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Chapter 39
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition vs. Morality
Femininity, Sexuality, and Power
Truth and Identity
Family
Summary
Analysis
Celia asks Evelyn whether she and Harry will raise the baby together. Evelyn says they will, and she reassures Celia that they’ll work out Celia and John’s place in the arrangement as they go. Celia asks whether it’s an issue for Evelyn that she doesn’t want, and can’t provide, children. Evelyn tells Celia she provides more than she could’ve hoped for, and that she and Harry will only be having sex for the sole purpose of procreating. Celia agrees to the arrangement, suggesting she’ll be called “Aunt Celia.”
Evelyn and Celia’s relationship is sometimes so obscured by their marriages to different people—and now, by Evelyn needing to have sex with Harry—that it’s necessary for them to reassure each other of their love. Celia puts a safe distance between herself and the potential baby, which suggests that she’s unsure about how life will change when Evelyn has a child. Celia’s detached attitude also hints at the distance that future child may put between Evelyn and Celia.
Themes
A year later, an article in Photomoment announces Harry and Evelyn have had a baby girl, Connor Cameron—“Their most exciting co-production yet.”
This is a rare instance in which the language of the tabloids matches Evelyn’s attitude: having a baby with Harry was, indeed, like a “co-production”—an agreement formed in the same kind of professional manner in which they’d make a movie deal.
Themes
