Vertigo

by

Amanda Lohrey

The Boy Character Analysis

The boy is a ghostly child, imagined or hallucinated by Luke and Anna throughout the novel. This character is more symbolic than literal, as he represents Anna's unborn child. After Anna's miscarriage prior to the novel's events, a counsellor asked Luke and Anna if they wanted to name their child who hadn't survived the birth. They agreed that they should name him, as it felt like a good thing to do, but they eventually decided to simply call him "the boy." This name felt more personal and intimate than any other name they could have given him. While the boy seems like a real child at the beginning of the novel, it gradually becomes clear that he's only an imaginary projection of the child Luke and Anna wish they could have had. The boy is a persistent presence in their lives, defined only by the sights and sounds he seems to add to their world. He's nothing more than the noise he makes rattling a stick across the veranda, a glimpse of him playing in the garden, or the feeling of his sleeping body pressed against Anna's. But all of these sensations are illusions, created by the couple's unwillingness to face their grief and move on. They want to believe that their boy is still with them in some way, but they can only find peace when they mourn him and accept that he's gone. The boy is a manifestation of Vertigo's central conflict—a sign that something isn't quite right and needs to be put to rest.

The Boy Quotes in Vertigo

The Vertigo quotes below are all either spoken by The Boy or refer to The Boy. 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:
Grief and Loss Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Often the boy appears to play alongside them, whirling around in the dust or darting mischievously among the weed piles and throwing clumps of weeds into the air. Sometimes he sings snatches of nursery songs in a thin, childish lilt that is charmingly off-key. At such times his parents do not look one another in the eye; the weighty joy of it would be too much.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:

He dreams of a tidal wave that sweeps in from the ocean and submerges the settlement in a depth of clear green water. But this isn’t a nightmare; it’s a benign dream, a dream in which he swims beneath the sunlit surface like a water baby. And the boy is there, swimming alongside. His face is radiant and there are small translucent fish darting around his head; his golden curls stream behind him in unravelling coils of light while his small but supple limbs beat against the current.

Related Characters: Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 36-37
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

Bette is not a shy woman but she has a natural reserve so Anna is surprised when she says, ‘Do you think, Anna, that you’ll ever start a family?’
‘We’ve put that on hold,’ says Anna, firmly. ‘First we have to decide where home is.’ This isn’t the whole truth, far from it, and she hopes the boy isn’t listening.

Related Characters: Anna Worley (speaker), Bette (speaker), Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:

Alan is standing at the edge of the grassy path, beside the body of a dead swan. It appears to have flown into the wires overhead and been electrocuted, and not all that long ago since there is no sign of it having been set upon by crows. It’s a deflating sight: the twisted black carcass, the slash of white feather down its middle, the broken neck splayed at a right angle, the crimson beak lying bright against the sandy stubble of the track.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy, Alan
Related Symbols: Birds
Page Number: 69-70
Explanation and Analysis:

Damn Luke, damn his stupid ideas. All he has succeeded in doing is creating a situation where she doesn’t feel at home anywhere. Now she belongs in neither place, like some migratory bird that has lost its bearings. But the most disturbing thing is this: here in the city there has been no sign of the boy.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Related Symbols: Birds
Page Number: 75-76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

It’s a long time since she heard his stick clatter across the veranda, and now there is a fire burning on the rim of their world. Where are you? she asks. Is it something we’ve done, some oversight in our thoughts? Have we become too self-absorbed and careless? Have you decided, after all, to leave us?

Related Characters: Anna Worley, The Boy
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:

And the flames are burning nearer, the upper balcony close to collapse, yet she continues to rummage through the bric- à-brac. Ah, but where is the boy? She had almost forgotten him. Where could he possibly be? Is he hiding again, playing his childish games? Luke is standing in the doorway, clutching suitcases in each hand. Hurry up, he says, we have to get out of here, we have to get out of here now. But what about the boy, she groans, we can’t go without him, we can’t leave him behind—

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

In those bleak hours after they had cleaned the sticky blood from Anna’s body and wheeled her into a pale blue hospital room, the hospital counsellor asked them if they wanted to give their child a name, and they nodded, blankly, and said yes, it would be a good idea. But in the numbness of their grief, no name presented itself and thereafter they had come to think of him as ‘the boy.’ It seemed so much more intimate than any given name.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:

He shakes his head. ‘Not the fire,’ he murmurs. ‘Not the fire.’

‘The boy?’

He nods, unable to speak, and stands on the spot, as if to take another step is entirely beyond him. She puts her arms around him, steadying herself because he is heavy, and she absorbs the shudder and heave of his body, clasping his back and drawing him into her. And they stand there, in the doorway of their home, and they hold one another for a very long time.

