, France, Germany and Italy. He asks to take them downstairs, but Aunt Mary doesn’t want his mother to see the postcards, so she tells him to bring the kettle up to her room, which is secluded in the back of the house, facing the orchard.
This passage again develops the secrecy of Mary’s character. While she does not mind if the protagonist reads the postcards, she does not want his mother to see them, which suggests that they contain sensitive information. Because the protagonist is a child, she thinks he will not be able to understand this information, so she allows him to read the postcards. The fact that her rooms are in the back of the house, away from the family’s common spaces, also suggests that she leads a secluded life, closed off from the rest of the family.
Themes
When the kettle boils, the protagonist steams the stamps off, which curls the postcards slightly, but Aunt Mary doesn’t notice the damage. He notices that many of the cards are from Brother Benignus, and he asks her who he is. She responds that he was a friend. The protagonist asks her if he is alive, and she tells him only that Brother Benignus is dead now, then warns him not to let the kettle run dry. After he has taken all the stamps off and replaced the postcards in their proper pigeon hole, he reaches for the bundle of letters in the bureau. But Aunt Mary quickly stops him, her voice unusually harsh, telling him he can touch anything else but the letters.
The protagonist’s removal of the stamps damages the cards slightly, despite Mary’s request that he be careful. This detail establishes the protagonist as having a certain level of disregard for Mary’s emotions and boundaries. This passage also introduces the character of Brother Benignus, who remains mysterious due to Mary’s secrecy. Nevertheless, the theme of death returns in their short conversation, once again establishing Mary as a character who has lost people she loved. Finally, Mary’s mandate that the protagonist not touch the letters is an important plot development. The force of her voice, and the fact that she tells him he can touch anything else, suggests that the lock on the bureau, and perhaps her entire air of secrecy, is meant to conceal the contents of the letters.
Themes
The protagonist then looks through some old papers and finds an old photograph of a beautiful girl. She has dark hair, pulled tightly back and knotted in a braid on the top of her head, and a thin mouth that looked as if it had just finished smiling. Her brown eyes are dark and knowing. He asks who she is, and Aunt Mary asks him if he thinks the girl is beautiful. When he replies that he does, Aunt Mary tells him that it is a picture of herself as a girl. He is glad that he pleased her, since she gave him the stamps.
Even as a young girl, Mary seems to have been somewhat mysterious and reserved. Her tightly braided hair suggests her characteristic organization, while her “knowing” eyes and mouth that “just finished smiling” seem to conceal inner thoughts and feelings. This passage also introduces an element of slight manipulation between the two characters. When Mary asks the protagonist if he thinks the picture is beautiful before revealing that it is a picture of her, she manipulates the protagonist into complimenting her. For his part, the protagonist feels that he exchanged the compliment for stamps, thus manipulating her. Mary’s secrecy may have created this undercurrent of manipulation, as it teaches the protagonist to conceal himself rather than be vulnerable and honest. Thus, there is a transactional element within the characters’ relationship, as both characters feel that, at least sometimes, they must manipulate the other to get what they want.
Themes
The protagonist continues looking through the photographs and finds a picture of a man smoking a cigarette by the sea. He asks Aunt Mary who the man is, and she tells him that he was a friend, adding that the protagonist better run downstairs to see what is cooking. Instead, he looks at the back of the picture and sees the words, “John, Aug ‘15, Ballintoye.” Surprised, he tells his aunt that he thought the man was Brother Benignus, and she looks at him but does not answer. When he asks if “[her] friend was killed in the war,” she says no at first but then says that he may have been. Smiling, she tells the protagonist that he is “far too inquisitive” and urges him to go downstairs.
The inscription on the back of the photograph of John says that it was taken in 1915 in Northern Ireland. The war that the protagonist refers to is therefore World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918.Again, Mary continues to be secretive about Brother Benignus. However, by telling the protagonist that John may have been killed in the war, Mary alludes to having endured a deep sense of loss. Significantly, she also scolds the protagonist for asking too many questions, suggesting that this will become a point of conflict between the two.
Themes
One summer evening, the protagonist is doing his homework while his mother organizes the household junk drawers. Aunt Mary comes downstairs and tells the family she is going to Devotions. She stops at the mirror to pat her hair before leaving the house. The protagonist sits for a long time wondering if he will have the time he needs to sneak up to her room.
Aunt Mary’s outing to Devotions further establishes her character’s devout Catholicism, as the protagonist implies that she regularly attends Devotions. This practice again reveals her comfort with routine. The protagonist’s thoughts in this passage are equally revealing. Instead of thinking about whether he could hurt Aunt Mary’s feelings, the protagonist is concerned with whether he will get caught. Again, his childhood curiosity leads him to disrespect Mary’s boundaries.
