Previous
Old Mrs. Hempstock
Ginnie is Lettie’s mother and Old Mrs. Hempstock’s daughter. She’s is a stout woman with red cheeks and a demeanor that makes the narrator think she must be someone’s mother. She’s brisk and matter-of-fact, and she isn’t surprised by much. She also makes the narrator feel loved and cared for, most often through her cooking. She and Old Mrs. Hempstock make delicious, rich meals that help the narrator feel secure and as though he can trust these women. Of the three Hempstocks, the narrator gets to know Ginnie the least. While Ginnie is often around, she generally lets her mother’s advice take center stage and performs necessary tasks in the background. She does, however, encourage the narrator to understand that creatures like the monster Ursula shouldn’t be hated—they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, according to their nature, and thus it’s misguided to fault them for their actions. She later takes the lead when Lettie gets in too deep with the hunger birds and speaks to them in a way that reads as motherly and protective—but ultimately, Ginnie has to accept that she’s not strong enough on her own to boss around creatures like the hunger birds. Unlike Old Mrs. Hempstock, Ginnie cannot forgive the narrator for what happens to Lettie. This is a reflection of her maternal loyalty to Lettie; it’s impossible for her to be entirely at ease with the person who injured her child to the point that she may as well be dead. When the narrator returns as an adult, he’s shocked to see that Ginnie is younger than he is and smaller than he remembers. She encourages him to live his life to make Lettie’s sacrifice worthwhile. It’s also possible that Ginnie might not actually be a real person; she could simply be another form that Old Mrs. Hempstock takes to dispense advice as a mother, rather than as an old woman.
Mrs. Ginnie Hempstock Quotes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The The Ocean at the End of the Lane quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Ginnie Hempstock or refer to Mrs. Ginnie Hempstock. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3 Quotes
I wanted to tell someone about the shilling, but I did not know who to tell. I knew enough about adults to know that if I did tell them what had happened, I would not be believed. Adults rarely seemed to believe me when I told the truth anyway. Why would they believe me about something so unlikely?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
When the narrator wakes up from a dream choking on a real shilling, he has no idea who to tell. In his experience, adults don’t take anything he has to say seriously, so they’re not worth confiding in about this. This further characterizes the narrator as a lonely individual who doesn’t have any friends to trust regarding the things that happen to him. In particular, it’s significant that although the narrator is most likely referring to his parents, he doesn’t mention them by name. This speaks to the narrator’s disinterest in his parents—a feeling of disconnection and distrust that stems Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus
Chapter 9 Quotes
“If I burn this,” I asked them, “will it have really happened? Will my daddy have pushed me down into the bath? Will I forget it ever happened?”
Ginnie Hempstock was no longer smiling. Now she looked concerned. “What do you want?” she asked.
“I want to remember,” I said. “Because it happened to me. And I’m still me.” I threw the little scrap of cloth onto the fire.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Old Mrs. Hempstock performs the magical “snip and cut” procedure, which removes the narrator’s father’s attempts to drown the narrator from his memory so that the narrator can stay the night with the Hempstocks. After this, Old Mrs. Hempstock gives the narrator the option to burn the memory, which has taken the form of a scrap of fabric that she cut out of his dressing gown. In a sense, the narrator is really asking how much agency he has over his memories. In this situation, his father didn’t have any agency—Old Mrs. Hempstock took away his memory without permission. The Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Inci
Chapter 10 Quotes
She said, “I don’t hate her. She does what she does, according to her nature. She was asleep, she woke up, she’s trying to give everyone what they want.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Over breakfast, Ginnie tells the narrator that it’s not worth it to hate Ursula—Ursula is just doing what fleas (a kind of supernatural monster) are supposed to do. With this, Ginnie tries to get the narrator to understand that it’s not helpful to hate people or fault them for being human (or for being a flea, in this case). People will do what people do—and as someone on the receiving end of subpar behavior, it’s important that the narrator look at Ursula and at others who do him wrong with compassion and understanding. The narrator, for the most part, sees Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus
Chapter 14 Quotes
I said, “Will she be the same?”
The old woman guffawed, as if I had said the funniest thing in the universe. “Nothing’s ever the same,” she said. “Be it a second later or a hundred years. It’s always churning and roiling. And people change as much as oceans.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
As the narrator and Old Mrs. Hempstock watch Ginnie place Lettie’s body in the ocean, the narrator asks if Lettie will be the same person when she returns from the ocean, healed. When Old Mrs. Hempstock insists that this is impossible, she introduces the narrator to the idea that even if his individual experience makes him feel as though he’s the same person today that he was yesterday, in reality, this isn’t true: people change all the time. They’re constantly gathering new information that changes how they see themselves and the world around them—and this information, Old Mrs. Hempstock implies, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui a
Get the entire The Ocean at the End of the Lane LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Mrs. Ginnie Hempstock Character Timeline in The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Ginnie Hempstock appears in The Ocean at the End of the Lane. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...it’s an ocean and they came across the ocean from the old country. Lettie’s mother, Mrs. Hempstock , always said that Lettie was misremembering—the old country sank long ago. Old Mrs. Hempstock,...
(full context)
...an old woman with long, gray hair comes into the hallway. He greets her as Mrs. Hempstock , reminds her that he was here when he was seven or eight, and remembers...
(full context)
Mrs. Hempstock asks if the narrator is here to see Lettie and notes that Lettie isn’t here....
