The Secret Keeper

Many of the chapters of the novel set before the 2011 timeline reflect the effects of war, showing the devastating and far-reaching impact on those affected by it. Alongside the destruction of war, the novel also examines the aftereffects that a shocking loss or personal harm can have on an individual.

In the opening chapter set in 1961, which serves as a pivot point between the historical and present-day timelines, Laurel reflects that the war has been over for 16 years. “Everything [is] different now; gas masks, uniforms, ration cards, and all the rest of it,” Laurel decides, “[belong] only in the big old khaki trunk her father kept in the attic” (9-10). She notices that the people who experienced the war firsthand seem unable to move on, while young people like Laurel, experience the world differently. More than simply a “generation gap” (10), as her boyfriend Billy calls it, Laurel perceives that living through a world war has shaped the perspective of the adults around her. For her, war signifies a past she wants to escape. Within the structure of the novel itself, Laurel’s reflection hints that the events of war will have an enduring impact on the later narrative.

Dolly’s perspective on the war reflects a coping mechanism of distance and denial consistent with her preference for creating and fixating on fantasy versions of her life. A common collective response to the Blitz in Britain was that, far from hiding in fear or pushing for surrender, residents rallied and did their best to carry on with life as usual despite the constant threats. Dolly notices that if a bomb destroys a building one night, the next morning crews are there working on repairs. Dolly copes with the dangers around her by treating the war as both a nuisance and an element that makes life more exciting. While she worries about how to get cigarettes or nylons, given the rationing, she also thinks that walking the streets at night is “exciting, not frightening at all” (33). The element of danger amplifies Dolly’s feeling that she is special, indeed extraordinary, and more alive than other people. Though she volunteers at the canteen and later works in a munitions factory, for Dolly, the war is simply something to endure. She believes she is a survivor. Her fantasies about a better, more glamorous life help insulate her from despair, while the other girls, like Kitty, go dancing with young men to cling to a sense of joy and gaiety despite the fear.

For Vivien likewise, her imagination provides a buffer from the painful events of her past and present. Vivien tells Katy Ellis, as they travel aboard the ship from Australia to England, that she is waiting to wake up from a dream. Vivien’s fantasies that her family is close by—symbolized by the locket she always wears with the pictures of her and her siblings inside—help sustain her through painful times. When Henry assaults her, Vivien retreats into her mind, imagining she is a child again and about to find her family behind the barrier that has separated them. Fantasy and disassociation become her defense against the trauma of the present moment.

Other characters demonstrate different ways of responding to painful events. When Dolly learns her family has been killed, she is unable to talk about her loss, even though Jimmy wishes she would discuss it with him. Lady Gwendolyn retreats into bitterness in an attempt to handle the pain of losing her sister’s companionship. She refuses to leave her house, limiting her interaction with the world to the society pages in the magazines Dolly reads to her. Jimmy’s father deals with his grief by dwelling on the past and creating fantasies of his own. He takes care of a bird he calls Finch as a way to transfer his affections, speaks as if his wife is still around, and weeps, wishing his life could go back to what it was. For Jimmy, who takes a more stoic approach and deals with his feelings of pain, fear, and grief by capturing the loss and hope of survivors in his photographs, his father’s clinging to the past is painful. Jimmy looks forward to a future with Dolly as a way to deal with the devastation of the war, spinning images of a rustic farmhouse and a lovely seaside as a fanciful diversion. The characters who have an imaginative escape seem more resilient to trauma, on the whole, than those who are unable to recover from their loss and cling to their hurt.

In a book that is about secrets, Morton explores the isolation and distance that the keeping of secrets can cause, as well as occasions where secrets, or small deceptions, can be protective. As a character, Laurel establishes early on that secrets are a part of every human life. Laurel is not a leading lady but has found success as a character actress, which she believes is because she “bothered to learn the character’s secrets” (27). This suggests that secrets can be formative to a person’s past and their personality laying the foundation for the plot of the story.

Laurel considers herself an efficient keeper of secrets; for 50 years, she has kept secret from her siblings that their mother murdered a man. Laurel and her father decided on this strategy for protective reasons, to spare her siblings from distress. For the same protective reason, Laurel at first denies that anything violent happened in his childhood when her brother Gerry questions her about it. She feels, however, that this denial creates a fault line in their relationship, a distance she later regrets. She brings Gerry into the secret to engage his help and lessen her burden by sharing her concerns. At the conclusion of the novel, Laurel and her brother agree not to share what they’ve learned with their sisters, again to save them from distress. They see nothing to be gained from revealing their mother’s past actions and possibly changing their siblings’ perceptions of their mother when her character has not materially changed, only her name.

Dolly provides a different reflection on the theme of secrets in the way she tries to divide her world in two, keeping Jimmy from meeting the other girls who live at Lady Gwendolyn’s and hiding when Vivien runs into Jimmy at the canteen. This compartmentalization provides her with a sense of control in the unstable, war-torn world around her. Though she invites Jimmy to participate in her fantasy when they visit the 400 Club, she turns down his proposal of marriage because she has begun to want a life he can’t offer her. Dolly’s self-deception that she belongs in a social circle with Lady Gwendolyn and Vivien Jenkins, a circle in which Jimmy doesn’t belong—creates a rift between her and Jimmy that is never quite repaired, even when he takes her back.

Vivien’s secret about her husband’s abuse is the most isolating. It prevents her from confiding in the people in her life and from forming deeper relationships. Vivien pretends she doesn’t know Dolly when she returns her locket because she doesn’t want to make Henry suspicious. She hides her volunteer work at the hospital, pretending to her husband that she is working at the canteen, because Henry would not approve. She is cold to Jimmy when he approaches her because she knows Henry will not allow her to have friends, especially male friends. What others interpret as coldness masks Vivien’s vulnerability. She lies to Jimmy about the origin of her bruises and the reason she was ill at home. Henry’s cruelty has left Vivien isolated, without friends and without a future. Her friendship with Jimmy, and the time she spends visiting with his father, Mr. Metcalfe, are moments of respite for Vivien when she can enjoy real companionship without fear or apprehension.

Vivien’s next secret, when she takes on the identity of Dorothy Smitham, is both isolating and deeply empowering. She cannot confide in anyone for fear of being found by Henry, but at the same time the identity shift allows her to build the life she always wanted. At the boardinghouse she keeps to herself, limiting her friendships. After she meets and marries Stephen Nicolson, finding the rural farmhouse of Greenacres in Sussex is a dream come true for Vivien/Dorothy. There she can live in relative safety. Keeping her relationship with Henry Jenkins a secret from the authorities after she murders him is another protective move. With Henry dead, Dorothy no longer needs to live in fear. The last lingering isolation caused by her secret is the apprehension Laurel feels about her mother’s motives for this crime committed so long ago. Once all is revealed, Dorothy is at peace and Laurel’s belief in the strength of her mother’s love for their family is validated. Though they choose to exclude her sisters, Laurel and Gerry feel closer because of what they know about their mother, secure in their intention to keep Dorothy’s secret and protect what she built. Though secrets can be isolating, the novel suggests, keeping them can also prevent harm.