Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Growing Up
Adventure, Mystery, and Secrets
Family
Independence, Capability, and Creativity
Art, Beauty, and Wonder
Summary
Analysis
The taxi drives up Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler’s long, tree-lined driveway. Jamie wonders aloud if Mrs. Frankweiler owns this “highway,” and the driver tells him this is Mrs. Frankweiler’s driveway—“this dame’s loaded.” When they pull up, Jamie thinks her house resembles a museum. Claudia points out that, in that case, they’ll feel at home. Jamie gives all their remaining money to the driver for a tip, and the kids worry briefly about being broke—they’ve “traded safety for adventure.”
Mrs. Frankweiler is obviously quite wealthy—something readers would guess based on hints she’s dropped throughout the story, but which still comes as a surprise to the kids when they see the evidence firsthand. Claudia’s comment that they’ll feel at home in Mrs. Frankweiler’s museum-like mansion has a point—the kids have developed confidence over the past week of living on their own. Still, being broke is scary because it means the kids can’t fend for themselves so easily.
Themes
Jamie rings Mrs. Frankweiler’s doorbell, and the butler, Parks, answers. Claudia gives their names, and after a long wait, the butler returns to say that Mrs. Frankweiler doesn’t know them. Claudia insists that they would like her to know them and explains that they’ve come looking for information about the Italian Renaissance. After another long wait, Parks ushers the kids through several rooms filled with antique furniture and Oriental rugs. After all that, Mrs. Frankweiler’s office comes as a surprise.
Claudia’s response to Mrs. Frankweiler’s initial rejection shows that she won’t be easily deterred by disappointment, suggesting that the past week has helped her grow more resilient. At first, Mrs. Frankweiler’s mansion looks just like one would expect a wealthy person’s home to look—but there might be more to Mrs. Frankweiler than meets the eye.
Themes
Saxonberg has always told Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler that her office looks more like a laboratory than an office. That, she says, is why she calls her work research. It’s furnished with steel, Formica, vinyl, and fluorescent lights—and rows and rows of filing cabinets. When Parks brings Claudia and Jamie in, Mrs. Frankweiler is sitting at a table wearing her “customary” white lab coat and her baroque pearl necklace. After Parks announces the children, Mrs. Frankweiler lets them wait for a good while. She pointedly goes on with her research, even when Jamie gives two obviously fake sneezes.
It’s not really clear what sort of “research” Mrs. Frankweiler does; nothing about her office’s furnishings makes that obvious. And, for that matter, Mrs. Frankweiler’s odd clothing combination—a lab coat with a fancy necklace—suggests that her personality can’t be neatly categorized, either. After hearing from and about Mrs. Frankweiler from the beginning of the story, the Kincaids—and readers—finally get to meet the character herself, and she’s happy to let the suspense build.
Themes
Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler doesn’t like wasting time. When she finally turns around, she demands to know whether Claudia and Jamie are the children who’ve been missing from Greenwich for the past week. (She notes that Saxonberg must admit she has a “finely developed sense of theatrics” when necessary.) The kids have become used to going undiscovered, so they’ve forgotten they’re runaways. They’re in shock.
Mrs. Frankweiler’s abrupt question surprises the kids, and it also jolts readers back to an awareness of what’s been happening in the world outside the museum. The angel statue has become the Kincaids’ obsession, but their running away has clearly caused a stir even among strangers.
Themes
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Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler says they don’t have to tell her—she already knows the answer. In answer to the children’s questions, she explains that she found out about them from the newspaper and, no, she didn’t call the police. She tells them to sit down and start talking about the Italian Renaissance. She also hands them newspapers they’ve appeared in from Hartford, Stamford, and Greenwich—they made the front page in Greenwich.
Right away, Mrs. Frankweiler seems like a potential ally for the kids. For one thing, she doesn’t immediately contact the authorities as they might have expected a grown-up to do, and she respects the reasons they’ve shown up at her door. It seems plausible, then, that Mrs. Frankweiler might indeed be the key to solving the mystery.
Themes
When the kids keep asking questions, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler warns them that if they keep talking this way, she’ll get bored and call both the police and their parents so she can be rid of them. They humbly agree to stop. When Mrs. Frankweiler asks Jamie if he finds her frightening, he says she’s “not so bad looking,” and Mrs. Frankweiler rings for Parks to bring her a mirror—she rarely thinks about her appearance nowadays. When Parks brings the mirror, she studies her reflection in silence for a long time and concludes that she simply looks like she’s getting older, but that perhaps she should get a permanent wave for her hair—she normally has Parks cut it.
