Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Wolf Hall, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power, Ambition, and Deception
Poor Leadership and Violence
Children and Human Connection
Dogmatism vs. Open-Mindedness
Myth and Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
Thomas Cromwell has fallen on the cobbles in the courtyard and his father, the blacksmith Walter, kicks him brutally. Walter yells for him to get up, but Thomas is badly hurt and can’t. He has a deep gash on his head, his nose is bleeding, and one eye is swollen shut. The twine on his father’s boot has come loose, and Walter blames Thomas for it, saying that by kicking him, he has managed to ruin his boots. When Walter kicks Thomas again, a hard knot in the loose twine opens another cut on Thomas’s brow.
Wolf Hall opens with an incident of senseless and brutal violence, which foreshadows that this is a theme that will run through the novel. Notably, the perpetrator is Thomas Cromwell’s father, Walter, who has more power in this relationship than his son, who is still a boy. This shows that when the powerful abuse their power, it can be extremely dangerous for their victims—an idea that the novel repeatedly brings up. Walter’s tough leather boot reflects his own hard personality. While Walter has no concern at all for his hurt son, he is concerned about his ruined boot, which highlights Walter’s extreme cruelty.
Themes
Thomas is in so much pain that he feels no pain at all. He tries to crawl away from Walter, who mockingly calls him “an eel.” Cromwell hears a dog barking and thinks he will miss his dog, Bella, when he is dead. He thinks he must crawl away from Walter’s foot, “Never mind if he calls [Thomas] an eel or a worm or a snake. Head down, don’t provoke him.” Thomas vomits and then feels the ground shift under him, and he hears someone saying to Walter, “You’ve done it this time.” He exhales and thinks he has breathed his last.
Despite being in extreme pain and terrified that his father will beat him to death, Thomas Cromwell is remarkably clearheaded and repeatedly tries to escape Walter. This is early evidence of the composed and sharp-thinking courtier that he will grow into. Also, despite his own misery, he spares a thought for his beloved dog, Bella. This highlights the compassionate side of his nature, which balances out his shrewd ambition and makes him a sympathetic character. When Thomas tries to crawl to safety, Walter taunts his helplessness by calling him an eel—the first of many animals that Thomas will be compared to over the course of his rise to power. At the novel’s opening, he is a powerless “eel,” but he is later as aggressive as a “fighting dog,” and then he becomes as dangerous as a “bag of serpents.”
Themes
Around noon, Thomas finds himself sitting by the door of the inn run by his sister Kat, who is shocked to see how badly he has been beaten. Kat wishes that “the devil [would] rise up, right now, and take away Walter his servant.” Cromwell tries to explain to her that he had gotten up from the yard and come here, and that he can’t remember if he’d been lying there since the morning or if he’d been there a whole day. He realizes, “from deep experience of Walter’s fists and boots,” that it had probably just been this morning since the pain on the second day is always worse.
In contrast to Thomas’s relationship with his father, the relationship between the siblings is one of love and care. Clearly, Kat, too, dislikes Walter immensely, since she calls him “the devil’s […] servant.” This passage highlights the level of Thomas’ injuries since he seems to have passed out from the pain and struggles to piece together the timeline of what happened when. The beatings are a frequent event in Thomas’s life, suggesting that he lives an anxious and dangerous life in Walter’s household.
Themes
Kat begins to clean Thomas up gently with some water and a cloth. He wants to put his head in her clean apron but doesn’t want to dirty it with his blood. Kat’s husband, Morgan Williams, returns from town, and he asks Thomas why he didn’t fight back since he could easily “cripple the brute.” Kat notes that their father always attacks from behind—she’s seen him do it to their mother and their sister Bet, and Kat, too, has been a victim of similar attacks. Thomas wonders if perhaps Walter killed their mother, but then he thinks that, despite Putney’s lawlessness, one can’t get away with murder here.
