The Nightingale

by

Kristin Hannah

Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) Character Analysis

Vianne Mauriac is the mother of Sophie and Julien Mauriac, the wife of Antoine Mauriac, and the sister of Isabelle Rossignol. Antoine and Sophie are Vianne’s entire life, and she does everything she can to protect them. Vianne also loves Isabelle, although their relationship is strained. Vianne feels bad that she was not more present in her sister’s life following the death of their mother. At the time, however, Vianne was only a child herself and did not know how to cope or be a good sister. At the start of World War II, Vianne keeps her head down and does anything she can to protect Sophie. She chastises Isabelle for her small rebellions and does not want to take an active part in resistance efforts. However, as the war drags on, Vianne is forced to choose a side. Eventually, she begins actively helping Jewish children escape Nazi persecution with the help of her church. Later in life, she regrets that she did not do more to help earlier on in the war. She wishes she could’ve been more like Isabelle, who resisted from the very start. At the end of the novel, readers learn that Vianne is that unnamed narrator who appears throughout the narrative. It is also revealed that Julien, her son, is the offspring of Von Richter, a cruel Nazi who raped Vianne while living in her home.

Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) Quotes in The Nightingale

The The Nightingale quotes below are all either spoken by Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) or refer to Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator). 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:
Morality and Impossible Choices Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Isabelle Rossignol, Gaëtan, Julien Mauriac, Ari de Champlain
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:

If I had told him the truth long ago, or had danced and drunk and sung more, maybe he would have seen me instead of a dependable ordinary mother. He loves a version of me that is incomplete. I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I’d like to be known.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Julien Rossignol, Julien Mauriac
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“But … but … you’re a postman.”

He held her gaze and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. “I am a soldier now, it seems.”

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Antoine Mauriac (speaker)
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The smell preceded them. Human sweat and filth and body odor. As they neared, the miasma of black separated, peeled into forms. She saw people on the road and in the fields, walking, limping, coming toward her. Some were pushing bicycles or prams or dragging wagons. Dogs barked, babies cried. There was coughing, throat clearing, whining. They came forward, through the field and up the road, relentlessly moving close, pushing one another aside, their voices rising.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Isabelle Rossignol, Rachel de Champlain, Antoine Mauriac
Page Number: 68-69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

She had no idea how to respond to this stranger who dressed like the enemy and looked like a young man she might have met at church. And what was the price for saying the wrong thing?

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Captain Beck, Antoine Mauriac
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Vianne had been so helpless after Maman’s death. When Papa had sent them away, to live in this small town, beneath the cold, stern eyes of a woman who had shown the girls no love, Vianne had . . . wilted.

In another time, she might have shared with Isabelle what they had in common, how undone she’d been by Maman’s death, how Papa’s rejection had broken her heart.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Isabelle Rossignol, Julien Rossignol
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“There are some things a man does around the house. You are much too fragile to chop wood.”

“I can do it.”

“Of course you can, but why should you? Go Madame. See to your daughter. I can do this small thing for you. Otherwise my mother will beat me with a switch.”

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Captain Beck (speaker), Antoine Mauriac
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

She was certain suddenly that she shouldn’t have done this. But what choice did she have? He was in control of her home. What would happen if she defied him? Slowly, feeling sick to her stomach, she wrote the last name on the list.

Rachel de Champlain.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Rachel de Champlain, Captain Beck, Antoine Mauriac
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“Don’t think about who they are. Think about who you are and what sacrifices you can live with and what will break you [. . .] Isabelle will have her crisis of faith in this, too. As will we all. I have been here before, in the Great War. I know the hardships are just beginning. You must stay strong.”

Related Characters: Mother Superior (speaker), Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Isabelle Rossignol, Julien Rossignol, Rachel de Champlain
Related Symbols: The Nightingale
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

How can I possibly go without remembering all of it—the terrible things I have done, the secret I kept, the man I killed . . . and the one I should have?