Mrs. Frankweiler continues to subvert expectations for a grown-up character by threatening to only turn the kids in if they aren’t sufficiently entertaining. Of course, it’s likely that Mrs. Frankweiler isn’t nearly as indifferent to alerting the authorities as she acts while she’s trying to gain the kids’ trust. Still, her attitude does convey that she takes an interest in the Kincaids as more than helpless, lost children.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler tells Claudia that she never really looks past her eyes, since that way she always feels pretty. Claudia steps closer and tells Mrs. Frankweiler that her eyes are beautiful, but her intent gaze makes Mrs. Frankweiler uncomfortable, so she changes the subject. She commands Jamie to speak, and he stammers that they want to find out about the statue. Once they’ve explained which statue they’re talking about, she pulls out a file containing newspaper clippings about the auction and the exhibit. Claudia asks why she sold Angel, and Mrs. Frankweiler says she doesn’t like to donate things.
Mrs. Frankweiler suggests that she’s too preoccupied with the wonders of the world around her to be very concerned about her own appearance. It’s also evident that she isn’t used to receiving admiration from others, which speaks to her isolated, perhaps lonely life. Her file about Angel is a hopeful sign that she does, in fact, have information that will be useful to the Kincaids. It also seems like she has information about lots of things, though it’s unclear why.
Themes
Claudia proclaims that if she owned such a beautiful statue, she’d never sell or donate it—she’d love it like a family member. Mrs. Frankweiler retorts that this isn’t saying much, considering how much trouble Claudia has caused her family. She tells Claudia that if she had actually read the article about her disappearance, she would have known that her parents are frantic with worry, and that Claudia’s letter apparently didn’t reassure them.
Mrs. Frankweiler’s wry remark points out that by running away, Claudia hasn’t been very considerate to her family. Indeed, Claudia’s immaturity is apparent here. She might be resourceful enough to survive on her own for a few days, but on the other hand, she naively assumes that her parents aren’t worried about her (if she thinks about them at all).
Themes
Claudia explains that she can’t go home until she knows the truth about Angel’s sculptor. Mrs. Frankweiler says that’s her secret and asks where the kids have been hiding all week, and Claudia says that’s their secret. Mrs. Frankweiler cheers at this reply and decides she likes these children. She sends the children to wash up for lunch, and Claudia relishes washing up in Mrs. Frankweiler’s beautiful marble bathroom with gold fixtures. She can’t even resist taking a bath in the black marble tub, which is the size of a small swimming pool.
Mrs. Frankweiler is delighted with the kids because they’re willing to stand up for what’s important to them and not just tell a grown-up what she wants to hear. Instead of getting frustrated or demanding the truth as some adults might, she seems to be willing to take her time, give the kids space, and hear them out. Meanwhile, Claudia gets to indulge in one of the luxuries she’s missed during life as a runaway.
Themes
When Jamie finds out what Claudia is doing, he declares it “boloney” and goes to start lunch without her. He explains his “nutty” sister’s fondness for baths and even tells Mrs. Frankweiler how they bathed in the museum fountain. He adds that Claudia did the planning and he managed the money, but now they’re broke. Mrs. Frankweiler suggests that they make a deal—maybe if Jamie gives her some details, she can give the kids a ride home in exchange. Jamie says she’ll have to work that out with Claudia, but he invites her to play a card game. Mrs. Frankweiler says she assumes that Jamie cheats, but she might play after lunch anyway—she loves a good game of cards.
Notice that Jamie quickly—and apparently thoughtlessly—gives away the truth about where the kids have been hiding out. Yet Mrs. Frankweiler continues to keep her cool about the situation, not making a big deal of Jamie’s revelation for now. She also relates to him shrewdly, assuming a clever little boy would appreciate making a deal and also that he’s an unscrupulous card player (something she doesn’t scold him for).
Themes
When Claudia finally shows up after her bath, Mrs. Frankweiler can tell she’s annoyed that they didn’t wait for her. But she softens when Parks serves a fancy-sounding casserole, which turns out to be simple macaroni and cheese. Mrs. Frankweiler explains that she’s really just a plain lady at heart. Over lunch Claudia admits that she hasn’t been thinking about her family much—she doesn’t feel she can go home without knowing if Michelangelo carved Angel. Mrs. Frankweiler asks why that would make a difference and then answers her own question—because running away didn’t make a difference; Claudia still had to do the planning and keeping things in order, just like at home.