Thomas Cromwell’s age hasn’t been mentioned yet, but he seems to be strong enough and skilled enough to best Walter in a fight, suggesting that he must be in his teens at least. All his childhood years seem to have been marred by violence. Since Walter attacks his victims from behind, he always manages to surprise them and dominate them in a fight. This shows that he uses deception and subterfuge to hold onto his position of power rather than fighting fairly. In the novel, many characters—including Thomas Cromwell himself—come to learn this lesson that power must be grasped through trickery. At court, Cromwell is often mocked for his origins in Putney, and from the way young Cromwell thinks of his town, readers can assume that it is a rough sort of place.
Themes
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Morgan Williams wants to know why Walter beat Thomas up, and Thomas says it was because he’d been fighting the previous evening. Williams says that it makes no sense that Walter would beat up Thomas because Thomas beat up someone else. Williams also cannot fathom how illogical Walter is to “wait a day, then [hit Thomas] with a bottle,” and then “[beat] up and down his length with a plank of wood”—the townspeople have filled him in on how exactly Walter attacked Thomas. Kat asks Thomas to live with them, telling Williams that Thomas can “do the heavy work” and “the figures.”
Williams’s account of Walter’s attack highlights its brutality. Since Thomas was lying face down on the ground and was barely conscious from the pain, he had no idea that Walter was using a bottle and a plank of wood to hit him. Williams’s questioning also emphasizes how illogical Walter is—his motivation seems to be pure violence rather than using violence to achieve something else, like changed behavior. Kat thinks that Thomas can live with them and earn his keep by doing the heavy work as well as the figures, showing that Thomas is strong and also has a sharp mind.
Themes
After Kat cleans him up, Thomas rests inside for a couple hours, during which time he hears Walter come to the door and argue loudly with Kat and Williams. Thomas thinks that he can no longer stay in Putney now because of Walter. He thinks he will kill Walter if he ever sees him again, and he will then be hanged for it. He also remembers that there was a knife involved in the fight he’d been in the previous day—he has a vague notion that this might lead to more trouble, though he is still too dazed to remember exactly why.
Interestingly, Thomas Cromwell feels like he must leave town not because he is afraid of Walter, but because he is afraid that he might kill Walter if he ever sees him again. This not only shows his confidence in his own capabilities but is also evidence of his clear and rational thinking. He knows that he will be hanged if he kills Walter, and he doesn’t think he should waste his life on it. However, this detail, as well as the fact that was probably fighting with a knife the previous day, suggests young Thomas Cromwell’s own potential for violence, which is different from the adult Cromwell’s loathing for it. This suggests that Mantel believes that violence comes from immaturity; Cromwell embraces violence when he’s younger but rejects it when he’s older and wiser.
Themes
Thomas overhears Kat and Williams talking downstairs. Kat is regretting making the offer to have Thomas live with them because Williams seems nervous that Walter will keep returning as long as Thomas is in their house. Thomas knows that, despite all his bluster, Williams is actually afraid of Walter. When Thomas goes downstairs, he casually tells them he’s leaving. Kat insists that he at least stay the night, but Williams offers to give him some money so he can be on his way. Thomas understands that Kat will not speak against her husband because he treats her well and comes from a successful family.
Though Thomas Cromwell is still quite young, he seems very perceptive in his understanding of people’s unspoken insecurities and fears, suggesting that he already has the ability to discern what is not obvious. He understands that Kat can do only so much for him since she has to take her husband’s wishes into account, and he also understands that Williams is afraid of Walter, though he doesn’t admit it. Thomas doesn’t hold this against them, and he very maturely manages these complex family dynamics by offering to leave.
Themes
Thomas tells Williams he’ll return the money to him after he becomes either a soldier or a ship’s boy. He is also worried about leaving his dog, Bella, and wonders if he can take her with him onboard a ship. Williams tells him that he is too large to be a ship’s boy, and since he is good at fighting, just like his father, he should be a soldier. Kat sarcastically wonders if this could really be the solution—Thomas was fighting, and his father beat him up for it, and now her husband is telling him to go be a soldier and beat up someone he doesn’t know. Williams says he may as well make money from doing it rather than do it for free.
Kat questions the mindless propagation of violence, but Williams’s response suggests that this is a way to get ahead in the world. Mantel seems to imply—like Kat—that there must be other ways, since the continuation of violence is not a viable solution to violence. When Cromwell is older, he will try to work out nonviolent solutions to problems, though he isn’t always successful in the uncertain environment of the Tudor court.
Themes
When Thomas gets up to go, Kat says he looks like he is in no state to leave. But Thomas says he knows that Walter will be back soon to find him, as soon as he has a few drinks. Thomas thanks Williams for the money in Welsh, and Williams is astonished that he speaks it—Thomas has picked it up from being around Williams and his family. Williams, too, seems sorry to see Thomas go and promises to feed Bella whenever she comes around.
Thomas’s ability to speak Welsh just from hearing it being spoken around him is proof of his ability to learn quickly from his environment. The fact that Williams has no idea that Thomas speaks the language also suggests that Thomas is already good at keeping information about himself secret if he prefers to, and that he enjoys making an impression by disclosing this information at opportune moments.
Themes
Thomas makes his way to Dover. He has decided that wars are fought in France, so he is headed there. He knows he has to make the little money he has last a while, so he helps load carts to get free rides. He converses easily with strangers and is gentle with horses—even the nervous ones relax in his presence. Thomas wonders at “how bad people are at loading carts,” often trying to squeeze a bulky object through a narrow space when a “simple rotation of the object solves a great many problems.”
As Thomas makes his way to Dover, his people skills help him get there with no money. As an adult, too, Thomas Cromwell’s charm and wit will succeed in ingratiating him with the king and other powerful courtiers. He seems to genuinely like people and empathize with them, which in turn makes him likeable. Thomas is also thoughtful and intelligent from the very beginning, which is shown in the way he easily finds solutions to problems that other people seem to struggle with.
Themes
In Dover, Thomas ends up making some money by watching a man do a three-card trick and figuring out how to do it. People think he is just a boy, so they play it with him, and they all end up losing to him. He spends a little of it on a prostitute since he could never do this at home, where Williams’s family was very influential and would gossip about him.
The young Thomas Cromwell is clearly very perceptive because he figures out the trick behind the card game just by observing how it is played. As an adult, too, he has a talent for spotting deceptions, which is useful to him as a courtier making his way up in court. Young Thomas ends up making money by setting up the game himself, which shows his brave and enterprising nature. He isn’t intimidated, even though he is just a boy all alone in a strange place.
Themes
Thomas sees three elderly Lowlanders (a term for people of the Low Countries or the Netherlands) who are being troubled by a customs official because of the bags of wool they are carrying, and Thomas negotiates a bribe on their behalf. In return, they offer him a ride to Calais on their boat. They ask Thomas how old he is and when he says he is 18, they laugh at his answer. He then tries 15, and they accept it, though they know he must be younger.
Again, Thomas Cromwell displays the ability to gauge a situation—like the fact that the customs official was looking for a bribe—while others, like the Lowlanders, seem clueless in comparison. This ability, combined with his natural friendliness, serves Thomas well here and throughout the novel.
Themes
The Lowlanders ask Thomas how he got his many bruises, and he tells them the truth because he doesn’t want them thinking he is a thief who got caught and beaten. The Lowlanders say that “the English are cruel to their children” and Thomas is astonished to think there must be people somewhere who are kind to their children and “the weight in his chest shifts a little; he thinks, there could be other places, better.” When they reach Calais, the Lowlanders tell him he will always be welcome to visit them. Thomas bids them farewell and goes off to look for a war.
Thomas weighs his answers before he gives them, never blurting out his words and always calculating the impression they will make. In this instance, he tells the truth about his bruises because he doesn’t want to risk making a poor impression on the Lowlanders, and his notion that they might otherwise take him for a thief seems very well-reasoned. Since Thomas is shocked to think that there might be a place where parents aren’t cruel to their children, the reader can deduce that not only has Walter been cruel to him, but also that Thomas hasn’t seen any other examples of a caring relationship between parents and children. When he himself is a father to his children and a guardian to many young wards, Thomas Cromwell’s household is filled with warmth and affection, and it is one of these better places in the world that he dreams about here.
Themes
