64 pages • 2 hours read
Tana FrenchThe Likeness
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A 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
Whitethorn House
“Some nights, if I’m sleeping on my own, I still dream about Whitethorn House” (1). Author Tana French begins her crime novel with a nod to another novel haunted by a home. In Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, the narrator speaks of a house that bedevils her memory, constantly reminding her of the past. On the day of her arrival, Cassie is greeted with a charming edifice welcoming her into a new life. Her first days living there feel like a lucid dream where she finds her family for the first time. “That house shimmered in my mind like some fairy fort that appeared for one day in a lifetime, tantalizing and charged, with those four cool figures for guardians and inside secrets too hazy to be named” (46). For Cassie, the mansion represents an escape from the painful isolation she has inhabited since her traumatic experience. To the group of friends, the dwelling is an emblem of independence and a place to escape the drudgery of society.
Whitethorn House is alive with music, voices, philosophy, and food, and Cassie is taken captive under its spell. However, below the surface of its crumbling walls lie dark secrets, and as the house begins to reveal its history, the residents also begin to surrender their hidden selves. Daniel ardently believes the house will save them, but he cannot see the house has become a prison for his friends and a symbol of oppression for those in the community. The sounds of conviviality are replaced with cryptic whispers and violent winds. Cassie feels the haunting presence of Lexie in every room. What once felt like a protective bower is now a claustrophobic house of horrors. In the end, ashes are all that remain of the once grand home. Cassie says she still dreams of Whitethorn House, but in her dreams it is empty.
Mirrors
The Likeness’s title places emphasis on the role of resemblance in the narrative. The novel begins with a dream sequence ending in narrator Cassie seeing her face reflected in a mirror. The author uses the motif of mirrors and reflections to symbolize Cassie’s search for her true identity. After the devastating losses from Operation Vestal, Cassie embarks on a quest to reclaim her personhood. Cassie thinks she sees an opportunity to escape when she sees her likeness on the face of the dead woman, but the reflection is a distorted trap. Whitethorn House appears to mirror the comfort and closeness of family Cassie desires, but a closer look reveals the vision is broken and warped by Daniel’s possessive control. The more Cassie chases Lexie’s shadow, the deeper she falls into disorientation: “[I]t was like a mocking reflection in some creepy distorting mirror, and all I could think was, ludicrously, I want to go home” (86). The calm and clarity she hoped to find at Whitethorn morphs into a dizzying hall of funhouse mirrors, twisting and bending the truth at every turn.
The dubiously named Operation Mirror shows Cassie a view of her undercover identity she never wanted to see. The longer Cassie pretends to be Lexie, the less she recognizes herself: “Everything I had-my job, my friends, my flat, my clothes, my reflection in the mirror-felt like it belonged to someone else, some clear-eyed straight-backed girl I could never find again” (140). An image in a mirror is only one way to see oneself. Cassie is almost consumed by the trick mirror of Whitethorn membership but escapes in time to reconnect to the truest image of her identity. When she looks at her family photos, she sees a true image of love mirrored in her mother. With Sam’s acceptance of her past, she can see a new image of herself reflected in his love.
Wind
Pathetic fallacy in literature is the personification of weather events to mimic the mood of the characters in the story. The author makes mention of many types of wind in the narrative, from violent gales roaring through the countryside to gentle draughts wafting through the house. The extensive discussion of the weather is more than just an examination of the Irish climate. Gusts of wind often precede climactic events in the narrative and sweep over Cassie’s skin leaving her with an eerie feeling, “nothing that couldn’t be explained away by the wind and moon shadows and countryside night noises; just that low-level electrical current at the back of your neck” (166). Air feels like breath, and the whirlwinds come alive, which adds a supernatural element to the landscape of the narrative.
As tensions rise in Whitethorn House, the breezes turn tempestuous, and the air takes on an unsettling human-like form: “The wind hurled itself up against the window with a bang and rattle, fell away again” (93). The author never explicitly mentions the ghost of Lexie or of the slain mother that lived in the house long ago, but the presence of mysterious draughts sends chills down Cassie’s spine and leaves the reader wondering if the wraiths are real or figments of Cassie’s imagination: “The wind picked up, swirled in the eaves and sent a high wail down the chimney, banked around and came rushing through the sitting room like a long cold ghost train” (258). Whether substantive meteorological events or manifestations of anxiety, the winds that buffet and bluster against the narrative add a menacing air of approaching danger.
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By Tana French