Mrs. Frankweiler’s preference for a meal like macaroni and cheese is another hint that although she may be wealthy, she’s not at all stuffy or unapproachable. This probably helps encourage the kids to be honest with her, like when Claudia admits that Angel is more important to her right now than her family is. Then, instead of reprimanding Claudia for being insensitive, Mrs. Frankweiler is perceptive enough to realize that perhaps running away didn’t actually achieve what Claudia thought it would—it didn’t relieve her of her responsibilities as the eldest sibling, for one thing.
Themes
Claudia admits Mrs. Frankweiler is right. She adds that she enjoyed doing all the planning for running away, and that once they’d done it, it felt like living at home away from home. Mrs. Frankweiler asks what her favorite part was, and Claudia says that, eventually, it was Angel. But she doesn’t want to explain how Angel got involved. And that’s partly because, once she reveals where they were hiding all this time, she’ll feel that the adventure is over.
Claudia has shown a great deal of competence and creativity throughout the story, so it’s not surprising that preparing to run away was fun for her. But since living in the museum wasn’t all that different from home, Angel soon became her new challenge. Of course Mrs. Frankweiler already knows where the Kincaids were hiding (and could probably guess at this point even if she didn’t), but Claudia doesn’t know that.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler says the adventure is over. Everything ends, except the part a person carries with them. It’s like going on vacation—some people spend the whole time taking pictures so they can show everyone they had a good time, and they forget to actually have a good time.
Mrs. Frankweiler tries to help Claudia reach a more mature understanding of what’s happened. Claudia needs to move on from the adventure while taking what lessons she can from it. If she keeps hanging on to the adventure itself, she won’t be able to reap its benefits.
Themes
Claudia asks if Mrs. Frankweiler already knows where they’ve been, and she says yes. Then Claudia glances at Jamie and sees he’s hiding underneath his napkin. He meekly confesses that the truth slipped out—he’s not used to talking to anyone but Claudia. Claudia is distraught; the secret was all they had.
Jamie’s impulsiveness, and the fact that this is the first conversation he’s had with an adult since running away, make him forget how much the secret of their museum stay means to Claudia. Since they didn’t succeed in solving the Angel mystery, Claudia feels that the secret is all she has to show for the past week.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler tells her about the deal she discussed with Jamie. But even a ride home in a Rolls-Royce isn’t enough for Claudia—she wants to know about Angel. Mrs. Frankweiler feels grateful that she’s dealing with a spirited child instead of a stupid one. At the same time, she wants to help Claudia “see the value of her adventure.” It means Claudia is “tiptoeing into the grown-up world.”
Mrs. Frankweiler seems to empathize with Claudia’s strong emotions on some level. At the same time, she believes that Claudia’s experience is bigger than simply running away or even discovering the truth about the statue. Her belief suggests that “the grown-up world” includes the ability to evaluate one’s experiences and view them from a broader perspective—something Claudia is now better equipped to do.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler leads the children into her office. She points to the filing cabinets along the wall and explains that these are her “secrets.” In one of the cabinets is the secret of Michelangelo’s Angel. She’ll share it with them—but they must have a “handicap,” which is that they must find the file for themselves, within one hour. And they mustn’t mess up her files, because they’re in a special order that only she understands. Mrs. Frankweiler then sneaks into the large closet next to her office so she can watch everything the children do.
For now, Mrs. Frankweiler doesn’t elaborate on what she sees as the value of Claudia’s adventure. First, she is going to help the kids solve the mystery at last—and she expects the kids to do the work. Both her willingness to help, and her insistence that they make the effort themselves, suggest that she respects the kids’ competence. She also seems to understand that discovering the answer will mean more to them if they accomplish it themselves.
Themes
Jamie immediately starts tearing through cabinets, but Claudia yells at him to stop. She says that “five minutes of planning are worth fifteen minutes of just looking,” and begins making a list. She makes a list of 11 items, including “Michelangelo,” “Angel,” and “Metropolitan Museum of Art.” She and Jamie squabble briefly over who should get the evens and the odds, but then they get to work searching through the files. Though they find many folders fitting the listed categories, when there are just six minutes remaining, they haven’t yet found anything about Angel.
True to form, Jamie acts impulsively, hoping to find an answer as quickly as possible, while Claudia immediately sees the value of making a plan in order to save precious time. Although they still disagree about how to handle tasks, they’re better able to compromise and cooperate than they used to be, showing that their adventure has helped them appreciate and rely on each other’s strengths.