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Captain Beck, Julien Mauriac, Von Richter
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

I don't know the right thing to do anymore. I want to protect Sophie and keep her safe, but what good is safety if she has to grow up in a world where people disappear without a trace because they pray to a different God?

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Sophie Mauriac, Sarah de Champlain
Page Number: 339-340
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

“Ari,” she said quietly, taking his face in her hands. “Your maman is with the angels in Heaven. She won’t be coming back.”

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Rachel de Champlain, Ari de Champlain, Marc de Champlain
Page Number: 362
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“Forgive my manners, Madame. But we have shown you all our best behaviors, and this is what we get from many of you French. Lies and betrayal and sabotage.”

Related Characters: Captain Beck (speaker), Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Rachel de Champlain, Sophie Mauriac, Ari de Champlain
Page Number: 370
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

It was all Vianne could do not to say, I’m different now, Papa. I am helping to hide Jewish children. She wanted to see herself reflected in his gaze, wanted just once to make him proud of her.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Julien Rossignol
Page Number: 471
Explanation and Analysis:

Vianne heard the confession that lay beneath. He was telling her his own story in the only way he could, cloaked in Isabelle’s. He was saying that he had worried about his choice to join the army in the Great War, that he had agonized over what his fighting had done to his family. He knew how changed he’d been on his return, and instead of pain drawing him closer to his children and wife, it had separated them.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Isabelle Rossignol, Julien Rossignol
Page Number: 472
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

“One boy with no memory of who he has may seem a small thing to lose, but to us, he is the future. We cannot let you raise him in a religion that is not yours and take him to synagogue when you remember. Ari needs to be who he is, and to be with his people. Surely his mother would want that.”

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Rachel de Champlain, Ari de Champlain
Page Number: 533
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 38 Quotes

Don’t forget me, Isabelle thought. She wished she had the strength to say it out loud.

Related Characters: Isabelle Rossignol (speaker), Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Gaëtan, Julien Rossignol
Page Number: 551
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39 Quotes

“Did Dad know?” Julien asks.

“Your father . . .” I pause, draw in a breath. Your father. And there it is, the secret that made me bury it all.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Julien Rossignol, Julien Mauriac, Antoine Mauriac, Von Richter
Page Number: 563
Explanation and Analysis:

I smile at them, my two boys who should have broken me, but somehow saved me, each in his own way. Because of them, I know now what matters, and it is not what I have lost. It is my memories. Wounds heal. Love lasts.

We remain.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Rachel de Champlain, Julien Mauriac, Ari de Champlain, Von Richter
Page Number: 564
Explanation and Analysis:
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Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) Quotes in The Nightingale

The The Nightingale quotes below are all either spoken by Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) or refer to Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator). 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:
Morality and Impossible Choices Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Isabelle Rossignol, Gaëtan, Julien Mauriac, Ari de Champlain
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:

If I had told him the truth long ago, or had danced and drunk and sung more, maybe he would have seen me instead of a dependable ordinary mother. He loves a version of me that is incomplete. I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I’d like to be known.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Julien Rossignol, Julien Mauriac
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“But … but … you’re a postman.”

He held her gaze and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. “I am a soldier now, it seems.”

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Antoine Mauriac (speaker)
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The smell preceded them. Human sweat and filth and body odor. As they neared, the miasma of black separated, peeled into forms. She saw people on the road and in the fields, walking, limping, coming toward her. Some were pushing bicycles or prams or dragging wagons. Dogs barked, babies cried. There was coughing, throat clearing, whining. They came forward, through the field and up the road, relentlessly moving close, pushing one another aside, their voices rising.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Isabelle Rossignol, Rachel de Champlain, Antoine Mauriac
Page Number: 68-69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

She had no idea how to respond to this stranger who dressed like the enemy and looked like a young man she might have met at church. And what was the price for saying the wrong thing?

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Captain Beck, Antoine Mauriac
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Vianne had been so helpless after Maman’s death. When Papa had sent them away, to live in this small town, beneath the cold, stern eyes of a woman who had shown the girls no love, Vianne had . . . wilted.

