The Tale of Despereaux

by

Kate DiCamillo

Despereaux Tilling Character Analysis

The protagonist of the novel, Despereaux is a tiny mouse who lives in a castle. From the moment he’s born, Despereaux doesn’t fit in with his fellow mice: he’s the only baby in his litter to survive, he has unusually large ears, and he’s born with his eyes open (normally, mice are born blind). With his open eyes, Despereaux can see a spot of light from Antoinette’s mirror reflected on the ceiling—and this begins Despereaux’s obsession with light and beauty. As Despereaux grows, he remains small and sickly, and he also struggles to fit into mouse society. Rather than expressing interest in crumbs, scurrying, or nibbling paper, Despereaux becomes enchanted by the light coming through stained-glass windows, reading a story about a knight who rescues a beautiful maiden, and music. His love of music in particular leads him to break several rules of mouse conduct when, in order to listen to the human King Phillip playing the guitar and singing for his daughter the Princess Pea, Despereaux shows himself to humans. When Despereaux allows the Princess Pea to touch him, he falls deeply in love with her and breaks the most important mouse rule forbidding mice from speaking to humans. For this, Despereaux is banished to the dungeon, where the rats are guaranteed to eat him. This causes Despereaux to question everything he knows, specifically whether “happily ever after,” like in the story he loves, actually exists. The jailer Gregory helps rescue Despereaux from the dungeon. In the 24 hours after returning upstairs, the serving girl Mig cuts Despereaux’s tail off, and she and the rat Roscuro kidnap the Pea and imprison her in the dungeon. Though Despereaux searches for a knight to rescue the princess, he ultimately decides that he must be brave and be a knight himself. With the threadmaster’s gift of a spool of thread and a needle, as well as some nourishing soup from Cook, Despereaux returns willingly to the dungeon. The story ends with Despereaux and the Pea as friends—and Despereaux seemingly living happily alongside her, rather than with the other castle mice.

Despereaux Tilling Quotes in The Tale of Despereaux

The The Tale of Despereaux quotes below are all either spoken by Despereaux Tilling or refer to Despereaux Tilling. 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:
Good vs. Evil Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1  Quotes

While Antoinette touched up her eye makeup, the mouse father put Despereaux down on a bed made of blanket scraps. The April sun, weak but determined, shone through a castle window and from there squeezed itself through a small hole in the wall and placed one golden finger on the little mouse.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Lester Tilling, Antoinette Tilling
Related Symbols: Light and Dark, The Knight in Shining Armor
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

He was staring at the light pouring in through the stained-glass windows of the castle. He stood on his hind legs and held his handkerchief over his heart and stared up, up, up into the brilliant light.

“Furlough,” he said, “what is this thing? What are all these colors? Are we in heaven?”

“Cripes!” shouted Furlough from a far corner. “Don’t stand there in the middle of the floor talking about heaven. Move! You’re a mouse, not a man. You’ve got to scurry.”

“What?” said Despereaux, still staring at the light.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling (speaker), Furlough Tilling (speaker)
Related Symbols: Light and Dark
Page Number: 20-21
Explanation and Analysis:

Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

Reader, you may ask this question; in fact, you must ask this question: Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse to fall in love with a beautiful human princess named Pea?

The answer is … yes. Of course, it’s ridiculous.

Love is ridiculous.

But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux’s love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: Powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, The Princess Pea
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Do not speak to her!” thundered the king.

Despereaux dropped his handkerchief. He backed away from the king.

“Rodents do not speak to princesses. We will not have this becoming a topsy-turvy, wrong-headed world. There are rules. Scat. Get lost, before my common sense returns and I have you killed.”

Related Characters: King Phillip (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea, Queen Rosemary
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Did you break them?”

“Yes, sir,” said Despereaux. He raised his voice. “But…I broke the rules for good reasons. Because of music. And because of love.”

“Love!” said the Head Mouse.

“Oh cripes,” said Furlough. “Here we go.”

“I love her, sir,” said Despereaux.

“We are not here to talk about love. This trial is not about love. This trial is about you being a mouse,” shouted the Most Very Honored Head Mouse from high atop the bricks, “and not acting like one!!!”

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling (speaker), Furlough Tilling (speaker), The Most Very Honored Head Mouse (speaker), The Princess Pea, King Phillip, Lester Tilling
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

How, he wondered, had things gone so terribly wrong? Wasn’t it a good thing to love? In the story in the book, love was a very good thing. Because the knight loved the fair maiden, he was able to rescue her. They lived happily ever after. It said so. In the book. They were the last words on the page. Happily ever after. Despereaux was certain that he had read exactly those words time and time again.

Lying on the floor with the drum beating and the mice shouting and the threadmaster calling out, “Make way, make way,” Despereaux had a sudden, chilling thought: Had some other mouse eaten the words that spoke the truth? Did the knight and the fair maiden really not live happily ever after?

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, The Princess Pea, The Most Very Honored Head Mouse, The Threadmaster/Hovis
Related Symbols: The Knight in Shining Armor
Page Number: 57-58
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

“Why would you save me, then?”

“Because you, mouse, can tell Gregory a story. Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.”

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling (speaker), Gregory (speaker)
Related Symbols: Light and Dark
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

He dreamt of the stained-glass windows and the dark of the dungeon. In Despereaux’s dream, the light came to life, brilliant and glorious, in the shape of a knight swinging a sword. The knight fought the dark.

And the dark took many shapes. First the dark was his mother, uttering phrases in French. And then the dark became his father beating the drum. The dark was Furlough wearing a black hood and shaking his head no. And the dark became a huge rat smiling a smile that was evil and sharp.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, Lester Tilling, Antoinette Tilling, Furlough Tilling
Related Symbols: Light and Dark, The Knight in Shining Armor
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36 Quotes

And while the mouse slept, Roscuro put his terrible plan into effect. Would you like to hear, reader, how it all unfolded? The story is not a pretty one. There is violence in it. And cruelty. But stories that are not pretty have a certain value too, I suppose. Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannot always be sweetness and light.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, Miggery Sow “Mig”, The Princess Pea
Related Symbols: Light and Dark
Page Number: 183
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39 Quotes

“It will be all right,” said Louise.

Cook brought the hem of her apron up to wipe at her tears. “It won’t,” she said. “It won’t be all right ever again. They’ve taken our little darling away. There ain’t nothing left to live for without the princess.”

Despereaux was amazed to have exactly what was in his heart spoken aloud by such a ferocious, mouse-hating woman as Cook.

Related Characters: Cook (speaker), Louise (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea
Page Number: 202
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 41 Quotes

He put a nervous paw up to his neck and pulled at the red thread, and suddenly his dream came flooding back to him…the dark and the light and the knight swinging his sword and the terrible moment when he had realized that the suit of armor was empty.

And then, reader, as he stood before the king, a wonderful, amazing thought occurred to the mouse. What if the suit of armor had been empty for a reason? What if it had been empty because it was waiting?

For him.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, The Princess Pea, King Phillip
Related Symbols: The Knight in Shining Armor, Light and Dark
Page Number: 214-15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 45 Quotes

Cook smiled. “See?” she said. “There ain’t a body, be it mouse or man, that ain’t made better by a little soup.”

Related Characters: Cook (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea
Related Symbols: Soup
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 51 Quotes

Despereaux held his trembling needle against Roscuro’s heart. The mouse knew that as a knight, it was his duty to protect the princess. But would killing the rat make the darkness go away?

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea
Related Symbols: Light and Dark, The Knight in Shining Armor
Page Number: 262
Explanation and Analysis:

And the smell of soup crashed through his soul like a great wave, bringing with it the memory of light, the chandelier, the music, the laughter, everything, all the things that were not, would never, could never be available to him as a rat.

