Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hope Leslie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religious Conflict and Tolerance
Interracial Relationships
Violence and Historical Memory
Women’s Roles
The Puritan Heritage
Summary
Analysis
Hope Leslie cowers in Oneco’s canoe. Mononotto keeps speaking angrily of Magawisca, and Hope fears that, as an alleged conspirator, she will be the object of his retribution. Oneco does not appear to listen to her when she begs for his understanding. Hope feels helpless as Oneco steers the canoe into open water in the midst of the rising storm.
Hope, meanwhile, is at Oneco’s mercy, her experience recalling Everell’s and Faith’s capture by Mononotto years ago.
Themes
Literary Devices
Suddenly, lightning strikes Mononotto, and as Oneco tends to his apparently lifeless father, the canoe drifts onto a beach. Hope tries to help, but realizing this is her best chance of escape, she runs when Oneco isn’t looking. Some distance away, she discovers a group of sleeping men—sailors, lately “indulging in a lawless revel.” The narrator says that they are Chaddock’s crew, lately expelled from Boston for their riotous behavior.
Captain John Chaddock is mentioned several times in Winthrop’s History. His ship’s crew was notorious for drinking, swearing, and generally being “a base heathen people”—not a likely source of rescue, in other words.
Themes
Seeing the men are drunk, Hope can’t decide what to do. When one man awakes, she asks for his help in a trembling voice, promising any reward if one of them will return her to Boston. When a man advances toward her, leering, Hope screams for heaven’s help and starts running toward the water. Soon the whole crew is chasing her, hooting, and Hope fears that jumping into the sea will be her only hope.
Hope is in a seemingly helpless and impossible spot, at risk of violence no matter where she turns.
Themes
As Hope approaches the water, she sees another boat attached to a pier. She leaps into the boat, uncoils the rope, and uses an oar to push away. On the strong tide, she quickly floats away, to the curses and laughter of the men on shore. Hope kneels and prays in thanksgiving. While she’s praying, a man, lying in the bottom of the boat and covered by garments, looks at her in amazement. He is an Italian man, himself a member of Chaddock’s crew who didn’t want to take part in their revelry. He’d withdrawn to his boat, fallen asleep during the storm, and awakened to the seemingly angelic appearance of Hope, with her fervent prayer and “saint-like simplicity.”
Keeping her wits about her, Hope finds an improbable source of deliverance, though the man’s identity and intentions are unclear.
Themes
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The Italian, Antonio, bows and crosses himself, hailing Hope as the “blessed virgin” and “queen of heaven.” Hope knows just enough Italian to understand him and reply; she tells the man she isn’t who he thinks. He runs through a list of female saints, concluding from her noncommittal smile that she must be his patron saint, Petronilla. As he praises her, Hope decides she can settle for being mistaken for a saint, and instructs him to row her to Boston. He gives her a linen relic, and she gives him her bracelet in return. Then Antonio rows expeditiously toward Boston, which they reach in less than two hours.
Antonio, a devout Catholic, mistakes Hope for the Virgin Mary or a saint. Thinking quickly, Hope figures out how to turn this situation to her advantage. It’s another fairly unflattering portrayal of Catholics, this time as naïve and easily duped.
Themes
As she disembarks, Hope urges Antonio to keep her visit a secret from his comrades; they’ll only mock. As soon as she passes out of his sight, she’s overwhelmed with exhaustion, and she collapses on the steps of a warehouse. Soon, she hears the voice of Roslin—he looks sad and bedraggled and is carrying a dagger. When Roslin complains of his misery, Hope is distracted from her troubles and asks why he does not leave Sir Philip. Roslin says that Sir Philip’s is the only love he’s ever known. Hope then swoons in Roslin’s arms, just as the Fletchers and a group of the Governor’s men appear, ready to go in search of Hope. Everell wraps Hope in his cloak, and they take her home.
Hope’s resourceful efforts, as well as the overall strain of the night’s events, finally take their toll. Roslin/Rosa again appears in the story with an unclear purpose, signaling Sir Philip’s dangerous intentions. But this time Everell is the hero, suggesting that circumstances are turning in his favor.
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Literary Devices