(full context)
Chapter 2
The woman turns to the narrator and introduces herself as Mrs. Hempstock , Lettie’s mother. The woman in the barn is Old Mrs. Hempstock, and this is...
(full context)
Chapter 3
...Lettie insists he’ll be safe and that she won’t let him be harmed, but Old Mrs. Hempstock bursts in, worried that someone is hurt. Lettie tells Old Mrs. Hempstock about the narrator’s...
(full context)
When the narrator asks how old Old Mrs. Hempstock is (in his experience, old people like to share their ages), she simply says she’s...
(full context)
Mrs. Hempstock tells Lettie to take a hazel wand and the narrator to find “her,” but Old...
(full context)
Chapter 9
Mrs. Hempstock and Old Mrs. Hempstock fly into action as soon as the narrator enters the kitchen....
(full context)
...they “snip and cut.” Old Mrs. Hempstock talks through what the process would be as Ginnie returns with the narrator’s dressing gown. She lays out scissors, a needle, and red thread.
(full context)
...he’d be happy for the narrator to stay the night. She begins to cut as Ginnie rises to answer the door. Lettie assures the narrator he’ll be fine. The narrator’s mother...
(full context)
...holds out the narrator’s toothbrush. The narrator’s mother fusses over him and greets Lettie, and Ginnie promises to bring the narrator back in the morning. She sends the narrator’s parents away...
(full context)
...he’s on the floor of the kitchen and his foot feels like it’s on fire. Ginnie inspects his foot, and the narrator tells her that Ursula came here in his foot....
(full context)
...rest of the tunnel out. She cackles and says that this wasn’t very clever as Ginnie pulls out a jam jar. Lettie, fascinated, inspects the hole that’s now captured in the...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...kitten follows him into the hallway and then shows him the way to the kitchen. Ginnie directs the narrator to his breakfast and says that Lettie is out gathering supplies to...
(full context)
The narrator says he hates Ursula. Ginnie says that she doesn’t—Ursula does what her nature dictates she should, and she’s trying to...
(full context)
...they all look like children on the inside. Really, there aren’t any grownups—except for Old Mrs. Hempstock . The narrator wonders if this is true, and he points out that Lettie’s ocean...
(full context)
...world, and she refers to Ursula as “Skarthatch of the Keep.” Lettie says that Old Mrs. Hempstock calls other creatures “varmints,” which are always hungry.
(full context)
Chapter 13
...the fairy ring carrying a heavy bucket of water. She apologizes for the wait; Old Mrs. Hempstock had to help her get the ocean into the bucket. Old Mrs. Hempstock is napping...
(full context)
...what Rose are (the beginning and the end of the universe). He knows that Old Mrs. Hempstock will be there for the next Big Bang, and he knows that the world is...
(full context)
...ocean running under the entire universe, but it can fit in a bucket if Old Mrs. Hempstock helps. He wonders what he looks like to Lettie but also recognizes that this is...
(full context)
...a plate of shepherd’s pie waiting for him. He digs in happily as Lettie and Ginnie discuss what to do about the hunger birds. Ginnie doesn’t believe they should take the...
(full context)
The narrator asks if the kitten is still around. Ginnie says she isn’t, and the narrator realizes he wants to say goodbye. Slowly, he begins...
(full context)
Chapter 14
...back door, the moon was full, and it felt like summer. When he, Lettie, and Ginnie leave through the front door, the moon is a sliver and the night is cool...
(full context)
...their faces actually look like. All he knows is that they look right at him. Ginnie tells them to leave, but the birds laugh and say that they must do what...
(full context)
...tree and a fox. Lettie insists that they should wake up Old Mrs. Hempstock, but Ginnie doesn’t know how. The birds begin to gulp at the sky. The adult narrator explains...
(full context)
...voice asks why the birds have harmed her child and the narrator realizes it’s Old Mrs. Hempstock . Her voice doesn’t sound right—it’s more formal, the way royalty speaks. The hunger birds...
(full context)
Ginnie gathers Lettie and the narrator in her arms. The hunger birds apologize as Ginnie cries....
(full context)
...Lettie is dead. Old Mrs. Hempstock seems almost offended and says that Hempstocks don’t die. Ginnie explains that Lettie is hurt badly; she tells the narrator to get up, and she...
(full context)
...the narrator opens his eyes, there’s just a pond. Old Mrs. Hempstock is gone, and Ginnie says tells the narrator that it’s time for the him to go home.
(full context)
Chapter 15
The narrator is shocked that the Hempstocks own a car, and he tells Ginnie this. She sharply says that the narrator doesn’t know lots of things, but then she...
(full context)
At the narrator’s house, Ginnie rings the doorbell. The narrator’s mother opens the door, and Ginnie tells her that the...
(full context)
Once Ginnie is gone, the narrator’s mother says that Ursula had to leave. The narrator says nothing,...
(full context)
Epilogue
...a sandwich. As he eats, the narrator studies the woman and asks if she’s Old Mrs. Hempstock . She is. The narrator asks if it’s true. Old Mrs. Hempstock says that whatever...
(full context)
...about his art. The narrator doesn’t remember this, and he asks again why he came. Ginnie appears and says that Lettie wanted him to. The narrator is shocked that Ginnie looks...
(full context)
The narrator asks if he can speak to Lettie, but Ginnie says that she’s sleeping and healing. The narrator realizes that Lettie has been looking at...
(full context)
...narrator when she went out to begin with, but now she’ll know for next time. Ginnie gently says that it’s time for the narrator to rejoin his family. A black cat...
(full context)
