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Part 4: Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Wolf Hall, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power, Ambition, and Deception
Poor Leadership and Violence
Children and Human Connection
Dogmatism vs. Open-Mindedness
Myth and Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
Rafe wakes Cromwell from uneasy dreams, saying that the king has already gone to Mass but that they didn’t want to wake Cromwell since he never sleeps late. Cromwell recalls that five years ago, Wolsey went France and told Cromwell to watch the king’s face for signs that he had finally slept with Anne Boleyn. This morning, Cromwell reaches the church late, and he sees Anne walking out on Berners’s arm—her face is a “careful blankness.” Henry comes out with another lady on his arm and doesn’t even look at Anne. When he sees Cromwell, he smiles and puts on his big, new hat, which has a feather in it.
Five years ago, Wolsey hoped that Henry would finally sleep with Anne, after which he would begin to tire of her. Now Henry has slept with Anne, but rather than meaning what Wolsey hoped it would, this has cemented their status as husband and wife. Henry’s new feathered hat symbolizes his triumph at finally sleeping with Anne. The idiom “a feather in one’s cap” means to achieve or accomplish something, and Henry seems to be filled with a sense of accomplishment.
Themes
