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Knots represent the many kinds of relationships, needs, and mutual dependencies that bind people to one another. The epigraph to The Shipping News is a quote from the Ashley Book of Knots that notes how many different combinations are possible in knot-tying. This in turn suggests the vast array of potential relationships between people. Further, many of the chapters are named after knots, and descriptions of various types of knots are included throughout the book to explain situations; for instance, the chapter describing Petal and Quoyle’s dysfunctional marriage is named after a “strangle knot.” Mrs. Buggit, Beety Buggit, Evvie Yark, Wavey Prowse, Agnis Hamm, Kenny, Archie, and Benny Fudge are all knot-crafters, either as knitters, lace-makers, rug-hookers, upholsterers, or fishnet repairers; it’s thus symbolically important that most of these people are cast as caretakers and peacemakers—the kinds of people who bring or hold others together, creating families and communities. The people who live in the book’s imaginative rendering of Newfoundland, where life is hard and the environment is unforgiving, must rely on each other for safety, support, and succor—the ties that bind people become one of the keys to survival.
In the twisted and addled mind of Nolan Quoyle, knots take on another, occult significance. Nolan leaves knotted bits of vegetation and string in and around the house on Quoyle’s Point and near Quoyle, Bunny, Sunshine, and Agnis in an attempt to hex and call down misfortune on them. It’s left up to the reader’s interpretation whether these knots—created out of malice by a relative of the victims—work or not. Nolan believes himself responsible for the storm that blows the house off the Point, suggesting he was successful in accomplishing his goal. But in the end, this proves to be a blessing rather than a curse, as it frees the remaining Quoyles (and Hamms) from the burden of their past and enables them to tie their lives together ever more closely with others—Agnis with Mrs. Bangs, Quoyle with Wavey, and Bunny and Sunshine with their friends and their new stepbrother Herry.
Knots Quotes in The Shipping News
The The Shipping News quotes below all refer to the symbol of Knots. 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:
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Chapter 26: Deadman
Quotes
Everything in the house tatted and doilied in the great art of the place, designs of lace waves and floe ice, whelk shells and sea wrack, the curve of lobster feelers, the round knot of cod-eye, the bristled commas of shrimp and fissured sea caves, white snow on black roc, pinwheeled gulls, the slant of silver rain. Hard, tortured knots encased picture frames of ancestors and anchors, the Bible was fitted with sheets of ebbing foam, the clock’s face peered out like a bride’s from a wreath of worked wildflowers. The knobs of the kitchen dresser sported tassels like a stripper in a bawd house, the kettle handle knitted over in snake-ribs, the easy chairs wore archipelagoes of thread and twine flung over the reefs of arms and backs.
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Chapter 33: The Cousin
Quotes
In the man before him, in the hut, crammed with the poverty of another century, Quoyle saw what he had sprung from. For the old man was mad, the gears of his mind stripped long ago to clashing discs edged with the stubs of broken cogs. Mad with loneliness or lovelessness, or from some genetic chemical jungle, or the flooding betrayal that all hermits suffer. Lops of fishing line underfoot, the snarl tangled into compacted detritus, a churn of splinters, sand, rain, sea wet, mud, bits of wool, gnawed sheep ribs, spruce needles, fish scales and bones, burst air bladders, seal offal, squid cartilage, broken glass, torn cloth, dog hair, nail pairings, bark and blood.
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Knots Symbol Timeline in The Shipping News
The timeline below shows where the symbol Knots appears in The Shipping News. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 11: A Breastpin of Human Hair
...and stumbles outside into the unfamiliar grey Newfoundland light. On the threshold, he finds three knotted bundles of grass. He follows a path through the brush down to the shore, failing...
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Chapter 26: Deadman
...walk to the end of the point. As he leaves the house, a bit of knotted twine falls from the latch. Finally, he reaches the end of the point, which feels...
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Chapter 30: The Sun Clouded Over
...it with a piece of string she found in the car. It has seven tidy knots along its length, which Bunny didn’t tie.
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Chapter 33: The Cousin
...big green house that feels so ominous and so wrong tied to the rock—he finds knotted strings on the threshold of every room. Fed up, he decides to confront the cousin.
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...But he’s certainly a relative, as evidenced by his shelf-like chin. Quoyle angrily tosses the knotted strings at Nolan, who in turn throws them onto the fire, which he says makes...
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Chapter 38: The Sled Dog Driver’s Dream
...In St. John’s, Nolan feels satisfied at the epic winds he called up with his knots. Bunny dreams about flying up the chimney and across the bay on the screaming winds,...
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