The Blue Lagoon · Chapter
XIV: Hannah explained
Emmeline and Dick care for their newborn baby, Hannah, on the island.
What happens
Emmeline and Dick care for their newborn baby, Hannah, on the island. They marvel at his growth, his first tooth, and his first word, 'Dick.' The chapter explores the wonder of birth and the deepening bond between the three of them, as well as Emmeline's underlying fear of losing their happiness.
Themes in this chapter
Birth and Creation
The chapter centers on the birth and early development of Hannah, exploring the miracle of new life and the unfolding of personality.
Love and Connection
The bond between Dick, Emmeline, and Hannah deepens, with Dick's love for the child surpassing all else.
Innocence and Loss
Emmeline's happiness is shadowed by a fear of losing it, reflecting the fragility of innocence and joy.
Characters to notice
- Dick
Watches over Hannah with a sense of proprietorship and love, eventually loving the child more than anything else.
- Emmeline
Cares for Hannah with natural wisdom, names him, and feels a vague fear of mischance despite her happiness.
- Hannah
The newborn baby, a boy despite the name, who grows strong, cuts his first tooth, and speaks his first word 'Dick'.
- Koko
Takes a vast interest in Hannah, hopping around him and being chased by the baby.
Key passages
“A week ago they two had been alone, and suddenly from nowhere this new individual had appeared. It was so complete.”
Just a week earlier, Dick and Emmeline had been by themselves, and then this entirely new person arrived out of nowhere, fully formed.
Highlights the suddenness and completeness of birth.
“The vanishing and the coming of a man.”
The disappearance of one person and the arrival of another.
Links the birth of Hannah to the earlier death on the reef, contrasting loss with creation.
“A voice that had never spoken in the world before, had spoken; and to hear his name thus mysteriously uttered by a being he has created, is the sweetest and perhaps the saddest thing a man can ever know.”
A voice that had never spoken before said his name, and hearing it from the child he helped create is both the sweetest and saddest experience a man can have.
Captures the emotional complexity of parenthood and the first word.