59 pages • 1 hour read
A Rule Against Murder
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Symbols & Motifs
Mythology
Mythology is a motif that runs throughout the novel. When the Morrow children were young, Irene read to them from a book of myths, a copy of which has been passed to Bean by Marianna. Bean’s myth book, besides being a source of imaginative inspiration, becomes the child’s constant companion and a source of comfort, connecting to Penny’s theme of Family Armor. Bean only releases the book when utterly defenseless, held dangling over the side of the roof by Pierre.
The myth of Pandora plays a role in the novel. Peter has been preoccupied with the story since he was a child, and when struggling to resist his temper, often thinks of it: “He fought to shove the rage back in, stuffing it down there with anger and jealousy and fear and hate, hate, hate. But Pandora’s box wouldn’t be shut” (219). However, at the end of the novel, Peter’s thinking about the myth of Pandora shifts when he hears the end of the story, which his mother had never told them, in which the only thing left in the bottom of the box is hope. This myth, for Peter, therefore resolves in parallel with the solving of the murder.
The martlet, a mythical bird from English heraldry, is also central to the text. As a footless bird, according to Gamache, the martlet is “thought to signify enterprise and hard work” (264) since it never stops flying. It first appears in the text as a small carving in the shoulder of Charles Morrow’s statue, which shrouds the fact that the statue ultimately falls down in irony. However, the origin of this carving is a drawing that Peter made for his father when he was young, which the sculptor had found among Charles’s papers. For Peter, the drawing represents his father’s approval, and he is moved to find that his father, a cold, distant man, had kept it all those years.
The Burghers of Calais
The Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais), a late-19th-century sculpture by Auguste Rodin, runs as a motif throughout the novel. The original sculpture is located in Calais, although, in the novel, Gamache refers to the copy he has seen in the Musée Rodin in Paris. The event commemorated by the sculpture took place in 1347—during the Hundred Years’ War between France and England, the port of Calais was under siege for months until the English king told the citizens he would spare their city if six “prominent citizens” would surrender themselves to be put to death. Further, as Gamache tells it, “[h]e ordered that these men present themselves at the gate, stripped of their finery, with ropes round their necks and holding the key to the city” (145), an image that recalls the theme of family armor. Although the men were spared, the event was commemorated in the statue, and various casts have been made that reside in museums around the world. This history connects the motif to the novel’s contexts of Anglo-French relations.
After Charles Morrow’s statue is revealed, Gamache is reminded of the Rodin sculpture, one of his favorite works of art. Penny uses this motif to draw a parallel between the Burghers and Charles Morrow because “[t]he men aren’t heroic. They’re resigned, frightened even” (146). Further, Gamache sees a connection between the Burghers and the rest of the Morrow family as he imagines them “trudging along, chained together, weighted down by expectation, disapproval, secrets. Need. Greed. And hate” (205). This motif is raised again at the end of the novel, when Gamache faces the murderer, who is holding Bean over the edge of the roof. At this point, Beauvoir sees “the chief, who was looking at him with eyes so grave. Frightened, his fate sealed, and knowing it. A Burgher of Calais” (292). As a character with a French name who comments explicitly on Anglo-French relations—he states “[f]ucking Anglos” earlier in the novel—Penny uses Beauvoir to strike an emotional connection with a scene reminiscent of this history.
Marble Cube
When Armand Gamache first arrives at the Manoir Bellechasse, he is surprised to find a large marble cube in the gardens. He has been coming to the lodge for over 30 years and has never seen anything like it there. When he first sees it, he describes it as “large and solid and a perfect square, like a massive sugar cube” (20). This description foreshadows the murder—as it turns out, the killer used sugar atop the cube to push the statue off of it.
Gamache sees the symbolism and portent of the object immediately, although at first he doesn’t understand the significance, thinking only: “Nothing to worry about, certainly nothing to spook him. But it did. It reminded him of something” (20). However, soon afterward, “as Gamache held open the screen door for Julia Martin he caught sight of the marble box in the woods. He could see just a corner of it and knew then what it reminded him of. A grave marker” (26). This marble cube becomes a symbol of death, and, later, when Julia is crushed beneath the statue, “the harsh white cube” literally rises above her like a grave marker (170). Although this symbol is bland and featureless, from the beginning it has an ominous presence due to Gamache’s connection to a grave marker, a connection that becomes much more literal with Julia’s death.
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By Louise Penny
