Isola: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses death, including child death and animal death, and physical and emotional abuse.

“They were a pair and needed nothing but each other. As for me, I had fine slippers, silk gowns, and more land than I could see. Even my finch lived in a gilt cage, but when I looked at Claire and Madame D’Artois, I felt like a beggar at the door.”

Goodman introduces the motif of birds in Chapter 2 to symbolize Marguerite’s lack of freedom. Even though, like the finch in the gilt cage, she has a comfortable living situation, she, too, is trapped under Roberval’s control. Madame D’Artois and her daughter Claire come to live at Perigord with Marguerite, and although the women are from a lower class, she envies the women’s relationship. Marguerite is an orphan and has no close relatives, so although she has many fine possessions, she feels spiritually impoverished.

“To admit Nicholas’ interest was to throw herself away. To refuse him was to risk offending. He might speak to his father, and he, in turn, could complain of us to Roberval. In anger, Nicholas might call Claire rude or loose—all that she was not. He might sully her good name—and how could she defend herself? Hearing ill reports, the Montforts might throw her from the house.”

Nicholas Montfort lusts after the pious Claire, and his intense affection threatens the woman’s livelihood, highlighting The Personal Impact of Gender and Class Inequality in 16th-century France. Nicholas has the power to say whatever he wants about Claire to ruin her reputation, and no matter what Claire does or says, she won’t be believed because she is a woman.

“I shook my head. ‘We won’t see each other ever.’ Even in my bitterness, I knew she had no choice but to work for the Montforts. Roberval had done this, denying me Claire. He had stolen our friendship, as he stole everything. But he won’t have my ruby, I thought, as I slipped my ring from my finger. ‘Remember me.’ I gave Claire my mother’s jewel.”

Rings, a central symbol in the text, represent Marguerite and Claire’s innermost selves. Marguerite exchanges rings with Claire the night before she must depart to live with Roberval in La Rochelle and leave Claire behind. By leaving her ruby ring—her most prized possession—with Claire, Marguerite symbolically saves a piece of herself from Roberval, who thus far has had complete control and possession of Marguerite.