Themes
In desperation, Claudia asks Jamie what else they should search for, but when Jamie starts to say, “Look him up under…,” Claudia attacks his grammar. Jamie protests, “Oh, boloney”—and suddenly Claudia knows where to look. She remembers that Mrs. Frankweiler purchased Angel in Bologna, Italy. They race back to the cabinets and find a file labeled “BOLOGNA.” At once, they know they’ve found where the secret is kept.
In a stressful moment, Claudia falls back on her old habit of criticizing Jamie. In this case, though, the sibling spat turns out to be unexpectedly useful. Fittingly, the kids end up finding the answer together as their argument gives way to cooperation.
Themes
Claudia sits down and starts carefully going through the folder. Inside is a very old piece of paper sealed between two glass sheets. On one side of the paper is an Italian sonnet. They can’t read it, but they recognize the signature—“Michelangelo.” On the other side is a sketch of an angel.
In Mrs. Frankweiler’s file, Claudia finally finds what she’s been looking for: the signature together with the angel sketch is powerful evidence that Michelangelo carved Angel. The finding vindicates Claudia’s hunch about both the statue and Mrs. Frankweiler.
Themes
Claudia starts to cry, hugging the glass frame. Finally she tells Jamie that Michelangelo himself touched this paper over 400 years ago. Then Mrs. Frankweiler emerges from her hiding place. She explains that the rest of the papers in the folder are her research on Angel. Michelangelo actually sculpted Angel in Rome, she adds, but she files the research under Bologna to make it more difficult to find.
Claudia is more than just triumphant about solving the mystery—she’s awestruck as she encounters this piece of history. The fact that she’s succeeded in navigating the complicated files (which aren’t organized in a strictly logical fashion, it seems) suggests that, besides being a good planner and researcher, Claudia shares Mrs. Frankweiler’s sense of whimsy and wonder about the world.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler has known for a long time that Michelangelo did this statue. She’s had the sketch since right after the war. She got it from an Italian nobleman. The kids jump in with speculations about how this happened, but it turns out to be simple: the nobleman was a bad poker player, and Mrs. Frankweiler is a good one. But, she tells Jamie, she didn’t cheat.
Mrs. Frankweiler could have told everyone that Michelangelo carved the statue all along—it’s not clear why she chose not to do so. Whatever the reason, she clearly has an unconventional attitude about collecting art, as her poker story shows.
Themes
Jamie asks Mrs. Frankweiler why she didn’t sell the sketch, too. She explains that she needed the secret more than she needed the money. Jamie looks puzzled, but Claudia understands and thanks Mrs. Frankweiler for sharing the secret with them. Jamie wonders how she knows they’ll keep the secret. Mrs. Frankweiler says that a boy who cheats at cards should know. Jamie’s face lights up—she’s going to bribe them. He demands details.
Here, Mrs. Frankweiler starts getting into what she hinted at earlier about the value of the kids’ adventure. For her, a secret is intrinsically valuable, worth keeping even if one stands to gain by sharing it. Claudia’s reluctance to talk about running away suggests that she shares Mrs. Frankweiler’s view of secrets.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler laughs and says the deal is that they will tell her the story of their running away, and she will give them the sketch. Jamie wonders how she knows he won’t accidentally give her secret away, like he gave away the secret that they hid in the museum. Amused, Mrs. Frankweiler explains that she’s going to leave the sketch to the kids in her will. If they reveal her secret, she’ll simply write them out of her will. She knows Jamie is excited about how much the sketch will be worth. Claudia, she knows, will keep the secret for another reason—the secret will let her return to Greenwich “different.”
At this point, the details of Mrs. Frankweiler’s revision to her will—hinted at in the novel’s preface—finally become clear: she’s leaving the Michelangelo sketch to the children. Mrs. Frankweiler is shrewd, in that she understands what motivates both Kincaid kids. For Jamie, it’s money, while for Claudia, it’s the secret’s intrinsic value. Though Claudia thought solving the statue’s mystery would make her a hero, it turns out that her personal feeling of being “different” is more important to her than what others think.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler goes on that she knows Claudia doesn’t really want adventure. She loves things like baths and being comfortable. Instead, Claudia likes the kind of adventure that secrets offer. They make a person different “on the inside where it counts.” Meanwhile, Mrs. Frankweiler will keep the details of their story in her files—she collects such secrets. Jamie marvels that if secrets make a person different on the inside, then Mrs. Frankweiler must have the most “mixed-up” insides anyone has ever seen.