In another time, she might have shared with Isabelle what they had in common, how undone she’d been by Maman’s death, how Papa’s rejection had broken her heart.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Isabelle Rossignol, Julien Rossignol
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“There are some things a man does around the house. You are much too fragile to chop wood.”

“I can do it.”

“Of course you can, but why should you? Go Madame. See to your daughter. I can do this small thing for you. Otherwise my mother will beat me with a switch.”

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Captain Beck (speaker), Antoine Mauriac
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

She was certain suddenly that she shouldn’t have done this. But what choice did she have? He was in control of her home. What would happen if she defied him? Slowly, feeling sick to her stomach, she wrote the last name on the list.

Rachel de Champlain.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Rachel de Champlain, Captain Beck, Antoine Mauriac
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“Don’t think about who they are. Think about who you are and what sacrifices you can live with and what will break you [. . .] Isabelle will have her crisis of faith in this, too. As will we all. I have been here before, in the Great War. I know the hardships are just beginning. You must stay strong.”

Related Characters: Mother Superior (speaker), Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Isabelle Rossignol, Julien Rossignol, Rachel de Champlain
Related Symbols: The Nightingale
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

How can I possibly go without remembering all of it—the terrible things I have done, the secret I kept, the man I killed . . . and the one I should have?

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Captain Beck, Julien Mauriac, Von Richter
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

I don't know the right thing to do anymore. I want to protect Sophie and keep her safe, but what good is safety if she has to grow up in a world where people disappear without a trace because they pray to a different God?

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Sophie Mauriac, Sarah de Champlain
Page Number: 339-340
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

“Ari,” she said quietly, taking his face in her hands. “Your maman is with the angels in Heaven. She won’t be coming back.”

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Rachel de Champlain, Ari de Champlain, Marc de Champlain
Page Number: 362
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“Forgive my manners, Madame. But we have shown you all our best behaviors, and this is what we get from many of you French. Lies and betrayal and sabotage.”

Related Characters: Captain Beck (speaker), Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Rachel de Champlain, Sophie Mauriac, Ari de Champlain
Page Number: 370
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

It was all Vianne could do not to say, I’m different now, Papa. I am helping to hide Jewish children. She wanted to see herself reflected in his gaze, wanted just once to make him proud of her.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Julien Rossignol
Page Number: 471
Explanation and Analysis:

Vianne heard the confession that lay beneath. He was telling her his own story in the only way he could, cloaked in Isabelle’s. He was saying that he had worried about his choice to join the army in the Great War, that he had agonized over what his fighting had done to his family. He knew how changed he’d been on his return, and instead of pain drawing him closer to his children and wife, it had separated them.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Isabelle Rossignol, Julien Rossignol
Page Number: 472
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

“One boy with no memory of who he has may seem a small thing to lose, but to us, he is the future. We cannot let you raise him in a religion that is not yours and take him to synagogue when you remember. Ari needs to be who he is, and to be with his people. Surely his mother would want that.”

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Rachel de Champlain, Ari de Champlain
Page Number: 533
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 38 Quotes

Don’t forget me, Isabelle thought. She wished she had the strength to say it out loud.

Related Characters: Isabelle Rossignol (speaker), Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator), Gaëtan, Julien Rossignol
Page Number: 551
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39 Quotes

“Did Dad know?” Julien asks.

“Your father . . .” I pause, draw in a breath. Your father. And there it is, the secret that made me bury it all.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Julien Rossignol, Julien Mauriac, Antoine Mauriac, Von Richter
Page Number: 563
Explanation and Analysis:

I smile at them, my two boys who should have broken me, but somehow saved me, each in his own way. Because of them, I know now what matters, and it is not what I have lost. It is my memories. Wounds heal. Love lasts.

We remain.

Related Characters: Vianne Mauriac (The Narrator) (speaker), Rachel de Champlain, Julien Mauriac, Ari de Champlain, Von Richter
Page Number: 564
Explanation and Analysis: