60 pages • 2 hours read
Once Upon a River
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Themes
The Importance of Stories
Once Upon a River features a wide variety of stories and storytellers. These include folklore, confessions, and persuasive endeavors. The different tales and ways of telling hold remarkable weight within the plot, reinforcing the importance of stories in both the text and the real world.
From the outset, storytelling is vital. The narrator introduces the Swan as the place “where you went for storytelling” (3). Joe, the innkeeper’s husband, is one of the premier storytellers, and his son Jonathan wants to master the art of storytelling. It is integral that the Swan hosts such narratives. When a new myth develops in the inn itself, its regulars act as authorities as they carry the tale beyond its walls. Because the Swan is so renowned, the regulars are called upon to tell the story of The Child, and their stories are reinforced by Rita’s credibility as a nurse. In this way, the author displays the use of storytelling to communicate information. In a time period without easy access to information, storytelling was a vital part of news and learning. The storytellers take their own credibility very seriously; they spread the facts to draw new witnesses to the Swan and to solve the mystery of The Child.
Stories also build community through a shared mythos. Storytelling allows the communication of a shared history, especially when it occurs within a designated space. The Swan has “regulars” who already share legends about things like the Battle of Radcot and Quietly the ferryman. The Child’s arrival, and the stories that result, further propels the Swan into a position of community. More customers come to the Swan to hear The Child’s story, and in doing so strengthen the community in which this event occurred. The regulars become something akin to elders: “[They] scarcely bought a drink for themselves for weeks on end, as visitors stood rounds in payment for the story. They learned in time to save their voices, for had the visitors had their way, every man who had witnessed the events that night would have been in the summer room going around the tables, talking constantly” (202). These strengthened connections enable the search for Amelia’s kidnapper to be reignited, building to the novel’s resolution.
Finally, at the core of every story is a need to be believed. This is especially true for the many characters who make confessions in Once Upon a River. Lily confesses to her sister’s murder out of a need for honesty, believing herself haunted and hoping to help her sister’s spirit rest. Anthony confesses out of a combination of guilt and grief, finally providing the closure that allows his family to heal. One of the most important confessions of the novel is a joint moment between Victor Nash and Robin Armstrong, Amelia Vaughan’s kidnappers. Robin wholeheartedly believes he is a nobleman’s son; Victor quashes that notion by revealing that he is Robin’s true father. Victor’s confession is openly malicious, intended to degrade Robin and force him back under control. Robin’s subsequent attack, resulting in both of their deaths, is an act of silencing that stems from disbelief. Robin kills for the story, showing the persuasive—and destructive—power of words.
At the end of the book, the narrator speaks directly to the reader and says, “And now, dear reader, the story is over. It is time for you to cross the bridge once more and return to the world you came from. This river, which is and is not the Thames, must continue flowing without you. You have haunted here long enough, and besides, you surely have rivers of your own to attend to?” (460). This moment reminds the reader that the book is a story and, while it contains historically accurate elements, is fiction at its heart. This narrative choice directly encourages the reader to interpret their real-world surroundings as elements of a story. With all the power a story possesses—information, community, persuasion—this perception reinforces the importance of life itself.
Grief and Human Connection
All the novel’s main characters experience trauma but their resulting grief is handled in vastly different ways. Much of this grief causes changes to their behaviors and interactions, ultimately showcasing the relationship between grief and human connection.
There are a range of traumas presented in Once Upon a River. Some of these exist in the past, such as Bess’s sexual assault, while others fill the present, like Daunt’s near-death experience. Others grapple with past traumas with resonating effects, like Amelia’s kidnapping and Lily’s abuse. Each character expresses grief in their own way; this varies greatly depending on the community they have around them. The reader sees the positive impact of human connectivity on grief when learning of Bess’s assault. Armstrong asks Bess to marry him shortly after her assault, promising to support her and her potential unborn child. This promise of connection provides Bess with the ability to take the first step towards overcoming the past. Bess and Armstrong are the prime example of how full transparency and strong support systems allow individuals to heal from their pasts.
