# IX explained — Jenny > Chapter companion for Jenny by Sigrid Undset. ## What happens Jenny and Gunnar Heggen spend time together as she sits for a portrait. Jenny expresses deep grief over the loss of her baby boy, revealing the extent of her sorrow and how it has paralyzed her ability to paint. Gunnar offers comfort and tries to encourage her to resume her artistic work. They discuss life, fate, and the choices that have led Jenny to her current state, with Jenny admitting she feels lost and unable to find a firm foundation for her life. ## Themes in this chapter ### Motherhood and Unwanted Pregnancy Jenny's monologue reveals the intense bond she felt with her baby and the devastating impact of his death, highlighting the theme of motherhood and the pain of losing a child. ### Artistic Identity and Work Jenny's inability to paint is directly linked to her grief, while Gunnar encourages her to see it as a temporary block and to work to regain her skills, reflecting on the nature of artistic identity and the struggle to create. ### The Past and Its Ghosts Jenny is haunted by memories of her son and the life she had planned with him, and her past choices continue to shape her present despair. ## Character check-ins ### Jenny Winge Reveals profound grief over the death of her infant son, expressing how the loss has consumed her and hindered her artistic work. She admits to feeling unable to find meaning or direction in life. ### Gunnar Heggen Listens to Jenny's outpouring of grief, offers gentle comfort, and encourages her to return to painting. He reflects on his own beliefs about will and fate, and shows care for Jenny's well-being. ## Key lines > Is it worth living to go about making things like those? Smearing oil paint on canvas? You can see for yourself that it is nothing now but a mess of paint. Yet you saw how I worked the first months⁠—like a slave. Good God! I cannot even paint any more. Jenny questions the value of her artistic work, feeling that her paintings are now meaningless and that she has lost her ability to paint. _Jenny expresses her frustration and despair over her inability to paint, linking it to her emotional state._ > I cannot work because I am so full of him⁠—the longing for him paralyses me. In the night I cuddle the pillow in my arms and sob for my baby-boy. Jenny explains that her overwhelming grief for her son prevents her from working, as she constantly thinks of him and cries for him at night. _Jenny reveals the depth of her sorrow and how it has consumed her daily life._ > God knows I did not will my fate, Gunnar. Yet I have willed for many years and lived accordingly, too. Jenny insists that she did not choose her current fate, even though she has been deliberate in her actions for many years. _Jenny challenges Gunnar's belief that one's will shapes one's destiny, pointing to her own experience._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/jenny_se/chapters/part-iii-ix - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/jenny_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/jenny_se/chapters