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One of the two main characters, Penny is a young girl at the beginning of the story who is evacuated from London with a group of children to escape the German bombing of London during World War II. She ventures into the woods with her new friend, Primrose, and together the two see the Thing in the forest (i.e., the loathly worm). They survive the encounter, and by the time Penny is returned to her family, her father has died. Her mother withdraws after this, leaving Penny to feel emotionally abandoned. She grows up to become a child psychologist specializing in children with severe autism. People with autism are often withdrawn, as Penny herself was, and she hopes that, by reaching out to them, she can help them in a way that no one helped her. She returns as an adult to the woods where she once encountered the loathly worm in the hopes that, by confronting the terror from her childhood, she can diminish its power over her and, in doing so, overcome her childhood trauma. Penny is a scientist, someone who relies on observation, data, and her five senses. When she does not encounter the worm on her return to the forest, she returns a second time, determined to draw the worm to her so that she can see it. She finally hears the worm approaching, and in this moment seems to be at peace, her “nerves relaxed” and her “blood slowed.” Byatt leaves it unclear whether Penny survives this second meeting with the worm. Because the worm is such a clear symbol of trauma and loss, this ending implies that Penny is ultimately destroyed by her grief surrounding her childhood trauma.
Penny Quotes in The Thing in the Forest
The The Thing in the Forest quotes below are all either spoken by Penny or refer to Penny. 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:
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The Thing in the Forest Quotes
There were once two little girls who saw, or believed they saw, a thing in a forest.
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This first line in the story establishes what will be the central question of the story: did Penny and Primrose actually encounter a terrifying creature in the forest? Over the course of the girls’ lives, as they mature into adults, they will struggle with the question of whether their encounter with the thing in the forest actually took place. The seemingly unanswerable nature of this simple question speaks to the ways in which traumatic events can be so utterly shocking and incomprehensible that their very reality is suddenly called into question. In this way, the sighting of the thing in 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. Ex
They remembered the thing they had seen in the forest, on the contrary, in the way you remember those very few dreams—almost all nightmares—that have the quality of life itself. (Though what are dreams if not life itself?)
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Although this story takes place in the real world, its supernatural elements blur the boundary between reality and fantasy. After their encounter with the thing in the forest, Penny and Primrose do not dismiss the worm as a figment of their imagination. They believe, or want to believe, that it was real—as real and terrifying as the war from which they have been evacuated. A.S. Byatt uses the appearance of the worm to comment on the peculiar ways the human mind processes grief and dread. Although Byatt does not make it clear whether or not the worm actually exists, she Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut venia
I think, I think there are things that are real—more real than we are—but mostly we don’t cross their paths, or they don’t cross ours. Maybe at very bad times we get into their world, or notice what they are doing in ours.
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When the worm appeared to Penny and Primrose as children, it was nightmarish and unreal-seeming, though they did believe it was real. The girls spend years trying to heal from the trauma of what they saw. As adults, they consider the difference between reality and fantasy. They know their story of the worm would seem unbelievable, and the likely explanation is that they imagined it. Yet they are unwilling to dismiss their encounter with the worm as purely imaginary. Penny speaks for both women when she insists that the worm had become as real to them as anything else in 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
“Sometimes I think that thing finished me off,” said Penny to Primrose, a child’s voice rising in a woman’s gullet, arousing a little girl’s scared smile which wasn’t a smile on Primrose’s face.
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Of the two women, Penny struggles more to come to terms with her memories of the worm. She is determined to prove that encountering the worm was a literal occurrence, one that took place in the world she can see, hear, and touch. Both girls had difficult lives after leaving the country mansion as their fathers were killed and their families fell apart. Penny especially suffered because her mother withdrew, closing herself off as a source of comfort. Penny acknowledges that this trauma, in addition to the loss of her father and the memory of the worm, nearly overwhelmed her. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam v
It was the encounter with the Thing that had led her to deal professionally in dreams. Something that resembled unreality had lumbered into reality, and she had seen it.
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The boundary between the real world and the world of imagination is one of this story’s main themes. Byatt’s story does not take place in a world of pure fantasy. Instead, she has her fantastic creation, the loathly worm, intrude upon the real world in much the same way that dreams do. The trauma of the war and Penny’s collapsed family plus her encounter with the worm was nearly too much for her to handle. As an adult, she feels driven to help other children who similarly struggle with difficult lives. As she engages these children in therapy, she is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad d
When it came, she would look it in the face, she would see what it was. She clasped her hands loosely in her lap. Her nerves relaxed. Her blood slowed. She was ready.
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Penny is a scientist. Unlike Primrose, who relies on imagination to overcome her trauma, Penny relies on her five senses, which is why she feels compelled to return to the forest a second time to see and hear the worm. These lines reveal that Penny hears and smells the worm but not that she sees it. (Recall that Primrose does not see it either when she returns to the forest.) These lines—which are the final words writtena bout Penny—suggest that Penny, like Alys, is ultimately destroyed by the worm, though the destruction may not be literal. Penny may have simply Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Q
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Penny Character Timeline in The Thing in the Forest
The timeline below shows where the character Penny appears in The Thing in the Forest. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Thing in the Forest
Penny and Primrose are two girls who are evacuated with a group of children to a...
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Penny is tall, thin, and pale—possibly older than Primrose, who is plump with curly blond hair....
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...The mansion has “imposing stairs,” shuttered windows, and “carved griffins and unicorns on its balustrade.” Penny and Primrose are anxious and scared, thinking of themselves as orphans. They go through the...
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The next morning, after breakfast, Penny and Primrose go outdoors with the other children, who play ball and other games. Instead...
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Finally, Penny and Primrose catch sight of the source of the smell coming toward them through the...
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Penny and Primrose huddle together, shaking as they watch the thing slither away. They exit the...
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...five more children. Primrose’s mother’s health suffers; she develops varicose veins and a smoker’s cough. Penny’s father, a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service, dies in a fire in the East...
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The years pass, and Penny, a good student, becomes a child psychologist, “working with the abused, the displaced, and the...
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...mansion that had housed the evacuees during the war has been turned into a museum. Penny and Primrose, now adults, each turn up for a tour of the museum on the...
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Penny and Primrose recognize each other almost immediately when they find themselves side by side, looking...
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...saw in the forest. “Did you ever wonder,” Primrose asks, “if we really saw it?” Penny replies, “Never for a moment.” They talk about their horror that day, and how it...
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Penny comments that the thing “finished [her] off,” prompting Primrose to remember Alys, the child who...
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Penny and Primrose agree to have dinner together next evening, but neither of them keeps the...
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Penny is in a different part of the forest, trying to find the spot where she...
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Penny and Primrose take the train back to the city. They do not sit together. When...
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Penny tries to see patients again, but she can’t stop thinking about the worm. She discovers...
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