The Hiding Place: Karel Summary & Analysis

As a teenager, Corrie is attending one of Mama’s impromptu parties when she meets Karel, one of Willem’s friends from seminary. She takes one look at him and falls in love. She’s content just to look at him, even though he doesn’t seem to notice her. A plain and shy girl, she’s used to being ignored, while graceful Nollie receives all the male attention.

Two years later, Corrie and Nollie travel to Willem’s university to visit. His friends soon arrive at his apartment, Karel among them. Corrie is surprised and thrilled to see that he remembers her, even after such a long time. Although she feels out of place in the grown-up conversation, he takes pains to include her, asking what she wants to do when she grows up.

After graduating secondary school, Corrie takes over the work of the household. Her presence is especially important because Tante Bep has contracted tuberculosis and Tante Anna, who normally runs the household, is nursing her around the clock. To avoid contagion, no one else in the family is allowed inside Tante Bep’s room. Corrie loves the work, but she’s often struck by regret for Bep’s “disgruntled and disappointed” life—she spent her entire adulthood serving in the houses of rich people, and by the mementos and photos that she prizes it seems to Corrie that she wishes she was still there.

One day, Corrie brings up this thought with Mama, who herself is often sick and bedridden. Even so, she never pities her life but spends her time writing cheerful letters to “shut-ins all over Haarlem,”— never seeming to notice that she herself is basically a shut-in. Mama points out to Corrie that Bep is unhappy wherever she is. She only praises her former employers so highly because she’s no longer with them. Mama reminds Corrie that happiness isn’t dependent on one’s surroundings, but rather “something we make inside ourselves.”

Soon, Tante Bep dies. Mama and Tante Anna deal with their sadness by redoubling their charitable efforts, and Tante Jans responds by dwelling on the possibility of death even more than before. A few years after this, the young family doctor diagnoses Tante Jans with diabetes—in those days, a fatal disease. Tante Jans immediately takes to her bed, but then surprises the family by getting up the next day and redoubling her writing efforts and devoting herself to the religious clubs she organizes.

Each week, a complicated test must be run to analyze Tante Jans’s blood sugar. To save the expense of doctor’s visits, Corrie learns to perform the test herself with the help of the doctor’s sister and nurse, Tine. While she gets used to this task, Willem returns home from university; his presence cheers everyone, as does his pleasant voice as he reads aloud after dinner. As he’s doing this one day, the doorbell rings and Corrie runs downstairs to see Tine, bringing some flowers for Mama. Guided by a sudden instinct and inspired by the romantic novels she loves, Corrie insists that Tine bring the flowers into the parlor herself. She’s gratified to see Willem look at her “as though there were not another soul in the room.”

Two months after Willem’s ordination, he and Tine get married. Corrie is especially excited because she knows Karel will be there and see her in her new silk dress and intricate hairdo. When she finally greets him, he enchants her by remarking on how grown-up and “lovely” she is.

Months later, Corrie is devastated to see that Tante Jans’s weekly blood test has come out badly. Corrie runs to the doctor and he confirms that Jans has three weeks to live at most. After a brief conference, the family goes to Tante Jans and breaks the news gently. They attempt to comfort her by reminding her how much she’s accomplished, but Tante Jans just breaks into tears and whispers that the only true accomplishment is Jesus’s death on the cross, and that “all we need in life or death is to be sure of this.” Corrie feels that she’s witnessed a “mystery” in Tante Jans’s ability to accept such a long-feared event so bravely.

Four months after Tante Jans’s death, the family travels to watch Willem’s first sermon—a huge milestone and point of pride in the Dutch Reformed Church. Friends and family converge on Willem’s parish and stay for days, including Karel. As soon as he arrives at Willem and Tine’s house, he takes Corrie on a long walk. This becomes their daily custom, and they discuss their future plans, talking about a shared life even though Karel has not explicitly mentioned marriage.

One morning, Willem corners Corrie and gently tells her that if Karel has implied that he’s serious about her, he’s leading her on. Karel’s family is determined that he marry a wealthy woman, and he has resigned himself to fulfilling their wishes. Willem knows he will never go against them, not even for her. Corrie hastily ends the conversation and tells herself that Willem doesn’t understand romantic affairs and that things will certainly work out.

Soon after this, Karel returns to his own parish, but not before urgently pleading with Corrie to write him every day about events at the Beje. Corrie writes often, but his letters arrive infrequently. One afternoon months later, Karel visits the Beje without warning, bringing a young woman he introduces as his fiancée. Corrie feels like she’s in shock, but she manages to bring him upstairs and sit through the visit as if nothing is wrong. As soon as he leaves, she runs to her room, sobbing.

After some time, Corrie hears Father climbing the stairs. She’s afraid he will comfort her with some platitude about finding someone else, even though she knows Karel is the only love of her life. Instead, he tells her that when love is “blocked,” one must choose whether to kill it, and thus kill part of oneself as well, or to “ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.” He says that if Corrie asks God, he will give her his “perfect” love, a love she wouldn’t be able to feel by herself.

Listening to Father, Corrie doesn’t yet know that this advice will sustain her through far more drastic situations, in moments where “there was not, on a human level, anything to love at all.”

For now, Corrie tries to get over her feelings for Karel “without giving up the joy and wonder that had grown with it.” She prays fervently for God to allow her to see Karel as He does, and falls asleep.