Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Coraline, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age and Finding Oneself
Parents and Children
Home and the Familiar
Fear and Bravery
Summary
Analysis
Coraline is surprised but relieved to find her “other” flat more or less the same as when she left it earlier that morning. The other mother, seeing the cat in Coraline’s arms, chides Coraline for bringing “vermin” into the house, but reminds Coraline once again that she loves her. Coraline tells the other mother she has a “funny” way of showing love, and she walks wordlessly toward the drawing room, carrying the cat the whole way. Coraline knows that “the moment of truth” is upon her.
Coraline’s other mother insists to the very end that she loves Coraline. Her empty words are like an incantation—but the spell doesn’t work on Coraline, who has come to understand what love really is throughout her terrifying journey in the other mother’s realm.
Themes
The other mother follows Coraline into the drawing room and stands between her and the mantelpiece. Coraline notices that the other mother’s appearance has changed—she’s grown taller and paler, her hair has turned to writhing vines, and her teeth are sharper and longer. The other mother asks Coraline to produce the marbles from her pocket, and Coraline does so—but points out that she still has to find her parents. She urges herself privately not to even look at the mantelpiece—she wants to deceive the other mother for as long as she can.
Coraline knows that she has to be braver and cleverer than she ever has been before if she’s going to outsmart the powerful other mother—who seems closer than ever to revealing her true form and, it would seem, reaching the height of her powers.
Themes
The other mother asks where Coraline thinks her parents are. Coraline says she doesn’t believe they’re hidden in the house—they must be, she says, in the passageway between the houses. The other mother smiles and offers to open the door. Coraline is pleased—she has been counting on the other mother’s need to gloat. Coraline holds the cat tight, and, as the other mother makes her way to the door, unlocks it, and pulls it open, Coraline begins stepping backwards toward the mantelpiece. The other mother flings the door open and gleefully tells Coraline that she’s wrong—and that now she’ll have to stay forever.
Coraline knows that the other mother loves a game—and she also knows that she’s not motivated to keep Coraline because of her love for her, but because she wants to win her as a prize. Coraline is able to prey upon the other mother in this passage and use her as a plaything rather than the other way around because she’s done the difficult work of coming to understand herself—whereas the other mother can’t even understand her prey.
Themes
Coraline declares she isn’t wrong. In one swift motion, she throws the cat at the other mother’s head. The cat lands on her and claws at her face. While the cat distracts the other mother Coraline grabs the snow globe from the mantelpiece, runs towards the door, pulls the key from the lock, and calls for the cat to run behind her down the hallway. Together they hurry inside, pulling the door shut behind them. The other mother slips a hand in through the door, however, and pulls. Coraline can feel the presence of her parents and the lost children in the hall with her, and she begs them to help her shut the door. They lend Coraline strength, and she yanks the door shut. She hears something drop to the floor as she does.
Coraline has made this entire long and harrowing journey herself—and though she’s had help from the cat and the lost children along the way, her own bravery and cleverness have helped her get through. Now, though, Coraline realizes the most important lesson of all—that she needs the help of those who love her to truly win the day.
Themes
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Without stopping to investigate, Coraline turns and begins to run down the hall toward her own world. A strong wind pushes against her, and she senses the old, slow presence in the hall—she realizes it is much older and more powerful than the other mother. Coraline continues running until she reaches the end of the hall, re-enters her flat, and locks the door behind her. Exhausted, Coraline gathers the cat in her arms and lies down on one of the fancy sofas in the drawing room, ignoring her parents’ rule about sitting on the old furniture. Soon, she falls into a deep sleep.
The novel never explains the source of the old and slow presence Coraline senses each time she steps into the hallway—but part of the horror of the book comes from just how much is left up to interpretation. What is clear is that while the other mother has had access to Coraline’s home in all its various incarnations for years and years, Coraline and the cat have cut off that access—or at least they believe they have.
Themes