Themes
After 10 minutes, the protagonist rushes upstairs to her bureau and unlocks it. He pretends for a moment to look at the postcards before reaching for the bundle of letters and taking off the brittle elastic band. He opens one at random and reads a letter that begins, “My dearest Mary.” The writer tells Mary about censoring letters that are being sent from the battlefront, written mostly by illiterate soldiers who do not have the words to express what they feel. He tells Mary how proud he is that she is a teacher, bringing literacy to the next generation. The protagonist skims to the signature, where the writer professes his love for Mary and signs his name as John.
By pretending to look at the postcards, the protagonist shows that he does feel some sense of guilt for having betrayed Mary’s trust. Nevertheless, he decides that satisfying his curiosity is worth the risk that Mary will find out and feel betrayed. The letter he reads is crucial in proving that Mary had a romantic relationship with John, the man from the picture. They seem to share a love of words and reading. This shared interest, as well as John’s comments about Mary being a teacher, point to the rise of literacy during World War I. Historians highlight this increased literacy as a defining characteristic of the Lost Generation, the generational cohort that came of age in Europe during the war years. There is also an element of irony in the fact that the protagonist is secretly reading a letter about John, who was secretly reading soldiers’ letters in the war. Apparently, war is an occasion for secrecy, both as it happens and as it is remembered years later.
Themes
In the next letter the protagonist opens, John writes to Mary that his memories of her keep him sane. He reflects on the day they climbed the head at Ballycastle and lay down in a hollow out of the wind, in the warm, dry grass. He remembers how her hair was undone, and how he kissed her for the first time, and the look of disbelief on her face afterward that made him laugh. He writes that he is laughing at himself now, with his feet in the thick mud and “his head in the clouds.”
This passage reveals the deep intimacy that John and Mary shared. As a reserved person, Mary may want to keep the letters secret partly because they show her in such a vulnerable light. This passage also illustrates the power of remembering loving moments, as the act of remembering his love for Mary keeps John’s spirits high as he endures the war. However, while John does not describe the war in this letter, it seems to have started to take a toll on him. He is no longer censoring letters, but rather is standing in deep mud. The image suggests that the war is getting worse, and John is in the thick of the action.
Themes
In the next letter, John tells Mary that he is so cold it is difficult to write. His legs and feet have gone completely numb, and the ground is unbelievably cold. The dead lie frozen; you can tell they aren’t living by their slate-colored faces. He has lost all feeling besides a “sheer white trembling anger.” He tells Mary that if he survives, he will be a different person, but “the only thing that remains constant is [his] love for [her].” He then describes watching a man die beside him, drowning in his own blood after a piece of shrapnel pierced his neck.
The metaphor of a frozen winter describes John’s emotional interior, as he is numb to all feeling except anger. This traumatized state resembles both the protagonist’s and Mary’s responses to grief at different points in the story. John’s fear of what will happen to the bodies “when the thaw comes” symbolizes his fear of facing his trauma and “melting” his frozen emotions. These graphic descriptions of the violence of World War I reveal the trauma that defined the Lost Generation. Like John, many members of this generation returned from the war deeply changed, often with serious mental health struggles as a result of what they endured.
Themes
In the next letter, John apologizes for not writing for so long. He is writing from a hospital bed, where he had been for two weeks before he regained consciousness. It took another two weeks for him to build the courage to write this letter. He tells Mary that he has been thinking a lot “about the war and about myself and about you.” He tells her he feels strongly that he needs to sacrifice something after the horrors he experienced, and that “in some strange way Christ has spoken to me through the carnage.”
This letter establishes that John became a Catholic monk (Brother Benignus) after the war, leading him to break up with Mary. In joining the monastic brotherhood, John seems to have been able to face his trauma and make meaning from it, as he now feels that the horrors of the war allowed him to hear God’s voice. Tracing the metaphor of John’s trauma as a frozen winter, John seems like he has begun to “thaw” and feel his emotions again. In this way, the story suggests that processing grief and trauma, instead of ignoring it, is an important part of healing.The letter also reveals Mary’s own emotional martyrdom. After John sacrificed their relationship in order to pursue his religious calling, Mary seems to have sacrificed the life she wanted to live as well. Instead of pursuing another relationship with someone else, she lives a secluded and devout life, much like Brother Benignus’s monastic practices. But unlike Brother Benignus’s sacrifice, this sacrifice appears to keep Mary stuck in the past, rather than helping her heal.