Related Characters: Anna Worley (speaker), Luke Worley (speaker), The Boy
Page Number: 133-134
Explanation and Analysis:

And yes, it is him, it’s the boy, and she sees now that the sloop is for him, is waiting to carry him to his next destination. Ah, she says, so you are leaving us. So you are on your way at last. But it’s okay, it’s alright; yes, she thinks, I am ready for this, and she raises her arm in a soft salute. Thank you, she says. Thank you for staying with us all this time.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, The Boy
Page Number: 137-138
Explanation and Analysis:

Miraculously, not all of the she-oaks in the garden burned. There is still a cluster of them in the south-east corner and she listens to the sound of the wind whistling through their canopy, that eerie siren song, and she remembers how it felt to sit in the canoe with the boy nestled against her chest while Luke paddled them across the lagoon; the long slow glide of the boat across the black water.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Vertigo LitChart as a printable PDF.
Vertigo PDF

The Boy Quotes in Vertigo

The Vertigo quotes below are all either spoken by The Boy or refer to The Boy. 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:
Grief and Loss Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Often the boy appears to play alongside them, whirling around in the dust or darting mischievously among the weed piles and throwing clumps of weeds into the air. Sometimes he sings snatches of nursery songs in a thin, childish lilt that is charmingly off-key. At such times his parents do not look one another in the eye; the weighty joy of it would be too much.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:

He dreams of a tidal wave that sweeps in from the ocean and submerges the settlement in a depth of clear green water. But this isn’t a nightmare; it’s a benign dream, a dream in which he swims beneath the sunlit surface like a water baby. And the boy is there, swimming alongside. His face is radiant and there are small translucent fish darting around his head; his golden curls stream behind him in unravelling coils of light while his small but supple limbs beat against the current.

Related Characters: Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 36-37
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

Bette is not a shy woman but she has a natural reserve so Anna is surprised when she says, ‘Do you think, Anna, that you’ll ever start a family?’
‘We’ve put that on hold,’ says Anna, firmly. ‘First we have to decide where home is.’ This isn’t the whole truth, far from it, and she hopes the boy isn’t listening.

Related Characters: Anna Worley (speaker), Bette (speaker), Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:

Alan is standing at the edge of the grassy path, beside the body of a dead swan. It appears to have flown into the wires overhead and been electrocuted, and not all that long ago since there is no sign of it having been set upon by crows. It’s a deflating sight: the twisted black carcass, the slash of white feather down its middle, the broken neck splayed at a right angle, the crimson beak lying bright against the sandy stubble of the track.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy, Alan
Related Symbols: Birds
Page Number: 69-70
Explanation and Analysis:

Damn Luke, damn his stupid ideas. All he has succeeded in doing is creating a situation where she doesn’t feel at home anywhere. Now she belongs in neither place, like some migratory bird that has lost its bearings. But the most disturbing thing is this: here in the city there has been no sign of the boy.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Related Symbols: Birds
Page Number: 75-76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

It’s a long time since she heard his stick clatter across the veranda, and now there is a fire burning on the rim of their world. Where are you? she asks. Is it something we’ve done, some oversight in our thoughts? Have we become too self-absorbed and careless? Have you decided, after all, to leave us?

Related Characters: Anna Worley, The Boy
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:

And the flames are burning nearer, the upper balcony close to collapse, yet she continues to rummage through the bric- à-brac. Ah, but where is the boy? She had almost forgotten him. Where could he possibly be? Is he hiding again, playing his childish games? Luke is standing in the doorway, clutching suitcases in each hand. Hurry up, he says, we have to get out of here, we have to get out of here now. But what about the boy, she groans, we can’t go without him, we can’t leave him behind—

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

In those bleak hours after they had cleaned the sticky blood from Anna’s body and wheeled her into a pale blue hospital room, the hospital counsellor asked them if they wanted to give their child a name, and they nodded, blankly, and said yes, it would be a good idea. But in the numbness of their grief, no name presented itself and thereafter they had come to think of him as ‘the boy.’ It seemed so much more intimate than any given name.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:

He shakes his head. ‘Not the fire,’ he murmurs. ‘Not the fire.’

‘The boy?’

He nods, unable to speak, and stands on the spot, as if to take another step is entirely beyond him. She puts her arms around him, steadying herself because he is heavy, and she absorbs the shudder and heave of his body, clasping his back and drawing him into her. And they stand there, in the doorway of their home, and they hold one another for a very long time.

Related Characters: Anna Worley (speaker), Luke Worley (speaker), The Boy
Page Number: 133-134
Explanation and Analysis:

And yes, it is him, it’s the boy, and she sees now that the sloop is for him, is waiting to carry him to his next destination. Ah, she says, so you are leaving us. So you are on your way at last. But it’s okay, it’s alright; yes, she thinks, I am ready for this, and she raises her arm in a soft salute. Thank you, she says. Thank you for staying with us all this time.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, The Boy
Page Number: 137-138
Explanation and Analysis:

Miraculously, not all of the she-oaks in the garden burned. There is still a cluster of them in the south-east corner and she listens to the sound of the wind whistling through their canopy, that eerie siren song, and she remembers how it felt to sit in the canoe with the boy nestled against her chest while Luke paddled them across the lagoon; the long slow glide of the boat across the black water.

Related Characters: Anna Worley, Luke Worley , The Boy
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis: