52 pages • 1 hour read
Rosamunde PilcherThe Shell Seekers
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Shell Seekers
The Shell Seekers is a large painting by Lawrence Stern that features Penelope as a small child. The painting is a symbol of several things in this novel. For Penelope, The Shell Seekers symbolizes the carefree childhood she experienced, the love she shared with her parents, and the happiness she knew while living in Porthkerris, Cornwall. As a child and a young woman, Penelope lived a bohemian lifestyle with her parents that was filled with travel and love. However, her carefree sense of life came to an end when World War II took Sophie’s life and brought both great love and great loss to Penelope. As Penelope married and became a mother, her life changed and she found herself in a loveless marriage that left her struggling to support herself and her husband from the few things her father left her after his death. During the darkest moments, Penelope would stare at The Shell Seekers and find solace in the memories of her days in Porthkerris.
Although the painting represents a tangible connection to the best moments of Penelope’s past, The Shell Seekers also becomes a symbol of Nancy and Noel’s greed. When they learn of the resurgence of interest in Victorian painters and discover the sale price of Lawrence Stern’s painting, The Water Carriers, they become determined to convince their mother to sell The Shell Seekers. Neither Nancy nor Noel ever bothers to understand the significance that this painting holds for their mother, nor do they attempt to respect her attachment to it. To them, the paining is just an object that could pay for Nancy’s children to go to private school and for Noel to start his commodities business. Even Olivia fails to understand the true meaning of the painting to her mother, but unlike her siblings, she at least respects her mother’s decision not to sell it.
For Lawrence Stern, The Shell Seekers represents the end of his art career. This painting was one of the final paintings he completed before arthritis made it impossible for him to work any longer. When World War II begins, this work is the one thing that Lawrence requests his wife to take from the house on Oakley Street When Penelope marries, it is this painting that Lawrence offers to her as a gift. These actions show Lawrence’s great affection for the painting and his appreciation for Penelope. In the end, when Penelope donates the painting to the gallery in Porthkerris, it shows her appreciation of her father’s love for Porthkerris and his affection for that particular painting. In Penelope’s act can be seen the completion of a circle, for she returns the painting to its rightful home.
Podmore’s Thatch
Podmore’s Thatch is the home in which Penelope lives for the final five years of her life. Penelope’s affection for this home and its origins shows a side of her personality that appreciates history. The narration makes it clear that Penelope enjoys knowing everything about the house, including the story of the man for whom the cottage is named and the people who have lived in it over the course of its existence. To Penelope, Podmore’s Thatch is a symbol of the history of the area and reflects the lives of those who lived there before she arrived, just as The Shell Seekers represents her own childhood and the happy years that she and her parents spent living in Porthkerris.
To Penelope’s children, however, Podmore’s Thatch is just a house: just a place where their mother lives and they can visit her on occasion, but never too often. Olivia even makes fun of the name of the cottage, telling Cosmo that “it is a bit twee” (65). This again shows the difference in thought and experience between the two generations. For the children, this cottage is just where Penelope lives, but to Penelope, it is symbolic of the history of the man it is named after and the people who have lived in it over the years.
Gardening
Gardening is an activity that Penelope enjoys, but it is also the first thing her children warn her to stop doing after her minor heart attack. As the novel progresses, it is revealed that Penelope has inherited her love of gardening from her mother. Sophie lived a nomadic lifestyle, constantly moving both as a child and an adult. However, she managed to maintain a garden in Porthkerris throughout Penelope’s childhood. On the last evening Penelope spent with Sophie, Sophie was reading a book about gardening. This detail comes to represent Penelope’s connection with her mother, and as she navigates her way through an unhappy marriage, she often finds comfort in gardening. For Penelope, gardening becomes a symbol of peace and enjoyment, and it also connects her to her mother, making it a motif related to the theme of the Strains and Benefits of Parent-Child Relationships.
