Secrets and Curiosity Theme Analysis

Throughout the protagonist’s childhood, his Great Aunt Mary admonishes him, “don’t be so inquisitive.” “Secrets” asks readers to consider this warning: is it good to question everything? Or are there some instances when unbridled curiosity does more harm than good? By demonstrating how the protagonist’s youthful curiosity leads him to lose Aunt Mary’s trust forever, “Secrets” suggests that curiosity can be harmful if it is not paired with respect for others’ privacy, and that learning one another’s secrets can actually drive people further apart rather than bringing them closer together.

While the protagonist and Aunt Mary have a loving bond, as a child, the protagonist does not have much compassion for his aunt, who’s a very guarded and reserved person. Instead, like many curious children rebelling against authority figures, the protagonist disrespects Aunt Mary’s boundaries in order to find out more about her past. He sneaks into her room to read her letters from her old lover, John—the only items in the room she has explicitly forbidden him from touching. Through reading these letters, the protagonist learns that John ended their romantic relationship when he became a Catholic monk (and changed his name to Brother Benignus) after fighting in World War I. But learning this secret from his aunt’s past doesn’t bring the protagonist and Great Aunt Mary any closer—instead, his invasion of privacy ruins their relationship and deepens the mystery of Aunt Mary’s life rather than resolving it. Her anger at the protagonist’s betrayal makes sense: after suffering heartbreak, Aunt Mary has spent most of her life not trusting others, mirroring Brother Benignus’s monastic isolation. Because the young protagonist was one of the few people she let enter this private life, his betrayal hurts her deeply. As a young child, the protagonist is unable to see that his actions could have hurt Aunt Mary, whom he perceives as an unemotional authority figure. In this way, his curiosity isn’t tempered with compassion and thus results in harm.

However, when Aunt Mary dies years later, the protagonist (who is now a young adult) has learned from his past mistakes, and he checks his curiosity with compassion. Despite his ongoing interest in Brother Benignus, he lets his mother burn the letters in the fireplace rather than reading them, out of respect for Aunt Mary’s privacy. The story thus suggests that although curiosity can be a good quality, it must be moderated with a genuine care for other people’s emotions.