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Chapter 3
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Wise Children, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sex, Procreation, and Parenthood
Twins, Doubles, and Confused Identities
Matriarchy and Found Family
Show Business, Aging, and Memory
Comedy vs. Tragedy
Summary
Analysis
Now, Dora’s narrative has arrived at the carnage of World War II. But Dora does not want to talk about the war, only repeating that it was “no carnival.” Uncle Perry went away to do something mysterious with the Secret Service. Our Cyn’s husband was killed in combat, and Grandma was killed by a bomb on her way to the pub. Since Grandma was the only one who had ever met Kitty, Dora and Nora’s mother, losing Grandma felt like losing a part of themselves, too.
Now, it becomes clear that the novel’s confusing temporal structure—which moves back and forth between eras and skips over huge swathes of time—is in part a product of Dora’s desire to avoid talking about life’s more painful moments. It is also telling that Dora sees Grandma as containing a part of Kitty, yet one more way the narrative suggests that a person’s identity is formed (and preserved) by their loved ones.
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After the war ends, Dora reflects, it always felt chilly, indoors and out. Without Grandma, the house is always messy. All of England is an Age of Austerity, and people have less money to spend on entertainment, so Dora and Nora end up in small touring shows. Increasingly, they can only get work if they will dance mostly nude. Meanwhile, high culture is booming, and Melchior is playing all of Shakespeare’s great roles for older men. The twins are about to turn 30.
Dora and Nora’s experience here reflects several real-world trends in entertainment. First, the rise of the film industry made pantomime shows (the twins’ go-to form of employment) less popular. Second, Shakespeare productions were heralded as a way for England to reclaim its national identity in the wake of WWII—meaning that while the Chance sisters struggled to find work, Melchior’s celebrity took on a newly patriotic cast.
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Dora reflects that for most people, “if they don’t have a family of their own, they will invent one.” That is why Dora and Nora start visiting the Lady A. most weekends. Having returned from California, Lady A. is now living in the farmhouse at Lynde Court, the only part of the estate that didn’t burn. In the living room, she keeps a full-length picture of Melchior, with a vase of flowers in front of it. Even when it is snowing, the Lady A. goes out to look for fresh flowers. This knowledge so pains Dora and Nora that one day, they spend a fortune on a bouquet of carnations for Lady A., just to save her from another trip through the snow.
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Saskia and Imogen are away at RADA for school. When they visit, they flaunt presents Melchior has gifted them or make rude comments about Dora and Nora being “bastards” (though Dora scoffs that it was “the pot calling the kettle black”). The farmhouse is always freezing, the post-war food is disgusting, and the pictures of Melchior make Dora and Nora sad. But they return because they are fond of the Lady A.
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So, when the Lady A. invites Dora and Nora for Saskia and Imogen’s 21st birthday party, the twins feel no choice but to go. Perry, who has been studying rare butterflies in Brazil, returns to England for the occasion, and he offers to drive Dora and Nora to the party. When he picks them up, Dora marvels at how tan and young he looks, his hair still a bright red. Perry is rich again, having struck oil on his ranch, and he brings cases of food and drink for the party. But as they drive, Dora can’t help but notice how anxious Perry seems.
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Dora then reveals what she and Nora have always known: Perry, not Melchior, is Saskia and Imogen’s biological father, having had a brief affair with the Lady A. That is why Perry is so nervous for today, eager to get the love from Saskia and Imogen that they have previously reserved only for Melchior. Dora fears Perry will be disappointed, and she repeats Grandma’s motto: “hope for the best, expect the worst.”
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When Dora arrives, she sees Melchior’s car in the driveway, and she feels the same giddy terror she always associates with her dad, a feeling made more intense by the white lilacs on the dining table. Saskia, having recently discovered that she likes cooking more than acting, is making the birthday meal. The food is disgusting, but everybody compliments it. At one moment, Dora notices Perry is on the verge of tears with pride for his daughter. But Melchior is near tears too, and Dora wonders why Perry’s sense of connection to Saskia and Imogen does not draw Melchior to Dora and Nora, his actual biological offspring.
