Gallant

“A house in order is a mind at peace.”

This quote stitched onto one of the Merilance matron’s pillows prefigures both the symbolic and thematic work of the novel. Olivia will have to deal with several disordered, dangerous houses over the course of the narrative; she finds “peace” not by putting the houses in order, but by learning to embrace and contain the chaos within them.

“Olivia has been buried alive.

At least, that is how it feels.”

Here, Schwab uses hyperbole and metaphor to describe Olivia’s experience of working in Merilance’s kitchen. This hyperbolic statement serves to introduce one of the novel’s more Gothic themes—The Perils and Powers of Inheritance and the ensuing sense of entrapment that defined Grace’s existence and that Olivia must grapple with.

“I am so happy. I am so scared.

The two, it turns out, can walk together, hand in hand.”

Grace’s journals are full of pithy observations about the experience of living at Gallant. Here, her assessment that fear and joy can be intertwined reflects one of the primary motifs of the novel—the Gothic double, inherent in Gallant and Grace’s Journal.