In the Vaughans, the reader sees how love is not always enough to enable healing, especially without honesty. Helena and Anthony love each other, but their love is stifled by the trauma of losing their daughter Amelia. This is expounded by Anthony’s secret knowledge of Amelia’s death. His own mourning prevents him from sharing this information, creating a rift that Helena later describes: “But I could not bear to know it, and he did not say it, and between us we pretended it was not so. We colluded. We made a falsehood together. And it almost destroyed us. Without the truth we could not grieve. Without the truth we could not console each other” (361). Their fabrication culminated in a perpetuation of grief that drove them apart. They only come back together when they overcome their own boundaries and rejoin as loved ones.
Lily’s grief and isolation go hand in hand. She has spent decades mourning her sister’s death and feeling culpable for it, suffering from nightmares and a chronic fear of water. She is extremely lonely, as most of her social interactions are with her abuser. She is described by the locals as “not quite right” and she holds a liminal place in society (94). Lily has no one to share her grief with. She only feels confident enough to reach out after she confesses her guilt to Maud, the heavily personified pig. Lily admits to Maud that she believes The Child is her sister’s vengeful reincarnation, and only then can she bring herself to tell the truth to other people. Her confession is vital to catching Victor Nash, but more importantly, it serves as her first true connection to her community. She eventually claims her place amongst the broader society, symbolized by her departure from her cottage and new life in the parsonage.
Through these characters and their experiences with trauma and mourning, the author underscores the necessity of human connection for healing. Grief is made more manageable by the presence of a community to share the burden.
The Conflict Between Science and Belief
Within the novel, characters with scientific backgrounds have different outlooks than others in the community. This creates a conflict between science and belief that reoccurs as The Child’s story grows more bizarre. The scientific characters encounter magical elements from the community that have no clear explanation, while other characters find their beliefs challenged by science.
Rita and Daunt both stand as the scientific centers of the novel, following logical thought patterns and dismissing local lore. As Rita examines The Child for the first time (before the girl is proven to be alive), she grapples with her own lack of faith. Her disbelief in a higher power immediately differentiates her from the rest of the community. Her perspective allows the reader to interpret the novel through the lens of scientific inquiry. Daunt, with his chemistry background that enables his photography, quickly joins Rita in her skepticism. Even before he has recovered from his boat accident, the two laugh about the legend of Quietly, then speculate about the girl’s survival. This partnership blooms alongside their romance, the two of them questioning folklore and mysticism. They provide logical explanations for phenomena or seek out those explanations to better explain the workings of the world.
Others in the novel function within the book’s mythos and take to its phenomena with faith. In many cases, members of the community do not want Rita and Daunt’s logical explanations; instead, they value a shared mythos that relieves them from having to linger on the details of the unexplainable. Quietly the ferryman, for example, is widely thought to have the power to save and end lives. This belief is so foundational that many do not mention death, but instead refer to “Quietly” and it being someone’s “time.” The legend of Quietly is so integrated into their daily lives that his presence gives the faithful a sense of security. By fitting Quietly into their belief system, the community normalizes death in a way that allows them to excuse what science might deem impossible.
While faith and science are frequently juxtaposed in Once Upon a River, by the novel’s conclusion they reach a state of coexistence. This is seen through Rita’s discussion of pregnancy and evolution, linking the amniotic sac to ancient forms of life. She tells Daunt, “I’ll get no further, I think. I’ve come as far as I can go. Ideas, notions, theories” (454). She has come to understand that available knowledge must advance before she can form a stronger theory about The Child’s survival. She accepts a lack of clarity and, in doing so, steps into a position of faith. She believes that science and medicine will one day describe the miraculous events she has lived through—but until then, she is at peace without a logical explanation.
This theme is furthered by The Child’s final disappearance. Jonathan’s inherently logical nature lends authenticity to his claim that The Child left with Quietly. Jonathan is incapable of telling stories despite his best efforts; he is a purely factual person. Robert Armstrong’s eyewitness testimony further validates Jonathan’s version of events, even while Robert himself is in a state of disbelief. Later, the community is divided by the girl’s fate. The logical thinkers believe The Child returned to the river nomads, where she likely came from; the faithful believe she left with Quietly, as Jonathan said. Faith and science are not pitted against each other, but instead peacefully coexist. The author shows that science and belief are not naturally in conflict but are made that way by the actions of those who engage with them. This asks the reader to consider the two ideologies and their capacity for mutual existence.
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