The Blind Assassin

by

Margaret Atwood

Captain Norval Chase Character Analysis

Norval is Iris and Laura’s father and Liliana’s husband. He inherits the family button factory from his father Benjamin after Norval’s two older brothers, Edgar and Percival, are killed in World War I. Norval is traumatized by his own experiences fighting in the war; upon returning home, he loses his religious faith and develops a severe drinking problem. Overall, Norval is presented as being a reasonably fair employer and he participates in the relief efforts during the Great Depression. When he is forced to close the button factory, he becomes even more depressed than previously and he ends up drinking himself to death.

Captain Norval Chase Quotes in The Blind Assassin

The The Blind Assassin quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Norval Chase or refer to Captain Norval Chase. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

And then, after the wedding, there was the war. Love, then marriage, then catastrophe. In Reenie’s version, it seemed inevitable.

Related Characters: Iris Chase Griffen (speaker), Alex Thomas, Reenie, Captain Norval Chase, Liliana Chase
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:

What would that be like—to long, to yearn for one who is right there before your eyes, day in and day out? I’ll never know.

Related Characters: Iris Chase Griffen (speaker), Alex Thomas, Richard Griffen, Captain Norval Chase, Liliana Chase
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

Although I was beginning to like him better, I’m ashamed to admit that I was more than a little skeptical about this story. There was too much melodrama in it—too much luck, both bad and good. I was still too young to be a believer in coincidence. And if he’d been trying to make an impression on Laura—was he trying?—he couldn’t have chosen a better way.

Related Characters: Iris Chase Griffen (speaker), Alex Thomas, Richard Griffen, Captain Norval Chase, Winifred Griffen Prior, Callista (Callie) Fitzsimmons
Related Symbols: Avilion
Page Number: 190
Explanation and Analysis:

Not only were they outside agitators, they were foreign outside agitators, which was somehow more frightening. Small dark men with moustaches, who’d signed their names in blood and sworn to be loyal unto death, and who would start riots and stop at nothing, and set bombs and creep in at night and slit our throats while we slept (according to Reenie). These were their methods, these ruthless Bolsheviks and union organizers, who were all the same at heart (according to Elwood Murray). They wanted Free Love, and the destruction of the family, and the deaths by firing squad of anyone who had money—any money at all—or a watch, or a wedding ring. This was what had been done in Russia. So it was said.

Related Characters: Iris Chase Griffen (speaker), Laura Chase, Alex Thomas, Reenie, Captain Norval Chase, Elwood Murray
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Following the death of Norval, Laura has (reluctantly) been living with Richard, Winifred, and Iris in Toronto, where she has caused a great deal of trouble. Recently, Winifred has complained to Iris that Laura has been expressing outlandish ideas, such as saying that love is more important than marriage. When Iris confronts Laura about this in private, Laura replies with this quotation. From a contemporary perspective, it may seem obvious that Laura’s argument is at least partly correct. These days, many would argue that love is self-evidently more important than marriage. Furthermore, Laura’s argument about marriage being an “outworn institution” that is more an economic transaction than a sacred bond foreshadows the feminist claims that became popular later in the 20th century.

Significantly, Laura frames her critique of marriage not in a progressive feminist light, but rather in a Christian one. Following Jesus’s tradition of focusing on the principles behind rules rather than the rules themselves, Laura argues that love is what’s important, not marriage. One could argue that Laura’s need to draw on Christianity in order to justify this claim is evidence of the restrictions placed on women and their thought during this era. At the same time, it also obvious that Laura’s faith intensely informs the way she approaches the world—it isn’t just a cover for subversive views.

Related Characters: Laura Chase (speaker), Iris Chase Griffen, Richard Griffen, Captain Norval Chase, Winifred Griffen Prior
Page Number: 424
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Blind Assassin LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Blind Assassin PDF

Captain Norval Chase Quotes in The Blind Assassin

The The Blind Assassin quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Norval Chase or refer to Captain Norval Chase. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

And then, after the wedding, there was the war. Love, then marriage, then catastrophe. In Reenie’s version, it seemed inevitable.

Related Characters: Iris Chase Griffen (speaker), Alex Thomas, Reenie, Captain Norval Chase, Liliana Chase
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:

What would that be like—to long, to yearn for one who is right there before your eyes, day in and day out? I’ll never know.

Related Characters: Iris Chase Griffen (speaker), Alex Thomas, Richard Griffen, Captain Norval Chase, Liliana Chase
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

Although I was beginning to like him better, I’m ashamed to admit that I was more than a little skeptical about this story. There was too much melodrama in it—too much luck, both bad and good. I was still too young to be a believer in coincidence. And if he’d been trying to make an impression on Laura—was he trying?—he couldn’t have chosen a better way.

Related Characters: Iris Chase Griffen (speaker), Alex Thomas, Richard Griffen, Captain Norval Chase, Winifred Griffen Prior, Callista (Callie) Fitzsimmons
Related Symbols: Avilion
Page Number: 190
Explanation and Analysis:

Not only were they outside agitators, they were foreign outside agitators, which was somehow more frightening. Small dark men with moustaches, who’d signed their names in blood and sworn to be loyal unto death, and who would start riots and stop at nothing, and set bombs and creep in at night and slit our throats while we slept (according to Reenie). These were their methods, these ruthless Bolsheviks and union organizers, who were all the same at heart (according to Elwood Murray). They wanted Free Love, and the destruction of the family, and the deaths by firing squad of anyone who had money—any money at all—or a watch, or a wedding ring. This was what had been done in Russia. So it was said.

Related Characters: Iris Chase Griffen (speaker), Laura Chase, Alex Thomas, Reenie, Captain Norval Chase, Elwood Murray
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Following the death of Norval, Laura has (reluctantly) been living with Richard, Winifred, and Iris in Toronto, where she has caused a great deal of trouble. Recently, Winifred has complained to Iris that Laura has been expressing outlandish ideas, such as saying that love is more important than marriage. When Iris confronts Laura about this in private, Laura replies with this quotation. From a contemporary perspective, it may seem obvious that Laura’s argument is at least partly correct. These days, many would argue that love is self-evidently more important than marriage. Furthermore, Laura’s argument about marriage being an “outworn institution” that is more an economic transaction than a sacred bond foreshadows the feminist claims that became popular later in the 20th century.

Significantly, Laura frames her critique of marriage not in a progressive feminist light, but rather in a Christian one. Following Jesus’s tradition of focusing on the principles behind rules rather than the rules themselves, Laura argues that love is what’s important, not marriage. One could argue that Laura’s need to draw on Christianity in order to justify this claim is evidence of the restrictions placed on women and their thought during this era. At the same time, it also obvious that Laura’s faith intensely informs the way she approaches the world—it isn’t just a cover for subversive views.

Related Characters: Laura Chase (speaker), Iris Chase Griffen, Richard Griffen, Captain Norval Chase, Winifred Griffen Prior
Page Number: 424
Explanation and Analysis: