Hands Symbol Analysis

Many of the characters in Wolf Hall try to conceal their true selves and their true desires, but their hands tend to reveal some essential part of themselves and often symbolize who they are under the surface. While most of them don’t realize that their hands give them away, Cromwell does. He notices hands—other people’s, and his own, too—and uses his observations to deepen his understanding of people. For instance, he notices that Cardinal Wolsey’s hands are “large, white, beringed,” and that “his reach is long, his hand is like the hand of God.” Wolsey’s hands show that he is extremely powerful and wealthy, and they hold no evidence of his lowly origins as a son of a butcher, which highlights how completely he embodies his role as cardinal. In contrast, Cromwell has a scar on the palm of his hand, “an old burn mark, like the twist of a rope,” which he got while helping his blacksmith father in his work. This indicates that, unlike Wolsey, he isn’t able to shake off his own past. However, later in the novel, when Cromwell has established himself as an important man in the king’s court, he notices that “his own hand is white, a gentleman’s hand, […] though he once thought the burn marks […] would never fade.” Hands also give Cromwell a clue to people’s true situations, as when Queen Katherine tries to act like she still is powerful but Cromwell notices that her “little, stubby, puffy hands” are empty, representing the fact that her words are all bluster.