Themes
After reading this line, the protagonist hears Aunt Mary’s footsteps on the stairs. He rushes frantically to slip the letters back in their envelopes but ends up crumpling them. He spreads the elastic over the bundle, but it snaps, so he squeezes the scattered letters back into their pigeon hole and slams the bureau shut loudly.
The letters, symbols of Mary’s vulnerability, spring out from the pigeon hole after the protagonist reads them, representing Mary’s emotional volatility due to her unprocessed grief. Like John in the third letter, Mary is frozen by her grief, able only to explode in anger when provoked. Mary’s experience exemplifies the trauma of the Lost Generation.
Themes
Aunt Mary enters at this moment, and she immediately guesses what the protagonist has been doing. “You have been reading my letters,” she says quietly, and the protagonist cannot respond. She slaps him across the face and tells him to leave her room. As he exits, she hisses, “You are dirt, and always will be dirt. I will remember this till the day I die.”
In the statement, “you are dirt and always will be dirt,” the story references God banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, as God tells them, “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” This biblical reference establishes the protagonist’s loss of innocence, as, like Adam and Eve, he has followed his curiosity and learned about the horrors of sin (or war). Seeing him as a traitor instead of an innocent child, Mary banishes him from her room. Thus, the story describes the harm that comes from curiosity when it is not paired with compassion for others. By losing his relationship with Mary, the protagonist also experiences, though from a distance, the reverberating loss of World War I. The story therefore communicates the intergenerational effects of the war’s trauma.
Themes
Back in the present the protagonist builds a big fire in Aunt Mary’s sitting room so that his mother can clear out Mary’s belongings and turn it into his study. His mother enters the room, unlocks the bureau, and begins burning his aunt’s papers. The protagonist asks her who Brother Benignus was, and she responds that she wouldn’t know, “your aunt kept herself very much to herself.” She only knows that Brother Benignus would send Aunt Mary books.
The burning of Mary’s papers demonstrates the way death changes the meaning of material items. The postcards, pictures, and letters Mary collected over the course of her life held a lot of significance when she was alive. But with her death, much of that meaning is lost, and the documents become mere objects. This loss of meaning speaks to the impermanence of the physical form: like Mary, we all must die, and when we do, the meaning of most of our belongings will die with us. In this way, the story suggests that our relationships with other people, rather than our possessions, are our most meaningful and lasting legacy.Additionally, the protagonist’s mother’s description of Mary as a woman who “kept herself very much to herself” reinforces Mary’s secrecy, while her note that Brother Benignus sent Mary books again highlights the friends’ shared love of literature.
Themes
His mother then comes to the letters, takes off the elastic band that contains them and puts it aside in her pile of useful things. She skims one letter before throwing them on top of the fire. The protagonist asks his mother if Aunt Mary said anything about him before she died, and she responds that “the poor thing was too far gone to speak.” She then continues to burn the letters.
By deeming John’s letters less useful than the rubber band that contained them, the protagonist’s mother once again demonstrates the way death changes objects’ meanings. The fire’s destruction of the letters also symbolizes Mary’s final release from grief in death. By calling her a “poor thing,” the protagonist’s mother also recalls the way death took away Mary’s dignity. Additionally, this passage shows that the protagonist has learned how to respect Mary’s boundaries, as he lets the letters burn even though he is clearly still curious about Brother Benignus. Finally, the protagonist’s question to his mother suggests that he was never able to repair his relationship with Mary. Recalling Mary’s promise that she would remember his betrayal “until the day [she died],” the protagonist hopes that Mary forgave him on her deathbed. However, the fact that she was “too far gone to speak” means that the protagonist will never gain the closure of her forgiveness.
Themes
While studying in the room after his mother leaves, the protagonist feels his throat close up and tears come to his eyes for the first time since Aunt Mary died. He cries silently “for the woman who had been his maiden aunt, his teller of tales, that she might forgive him.”
After watching the letters burn, the protagonist is able to cry. The fire metaphorically thawed the protagonist’s frozen emotions, and he can now grieve openly for Mary and hope for her forgiveness. In this way, the fire represents the protagonist’s ability to move on from his grief. His tears also represent the intergenerational trauma from World War I, as he mourns the relationship he lost with Mary. He lost this relationship in part because Mary could not be vulnerable with him due to her trauma from the war years.Finally, his memory of Mary as his “maiden Aunt, his teller of tales,” demonstrates the lasting legacy of relationships. While most of Mary’s belongings have lost their meaning, Mary’s legacy lives on in the protagonist’s memory.
Themes