Mrs. Frankweiler gets to the heart of Claudia’s feelings about Angel and running away in general. She pinpoints the fact that, regardless of what Claudia thought at first, Claudia wasn’t really interested in doing something outwardly daring. Rather, she wanted to change inside—to grow up, in other words. The Angel secret has served that need. Mrs. Frankweiler collects secrets for a similar reason, it seems, so she understands how Claudia feels.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler can see that Claudia is surprised—she’d expected Angel’s secret to be “a loud bang, not a quiet soaking in.” She also knows that, unlike the secrets of running away and hiding in the museum, this secret won’t come to an end. Claudia will get to carry it around with her. She’ll be a heroine to herself.
Claudia is learning that discovering a secret isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes, it has to be treasured over time—over a lifetime, even. As she treasures a secret nobody else knows, its meaning to her will deepen over time, allowing Claudia to grow and change on the inside. This is different from the kind of heroism she sought at first, but Mrs. Frankweiler suggests it’ll be more valuable in the end.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler knows Claudia is happy. “Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place,” but Claudia still feels unsettled about one thing—shouldn’t Mrs. Frankweiler give the sketch to the museum? Mrs. Frankweiler says of course not, though the kids are free to do that after she dies. She’s thought about it a lot, but she knows that if she does give them the sketch, the museum experts will “make a science” of establishing the sketch’s authenticity. There’ll be a big debate, and in the end, a minority will still doubt.
Claudia assumes that making the information public is the right thing to do, but Mrs. Frankweiler has her own reasons for keeping it to herself. With her concern for meticulous research, Mrs. Frankweiler obviously cares about establishing facts and finding the truth. But that doesn’t mean that expert insights are the only important aspect of the truth. Mrs. Frankweiler fears that “mak[ing] a science” of the sketch would rob it of its wonder.
Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler, on the other hand, has no doubts, and she doesn’t want to see doubt thrown on something she’s sure about. Claudia asks if Mrs. Frankweiler wouldn’t prefer to have any lingering doubts cleared away, but Mrs. Frankweiler says no—she is, after all, 82 years old. She’s “not in the mood to learn anything new.”
While Mrs. Frankweiler’s comment could sound stubbornly closed-minded, it should be read as the perspective of an art collector who’s spent her life studying—and, even more, the perspective of an elderly woman who’s spent many decades gaining wisdom and honing her instincts. She’s confident about what she knows, and new information isn’t going to change her mind.
Themes
Claudia is troubled. She thinks it’s important to learn something new every day. But Mrs. Frankweiler disagrees. Learning is very important, of course, but she thinks there are days when it’s more important to let what’s already inside you “swell up […] until it touches everything.” If you don’t, then you’ll just accumulate a bunch of facts that “make noise” but are just hollow in the end.
Claudia’s efforts to learn everything she could in the museum established that she takes seriously the saying “learn something new every day.” However, Mrs. Frankweiler suggests that she takes the saying too literally—that learning is more than mere facts. In other words, if a person just accumulates facts without letting those facts develop into wisdom, then learning isn’t very useful after all.
Themes
The kids consider this. Mrs. Frankweiler explains that the facts she’s gathered about Michelangelo and Angel have grown inside her for a long time. There’s just one new thing she’d like to experience, but it’s impossible. Claudia insists nothing’s impossible, but Mrs. Frankweiler tells her that when one is 82, one knows some things are impossible. She goes on to say that she’d like to know how the kids’ mother feels.
Mrs. Frankweiler’s knowledge of Angel’s origins is an example of the kind of knowledge that grows inside a person, which explains why she’s been reluctant to share that information with just anyone. She also suggests that part of aging and gaining wisdom is understanding life’s limits—something a kid Claudia’s age can’t understand.
Themes
Claudia doesn’t understand why Mrs. Frankweiler would want to be “frantic” like their mother probably is right now, but Mrs. Frankweiler says it’s part of a bigger experience she wants. Claudia figures out that she means that she wants to be a mother, and Jamie whispers awkwardly that Mrs. Frankweiler can’t be a mother because her husband is dead. At this, Mrs. Frankweiler changes the subject—it’s time for the kids to tell her their story.
It’s notable that at Mrs. Frankweiler’s age, what she regrets isn’t knowledge or money she’s failed to attain, but an experience, specifically motherhood. Again, this is something the kids can’t fully understand, and it reflects the kind of wisdom a person gains with age.
Themes