Perry raises his glass to toast the girls (“all four of you”), and presents Saskia and Imogen with their gifts. But when and Saskia and Imogen open the boxes that Perry has given them, they are horrified to see caterpillars. Perry explains that these are new species of butterflies, which he has named after the girls. Imogen pokes at hers, proclaiming it dead, while Saskia can barely manage a sarcastic “thank you.” Perry crumples in disappointment, and for the first time, he looks his age.
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Then, Melchior announces his present: he is going to give the girls a new stepmother. Specifically, Melchior clarifies, he is marrying the woman who played Cordelia to his Lear—played by none other than My Lady Margarine, Saskia’s best friend from RADA. Saskia is livid, throwing the birthday cake against a tree. Melchior responds by slapping Saskia across the cheek, prompting Nora, Dora and Perry to leave as fast as they can.
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On the drive home, Perry marvels that despite his daughters’ bad behavior, he still loves them dearly. When they arrive at 49 Bard Road, Perry refuses to come in with Dora and Nora. As if possessed by a premonition, Dora is suddenly sure that she and Nora will never see Perry again. Wistfully, Nora wishes that Perry and Grandma had tried to make a go of it, “in spite of everything.”
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Later that night, Dora and Nora get a call from the Lady A.’s Old Nanny: Lady A. has fallen down the stairs at the farmhouse. The fall happened after a fight in which Saskia and Imogen, cut off by Melchior so that he could support his new family, made the Lady A. sign all her property over to them. Even now, Dora does not know if the Lady A. fell or if her daughters pushed her, and the Lady A. is too proud and too “British” to say. And that is how, Dora explains, the Lady A. came to live with Dora and Nora. Sometimes, Dora notes, the Lady A. even used to babysit Tiffany.
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Meanwhile, Saskia was making a name for herself as a celebrity chef, her bright red hair popping up on TV with increasing frequency. To take her revenge on her former best friend, Saskia waits until Tristram—one of My Lady Margarine’s sons with Melchior—is old enough and then instigates an affair. When Old Nanny finds out about this incestuous tryst, she is horrified, even though Dora reminds her that Melchior is not Saskia’s real father. But then, with horror, Nora wonders aloud if Perry might have once had sex with My Lady Margarine, thereby fathering Tristram and his twin Gareth. After all, while Gareth takes after Melchior, Tristram has Perry’s bright red hair.
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For whatever reason, even as he grows older and starts seeing women his own age, Tristram can never leave Saskia. Early in his relationship with Tiffany, Tristram even brings her to Saskia’s house in Italy for a visit. Tiffany spends the whole trip in bed with food poisoning, and Dora is certain that Saskia must have put something in her food, though Tiffany never suspected anything. But it makes Dora too sad to think of Tiffany—especially tonight, her 75th birthday, the day of Melchior’s 100th birthday party.
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Now, it is time for Dora and Nora to figure out what to wear. They keep their old clothes in Grandma’s room, and going through the outfits takes the twins back to their entire lives. The closet contains Nora’s veil from her ill-fated wedding to Tony, and the floral dress Dora had worn the first time she had sex with her blond tenor. There are even clothes from Miss Worthington’s dance class decades ago.
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Going back through these memories makes Nora sad, and she confesses that she often feels lonely, with no parents and no children. Nora begins to cry, thinking of Tiffany and the baby she never had. But before Dora can join in the tears, a strange thing happens: the closet starts to spit out all the old outfits, as hats and dresses and gloves come flying out with such force that they knock the twins over. Dora decides that Grandma must be trying to communicate from beyond the grave, declaring that “Memory Lane is a dead end.” Instead, as Dora points out, there is a party to go to.
So, Dora and Nora put on their fur coats and raid their emergency fund to buy new clothes. As they walk to the market, they ignore protests from animal rights groups. Dora whispers to Nora that Grandma was before her time. Once they arrive at the store, the girls buy gold stilettos, stockings with stars, and short skirts.
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Then Dora and Nora return home to do their makeup, caking on foundation until they have painted the faces they “always used to have” on the faces they have now. Dora and Nora help Wheelchair get dressed for the party, too, albeit in a much less flashy style. After all, Wheelchair is eager to see Melchior, with whom she has remained in love all these years. The phone never rings with news about Tiffany, and Brenda doesn’t come around again, either. But at this point, Dora and Nora are too excited to care. It is April 23rd, after all, the birthday they share with Melchior and with Shakespeare himself.
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