47 pages • 1 hour read
M.L. StedmanThe Light Between Oceans
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 23-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2
Chapter 23 Summary
Hannah, weary and gaunt from years of desperately waiting for information, awakens two nights after the lighthouse celebration to the sound of the letterbox creaking. Written in the same handwriting as the previous anonymous letter is a note in the package containing Grace’s silver rattle: “She is safe. She is loved and cared for. Please pray for me” (242).
The police photograph the rattle and pin the picture up outside the station, asking that anyone who recognizes it to come forward. Septimus raises the award to three thousand guineas, which is enough to make anyone in Partageuse wealthy.
Bluey tells his mother that he recalls seeing the rattle in Lucy’s crib, but he is conflicted about what do to because Tom and Isabel are his friends. His mother convinces him to go to the police.
Chapter 24 Summary
The police arrive on Janus and show Tom a picture of the rattle, asking if he recognizes it. While the police question him, Isabel pieces information together. She learns that Hannah received a letter two years prior and that the same person—Tom—has recently sent her the rattle.
Tom confesses to everything. While the police dig up Frank’s remains, Isabel confronts Tom and sees that he is relieved. Tom explains why he did what he did and that he has told the police it was all his idea, freeing Isabel from any consequences. Isabel is furious, calling him a monster and declaring his actions unforgiveable.
Neville Whittnish, who has come to Janus to take over Tom’s responsibilities, manages to get Tom away long enough to light the light one last time and to say goodbye.
Chapters 23-24 Analysis
For Tom, the lighthouse has been a beacon of safety, lighting the way for mariners, but the symbolism of the lighthouse has shifted. At the end of Part 2, Tom sees it as a warning to mariners to stay away from Janus Island, which is no longer a place of safety; rather it is a dangerous place for any who passes there. The symbolism of Janus Rock also deepens in meaning in these chapters. At first, Janus was a place where Tom could take stock of his experiences at war and to stabilize himself in an isolated place, free of the influences of other people. Janus Rock has become a place just as fraught with immorality for Tom, and he leaves the island with a sense of relief that conflicts with the sense of optimism that characterized the start of his tenure on Janus.
By confessing to taking Lucy and burying Frank, Tom is relieved of his burden, but his decision drives Isabel to an emotional edge. She feels betrayed by Tom, who she believes has chosen Hannah’s happiness over the happiness of his own family. Tom has lost both reliable points in his life--the light of Janus, and Isabel while regaining his self-respect and his peace of mind. Tom’s state of mind as he leaves the island suggests that to Tom, the theme of right and wrong is the most important priority in a man’s life; to compromise one’s own sense of morality is to lose everything meaningful.
