Book discussion: Fire and Hemlock, Parts Three and Four (and Coda)

[shimotsuki]

Here is the second of two discussion posts for Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones. This post is currently public, so that anyone interested can read and join in the discussion, but if any of my f-listers would prefer that I f-lock the post instead, let me know and I will do that

Comments

[huldrejenta]

Tom seems to know immediately that Polly is the one. She can't have been the only -- person? woman? girl? -- he'd ever talked to from outside, so how did he know she was it, and why did he know right away? (And why Polly? Probably it couldn't have been Ann, whose mother was a Leroy, but why not someone else in the orchestra, for example?)

I agree, he seems to know right away.
I think he knew, or at least suspected, the moment he began talking to her at the funeral. He talks to her as an outsider from the start, as someone who has no idea what's going on. The vision with the water in the pool may indeed have made Tom see more clearly that there was something special with Polly.

Why Polly, that's indeed a good question.
Is there something with Polly that connects her with the heroine in the ballads?

I've also wondered whether it needed to be both Polly and Tom also on this issue. Tom did, as you say, manage to escape Laurel on some level even before he met Polly, he seems to have some powers of his own that may have made him more susceptible to Polly. So maybe it was something with exactly these too people; that Polly couldn't have saved anyone but Tom, as well as her being his only chance. It seems to fit with other times when they both need to be there.
(And it is of course hopelessly romantic... but with a man not too different from Remus, not to mention who plays the cello, a romantic explanation seems to come naturally to my mind..;))

I think this is also why Seb tries so hard to court Polly -- he wants to marry her. I bet he does think she's pretty, but I think he mostly wants to make sure she doesn't free Tom, because (Seb thinks) that means he'd be the one to have to go.

Or be the one to take Mr. Leroy's place, yes.... Phew, poor Seb too. Laurel is indeed an intriguing, cruel character.

I wonder what, if anything, Polly and Tom could do about the whole situation after Tom was rescued. It seems they're still up for the impossible.

I think Polly being manipulated by Laurel to forget Tom was indeed specifically the factor that was going to doom Tom to his fate, because he couldn't get free without Polly's help. But I think what Polly sees as her terrible error was doing that magic in the first place and attracting Laurel's attention.

This makes a lot of sense!

I wonder whether Granny knows that Polly is his key to escape, and if so, if that's why she (grudgingly) lets Polly contact him despite her worries.

I believe she does. Granny is Polly's anchor of good sense as opposed to her parents, and I doubt that Granny would have allowed the contact between Tom and Polly when not knowing Tom very well, without believing it to be really important.

I've wondered about (with the Fire and Hemlock picture in her house) if Granny in some way had anything to do with the timing of when Polly starts remembering again. The timing is very convenient and hardly a coincidence.