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Chapter 1
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Door in the Wall, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Strength and Bravery
Perseverance
Celebrating Difference
Community
Summary
Analysis
May arrives. Brother Luke takes good care of Robin, though he is often busy with his religious obligations. Slowly but surely, Robin starts to heal. One day, Brother Luke fetches Robin a piece of wood and a whittling knife, reasoning that keeping busy might help Robin pass the time. Robin becomes engrossed in his whittling, which does indeed help to pass the time. He takes on the ambitious project of carving a toy boat. He also starts to become more alert to his surroundings, able to identify the footsteps of particular monks.
Chapter 2 introduces another of the book’s key symbols, Robin’s woodworking, which begins as a hobby to pass the time but develops into something more as the story goes on. Even from the start, it is clear that Robin’s new interest has a positive effect on him. He’s starting to feel a sense of purpose and optimism again after the devastating setback of his illness and the uncertainty and instability that came with it.
Active
Themes
One day Brother Luke comments on Robin’s boat, observing it to be rather lopsided and crude. Still, Brother Luke notes, “it hath an air, as if it had been battling a storm.” Brother Luke brings Robin thin pieces of pine and teaches him to carve them into a mast. He brings scrap linen to create the ship’s sails. All this is new to Robin, whose toys were always made by one of his father’s servants. Robin wants to take on an elaborate project next, but Brother Luke suggests he start with the basics, like a simple cross to hang over his bed. No matter how busy Brother Luke is with his duties around the monastery, he always takes the time to instruct Robin and bring him supplies. He also rubs Robin’s leg’s daily. They work on the cross together, and it becomes smoother day by day.
Brother Luke’s observations about Robin’s overly ambitious first woodworking project deepens woodworking’s symbolism, highlighting Robin’s overzealous enthusiasm and its potential to lead him astray. Robin is a beginner at woodworking, and it shows: his first project is crude and imperfect, if ambitious. In suggesting that Robin take on simpler projects first in order to hone his skills, Brother Luke is subtly impressing upon Robin the importance of patience and persistence. It’s only by start slow and amassing skills gradually that one may achieve greater, more impressive feats. Robin’s slow but steady progress on the wooden cross testifies to this logic.
Active
Themes
One day, Brother Luke brings Robin to the area of the monastery where the monks write poems, daily records, and psalteries. Robin, who never learned to read, gazes longingly at the books of parchment. He asks Brother Luke to teach him, and Brother Luke promises he will—as soon as there aren’t so many people to take care of. Indeed, as Brother Luke carries Robin to the chapel for prayers, Robin sees the hordes of sick and poor people lying on pallets in the corridors.
Active
Themes
A boy (Geoffrey) on crutches notices Robin’s “lame” legs and salutes him as Robin and Brother Luke approach. “Good eve, Brother Crookshanks!” the boy says. “I see I have good company.” Robin, furious, demands that the boy stay away from him. Still, he eyes the boy’s crutches somewhat enviously—it’d be nice to be able to get around better.
Active
Themes
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Brother Luke reprimands the boy, though he also laughs at Robin’s extreme reaction. He assures Robin the boy didn’t intend to be mean—it’s just how things are around here. The boy is called Geoffrey Atte-Water, named for the River Fleet where he and his father live and work. They all have nicknames for whatever “oddity” they have, but it’s all in good fun. Brother Luke and Robin reach the chapel, and Robin says his prayers. Robin momentarily wonders how his father would regard Robin’s nickname of “Crookshanks.” Still, after he says his prayers, he finds that he feels much better.
