Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition vs. Morality
Femininity, Sexuality, and Power
Truth and Identity
Family
Summary
Analysis
Harry resists Celia’s plan: he doesn’t want to retire yet, and he envisions himself quickly getting bored by the life Evelyn proposes. He and Evelyn are arguing in her dressing room on the set of her current film. She asks him whether he wants to stop living a lie, but he tells her he’s not living a lie—since John died, he hasn’t been with anyone he really cares about. He doesn’t think it’s fair to uproot his and Connor’s life because Evelyn loves Celia.
Harry isn’t yet tired of Hollywood like Evelyn is, which is perhaps partially because his role as a producer is much less public than Evelyn’s role as an actress. Evelyn’s love for Celia leads her to assume that Harry’s missing something by not having a romantic partner, but she seems to overlook the times in her own life when she found more joy in work than in romance.
Themes
During the shoot, Harry and Evelyn fly back to New York each weekend to see Connor. During the weeks, Evelyn spends her time with Celia and suspects that Harry, who goes elsewhere, has found someone he’s interested in. The day after the shoot wraps, Evelyn and Harry call Connor to discuss their plans for the next day, taking a while to agree on where to go for breakfast. When they hang up, Harry says he has an idea related to Evelyn and Celia’s plan. Instead of moving to Spain, he suggests they move back to LA. He's found someone he can imagine being with for a long time, and he suggests that Celia marry him.
Now that Evelyn is devoted to Celia and Harry seems to be spending time with his own romantic partner, Evelyn and Harry’s role as Connor’s parents unite them more than their own friendship. While Connor brings them together, their different love lives pull them in different directions, and it seems like their bond isn’t as close as it was before. Perhaps that’s because, having finally reunited with Celia, whom Evelyn feels bound to by fate, Evelyn no longer needs Harry’s emotional support.
Themes
Evelyn tells Harry she wants to stop acting, so she can’t see the point of living in LA—she wants to live an anonymous life with Celia. But Harry doesn’t like that idea. They grow frustrated and agree to discuss the plan later, organizing for Evelyn to pick Harry up on the way to the airport. Harry says he’s falling in love with the man he met, and Evelyn assures him she won’t do anything without him—they’ll figure this out.
For Evelyn, LA is synonymous with her career and her celebrity persona. She doesn’t feel an emotional connection to the place, or if she does, it isn’t as important as the idea of anonymity and a life with Celia. Harry’s comment about love is one of the few times he indulges in sentimentality throughout the novel—a sign that this new man is truly important to him.
Themes
That evening, a driver called Nick picks Evelyn up. During the drive to Harry’s address, Nick tells Evelyn he’s an actor and would appreciate any tips she has for him. Evelyn doesn’t reply, but she considers telling him it’s mostly luck—and that you have to be ready to sacrifice your identity and lie about yourself until you can’t remember who you are. When they round the corner onto Harry’s street, they see a car has collided with a tree. They jump out and run to the car to find Harry slumped on the driver’s side with a passenger beside him.
Evelyn’s reply to Nick is laden with cynicism. She’s clearly disillusioned with the acting life, a feeling made more intense by the promise of a life with Celia away from Hollywood. Meanwhile, the fact that the passenger beside Harry is unnamed introduces a mystery to the story—will his identity ever be revealed?
Themes
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In the stress of the situation, Evelyn finds herself acting on autopilot. Later, she remembers helping Nick to pull Harry out of the car, holding Harry in her arms, and telling him to stay with her. Nick tells her the passenger is dead. Harry opens one eye and Evelyn knows she has to get him to the hospital, and that she has to make sure nobody knew he was driving the car—if they found out, he could go to jail.
Evelyn’s immediate response is a balance of finding medical care for Harry and ensuring that the scene of the crash doesn’t incriminate him. It’s clear that she’s used to protecting the people around her, not only physically, but also by obscuring the truth and being constantly vigilant about possible media coverage.
Themes
Evelyn and Nick move the passenger to the driver’s seat. She wipes Harry’s blood from the crashed car and gets Nick to drive them to the hospital, where she rings the police from a pay phone to report the car crash. She gives Nick money for a cab and tells him not to speak to anyone until he rings her at the hotel tomorrow: in the meantime, he should think about what he wants from her in exchange for his help.
Evelyn doesn’t think twice about getting dirty to help Harry: he’s her chief priority. She’s considered every detail of the situation; her ability to perceive humans as assets and liabilities rather than people means that she knows Nick is a vital part of this situation—and that she needs to control him.
Themes
Evelyn finds a pair of scrubs to change into and waits in a private room. Just after midnight, a doctor tells her that Harry lost too much blood and won’t survive. He tells Evelyn she can say goodbye, and when she gets to Harry’s room, she climbs into bed with him and tells him he can go if he needs to, and that he was her best friend. Harry dies an hour later, when Evelyn switches from her calm survival mode to a state of panic.
Evelyn’s final moment with Harry highlights the simultaneously intimate and innocent bond they shared. Harry was Evelyn’s best friend, and it seems she can remain in control as long as he’s alive, but once he dies, she’s lost her anchor.
Themes
The next morning, Evelyn wakes in her hotel room after barely an hour of sleep to a phone call from Nick. He tells her he knows what he wants from her: to make him famous. Evelyn tells him that if he becomes a celebrity, he too could face the repercussions of last night’s events. He says it’s not a problem, and she reluctantly agrees to get him parts in films. After she makes the calls to get Nick what he wants, she howls in grief for Harry. A few days later, an article in Now This announces Harry Cameron’s death from an aneurysm, adding that his loss has left Hollywood heartbroken.
Nick capitalizes on the situation in a way that Evelyn might once have done, had she still been hungry for fame and success. Her response shows that she’s not concerned with whether Nick’s request is reasonable or ethical—she’s resigned to do whatever it takes to get him out of her life. Though the book doesn’t make it explicit, it's clear to the reader that Evelyn manipulated the hospital and news media to report the death as an aneurysm—an event much less dramatic, and much less likely to lead to questions, than a car crash.
Themes
Six months later, Now This reports an unnamed child of an extremely high-profile actor has been seen around New York’s clubs drunk and under the influence of drugs, adding that she’s been caught “in bed” with two “fellow students.”
The reader can easily work out that this article refers to Connor. Her behavior is a sign that Harry’s death affected her profoundly and that Evelyn hasn’t yet found an effective way to console or support her.
Themes