Soup,” moaned Roscuro.

And he began to cry.

[…]

“Kill me,” said Roscuro. He fell down before Despereaux. “It will never work. All I wanted was some light. This is why I brought the princess here, really, just for some beauty…some light of my own.”

Related Characters: Chiaroscuro “Roscuro” (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, The Princess Pea, Botticelli Remorso
Related Symbols: Light and Dark, Soup
Page Number: 262-63
Explanation and Analysis:

I think, reader, that she was feeling the same thing that Despereaux had felt when he was faced with his father begging him for forgiveness. That is, Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would never like the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart.

And so, here are the words that the princess spoke to her enemy.

She said, “Roscuro, would you like some soup?”

Related Characters: The Princess Pea (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, Lester Tilling
Related Symbols: Light and Dark
Page Number: 264
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Tale of Despereaux PDF

Despereaux Tilling Quotes in The Tale of Despereaux

The The Tale of Despereaux quotes below are all either spoken by Despereaux Tilling or refer to Despereaux Tilling. 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:
Good vs. Evil Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1  Quotes

While Antoinette touched up her eye makeup, the mouse father put Despereaux down on a bed made of blanket scraps. The April sun, weak but determined, shone through a castle window and from there squeezed itself through a small hole in the wall and placed one golden finger on the little mouse.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Lester Tilling, Antoinette Tilling
Related Symbols: Light and Dark, The Knight in Shining Armor
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

He was staring at the light pouring in through the stained-glass windows of the castle. He stood on his hind legs and held his handkerchief over his heart and stared up, up, up into the brilliant light.

“Furlough,” he said, “what is this thing? What are all these colors? Are we in heaven?”

“Cripes!” shouted Furlough from a far corner. “Don’t stand there in the middle of the floor talking about heaven. Move! You’re a mouse, not a man. You’ve got to scurry.”

“What?” said Despereaux, still staring at the light.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling (speaker), Furlough Tilling (speaker)
Related Symbols: Light and Dark
Page Number: 20-21
Explanation and Analysis:

Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

Reader, you may ask this question; in fact, you must ask this question: Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse to fall in love with a beautiful human princess named Pea?

The answer is … yes. Of course, it’s ridiculous.

Love is ridiculous.

But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux’s love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: Powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, The Princess Pea
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Do not speak to her!” thundered the king.

Despereaux dropped his handkerchief. He backed away from the king.

“Rodents do not speak to princesses. We will not have this becoming a topsy-turvy, wrong-headed world. There are rules. Scat. Get lost, before my common sense returns and I have you killed.”

Related Characters: King Phillip (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea, Queen Rosemary
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Did you break them?”

“Yes, sir,” said Despereaux. He raised his voice. “But…I broke the rules for good reasons. Because of music. And because of love.”

“Love!” said the Head Mouse.

“Oh cripes,” said Furlough. “Here we go.”

“I love her, sir,” said Despereaux.

“We are not here to talk about love. This trial is not about love. This trial is about you being a mouse,” shouted the Most Very Honored Head Mouse from high atop the bricks, “and not acting like one!!!”

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling (speaker), Furlough Tilling (speaker), The Most Very Honored Head Mouse (speaker), The Princess Pea, King Phillip, Lester Tilling
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

How, he wondered, had things gone so terribly wrong? Wasn’t it a good thing to love? In the story in the book, love was a very good thing. Because the knight loved the fair maiden, he was able to rescue her. They lived happily ever after. It said so. In the book. They were the last words on the page. Happily ever after. Despereaux was certain that he had read exactly those words time and time again.

Lying on the floor with the drum beating and the mice shouting and the threadmaster calling out, “Make way, make way,” Despereaux had a sudden, chilling thought: Had some other mouse eaten the words that spoke the truth? Did the knight and the fair maiden really not live happily ever after?

