Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Nightingale, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Morality and Impossible Choices
Antisemitism and Active Resistance
Gender Roles
Love and War
Summary
Analysis
The perspective shifts to a picturesque medieval villa where Isabelle Rossignol is sitting in a dining room, eating. It is June of 1940 and Isabelle’s teacher is at the front of the room explaining to Isabelle and her fellow students how to politely cut an orange. Isabelle attempts to follow her teacher’s instructions but fails; she drops the orange on the floor and audibly swears. The teacher chastises Isabelle and, in response, Isabelle makes a snide comment about her teaching abilities. Fed up with Isabelle, the teacher orders her to find Madame Allard and “tell her that our experiment has come to an end.”
The novel jumps ahead many months and introduces its second protagonist: Isabelle Rossignol. Isabelle is attending an etiquette school where she clearly doesn’t belong. At the time, such training would have been typical for a woman of Isabelle’s social class in France. However, Isabelle has no patience for it, and this shows that she doesn’t care about upholding gender roles and other social norms.
Themes
Isabelle goes to Madame Allard’s office, tells her about the incident with the orange, and relays her teacher’s message. In response, Madame Allard reminds Isabelle of her school history. Apparently, Isabelle has been to several schools and was expelled from all of them. After repeating Isabelle’s history, Madame Allard expels Isabelle again because she obviously is not interested in learning proper manners. Although Isabelle is shocked, she doesn’t disagree with Madame Allard’s assessment. She is much more interested in the war that is threatening France than she is in learning polite behavior.
Isabelle tells Madame Allard that she is only in school in the first place because Julien Rossignol wants nothing to do with her. Madame Allard tells Isabelle that she should go easy on her father—it is not easy to be a widower. However, Isabelle feels that she’s gone through just as much as her father has. Regardless of what Julien wants, Madame Allard plans to send Isabelle back to him. Isabelle worries about how her father will react.
Like Vianne, Isabelle has an uneasy relationship with her father. Although Isabelle has been through a great deal of pain, her assertion that she’s been through just as much as her father will be tested throughout the novel. While her father is indeed largely to blame for Isabelle’s troubled upbringing, he also survived World War I, which left many men traumatized and unable to care for their families.
Themes
Isabelle rides the train to Paris, unsure of what will happen when she gets there. She hopes that Julien Rossignol will welcome her with open arms, but she knows that is unlikely to happen. When the train comes to a stop, Isabelle exits and looks for her father. She finds him quickly and sees a look of irritation on his face. Immediately, Isabelle asks Julien if she can live with him and work at his bookstore. However, Julien just walks away with a look of disgust.
While Julien may love his daughter, he has a peculiar way of showing it. It is always worth mentioning that this is the second character named Julien in the novel. This suggests that the other Julien—the son of the unnamed narrator—is named after Julien Rossignol. Assuming this is the case, then it seems likely that the unnamed narrator is either Isabelle or Vianne.
Themes
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Not long after her return to Paris, Isabelle spends an afternoon lying in the grass, reading a book about Edith Cavell, a notable female hero of World War I. As Isabelle reads her book, her friend Christophe interrupts her to ask about what she’s reading. This sparks a conversation about the different roles that men and women play during wartime. Christophe thinks that women should stay home while the men fight. However, Isabelle thinks that women have the right to be on the frontlines alongside men.
Edith Cavell was indeed a real-life war hero who saved hundreds of lives in World War I. Isabelle looks up to Cavell and will cite her as her inspiration throughout the novel. Here, gender roles again come into play. Christophe has a traditional and limited view of how men and women behave during wartime, even though he is not currently fighting in the war.
Themes
After her talk with Christophe, Isabelle returns to Julien Rossignol’s bookstore. Not long after, Julien and Isabelle hear a loud noise and see crowds of people running in the streets of Paris. Julien and Isabelle realize that the Germans have arrived and so people are fleeing the city. Before long, an air raid siren sounds. Julien and Isabelle hide on the bottom floor of their apartment building. Eventually, the siren stops, and Julien tells Isabelle to return to her room and go to bed. Isabelle protests, but Julien insists. He knows that life is about to get a lot harder for both of them.
The Germans entered Paris on June 14, 1940, and seized control. Leading up to this event, many people fled the city as they did not want to live under the Nazi regime. Julien already has an idea of what living under the Nazis might be like, and though he wants to protect Isabelle from that reality, he can’t.
Themes
