The Wren, the Wren

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-10

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Birds

Content Warning: This guide section depicts physical and emotional abuse.

In this novel, birds are a broad symbol of the beauty of the natural world that Nell values. In the first chapter, she discusses her concern over the disappearance of the nightjar species of birds. As the novel goes on, she expresses an affinity for other species, such as the kingfisher and the bullfinch. Although migratory patterns can explain their movements, the birds’ disappearance is a symbol of the ephemeral quality of the world around Nell. Nell does not fear their disappearance, but she is anxious about losing the awe they inspire.

The meaning of this symbol shifts towards the latter half of the novel. Nell mimics the migratory patterns of birds by traveling around the world. When she gets her second tattoo, Nell chooses the image of a wren because it reminds her of home. Nell’s time away from Dublin distances her from the natural world she loves, drawing her to return to the nest she finds in Carmel’s home. The novel ends with Nell’s encounter with a bullfinch, which teaches her that the beauty of reality is far too magnificent for language to sufficiently capture.

Poetry

Poetry is a significant motif in the novel, developing The Attempt to Define the World Through Language and The Private Lives of Public Personalities as themes. Enright uses Phil’s poems to stand for his presence in the narrative. Occasionally, the sudden appearance of a poem or translation that bears emotional resonance with the scene or chapter breaks the narrative. This formal device demonstrates poetry’s attempt to speak to precise emotions and experiences, which ring true even though Carmel refuses to engage with Phil’s poetry. She only comes to understand how well Phil has captured her experience when she allows herself to read his work through Nell’s eyes.

Phil’s reputation also stems from the legacy of his work as a poet. The mark he leaves on Irish literature draws his contemporaries to champion him at his funeral. However, the novel also reveals that Phil’s poetry can misrepresent the lives of others, which it does with many of the women that Phil pursued romances throughout his life. At Phil’s funeral, his first girlfriend is known by reputation, appearing in the poems as a sexual figure. She cannot define herself except by her association with Phil’s work, which disadvantages her voice. Ultimately, the novel builds up toward the idea that poetry can express beautiful ideas, though some of these ideas can fail to express the truth. Poetry ultimately weaponizes the ambiguities of language to elicit satisfying emotions and obscures details to do so.

“Love Is a Tide”

Nell gets the line “Love is a tide” tattooed under her collarbone. The line is from one of Phil’s poems, entitled “River Talk.” This line becomes a motif for The Fraught Love of Mother-Daughter Relationships, representing the alternating phases of admiration and dislike that Nell and Carmel have for each other. Considering that Carmel tries to avoid any association with Phil from the time after he leaves their family, she is challenged to appreciate what the line means to Nell. Before Nell leaves for London, she expresses the idea that the line is part of her inheritance from Phil. Phil’s poetry tethers Nell to her family in Dublin, showing that she loves Carmel despite the misgivings between them.

The Wren

Because it gives the novel its name, the wren deserves closer examination apart from the other birds that function symbolically in the novel. The wren is a symbol of the complex relationship that Carmel has with Phil. Phil famously dedicates the title poem, “The Wren, The Wren,” to Carmel, expressing the way her absence from his life imprints on him so that he is always conscious of her presence. This is a heightened way of describing Phil’s attachment and affection for Carmel, whom he warmly regards as the center point of his life.

Carmel can’t help but feel that the wren also represents Phil’s sinister side, given his fondness for The Clancy Brothers’s folk staple, “The Wren Song.” Carmel initially enjoys Phil’s practice of banging pots and pans along to the song, but when she gets older and listens more carefully to the lyrics, she realizes they are about the murder of a wren. Carmel wrestles with the fact that violence and joy could mingle together so effortlessly that it takes her some time to recognize and distinguish them.