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, The Princess Pea, The Most Very Honored Head Mouse, The Threadmaster/Hovis
Related Symbols: The Knight in Shining Armor
Page Number: 57-58
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

“Why would you save me, then?”

“Because you, mouse, can tell Gregory a story. Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.”

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling (speaker), Gregory (speaker)
Related Symbols: Light and Dark
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

He dreamt of the stained-glass windows and the dark of the dungeon. In Despereaux’s dream, the light came to life, brilliant and glorious, in the shape of a knight swinging a sword. The knight fought the dark.

And the dark took many shapes. First the dark was his mother, uttering phrases in French. And then the dark became his father beating the drum. The dark was Furlough wearing a black hood and shaking his head no. And the dark became a huge rat smiling a smile that was evil and sharp.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, Lester Tilling, Antoinette Tilling, Furlough Tilling
Related Symbols: Light and Dark, The Knight in Shining Armor
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36 Quotes

And while the mouse slept, Roscuro put his terrible plan into effect. Would you like to hear, reader, how it all unfolded? The story is not a pretty one. There is violence in it. And cruelty. But stories that are not pretty have a certain value too, I suppose. Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannot always be sweetness and light.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, Miggery Sow “Mig”, The Princess Pea
Related Symbols: Light and Dark
Page Number: 183
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39 Quotes

“It will be all right,” said Louise.

Cook brought the hem of her apron up to wipe at her tears. “It won’t,” she said. “It won’t be all right ever again. They’ve taken our little darling away. There ain’t nothing left to live for without the princess.”

Despereaux was amazed to have exactly what was in his heart spoken aloud by such a ferocious, mouse-hating woman as Cook.

Related Characters: Cook (speaker), Louise (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea
Page Number: 202
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 41 Quotes

He put a nervous paw up to his neck and pulled at the red thread, and suddenly his dream came flooding back to him…the dark and the light and the knight swinging his sword and the terrible moment when he had realized that the suit of armor was empty.

And then, reader, as he stood before the king, a wonderful, amazing thought occurred to the mouse. What if the suit of armor had been empty for a reason? What if it had been empty because it was waiting?

For him.

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, The Princess Pea, King Phillip
Related Symbols: The Knight in Shining Armor, Light and Dark
Page Number: 214-15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 45 Quotes

Cook smiled. “See?” she said. “There ain’t a body, be it mouse or man, that ain’t made better by a little soup.”

Related Characters: Cook (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea
Related Symbols: Soup
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 51 Quotes

Despereaux held his trembling needle against Roscuro’s heart. The mouse knew that as a knight, it was his duty to protect the princess. But would killing the rat make the darkness go away?

Related Characters: Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, The Princess Pea
Related Symbols: Light and Dark, The Knight in Shining Armor
Page Number: 262
Explanation and Analysis:

And the smell of soup crashed through his soul like a great wave, bringing with it the memory of light, the chandelier, the music, the laughter, everything, all the things that were not, would never, could never be available to him as a rat.

Soup,” moaned Roscuro.

And he began to cry.

[…]

“Kill me,” said Roscuro. He fell down before Despereaux. “It will never work. All I wanted was some light. This is why I brought the princess here, really, just for some beauty…some light of my own.”

Related Characters: Chiaroscuro “Roscuro” (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, The Princess Pea, Botticelli Remorso
Related Symbols: Light and Dark, Soup
Page Number: 262-63
Explanation and Analysis:

I think, reader, that she was feeling the same thing that Despereaux had felt when he was faced with his father begging him for forgiveness. That is, Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would never like the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart.

And so, here are the words that the princess spoke to her enemy.

She said, “Roscuro, would you like some soup?”

Related Characters: The Princess Pea (speaker), Despereaux Tilling, Chiaroscuro “Roscuro”, Lester Tilling
Related Symbols: Light and Dark
Page Number: 264
Explanation and Analysis: