64 pages • 2 hours read
Shana AbeThe Second Mrs. Astor: A Heartbreaking Historical Novel of the Titanic
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Ships and Sea Vessels
Given the infamous sinking of the Titanic is a key event in the novel, the prevalence of boats and ships throughout the novel could be read simply as foreshadowing or echoes of that tragedy. However, the ships populating The Second Mrs. Astor also symbolize other important aspects of Madeleine’s story. In part, boats represent freedom and possibility for Madeleine. When Madeleine sails on Jack’s yacht, Noma, during their courtship, she comes to savor the sense of adventure she feels while with Jack. Jack has seen so much more of the world than she has, and through his company and resources, he is offering to allow her to see the world as well. Similarly, sailing to Beechwood the night before her wedding, the sea appears magical to her: “In the water all around her crested night castles of foam, white-maned horses, sinuous mermaids with splashes of tails and wild flowing hair” (131).
Ships and sea vessels are also inherently a form of isolation, albeit a fragile one. This isolation can be positive, as it allows Madeleine to escape the cost of celebrity. On her honeymoon, for example, sailing on Noma allows Madeleine and Jack precious privacy, and shields Madeleine from the judgment of society matrons like Mrs. Cardeza. Their dahabiya in Egypt is an escape, an adventure they have all to themselves. When broken, however, this isolation can also be negative, at least for Madeleine. Ships and sea vessels, in this sense, relate to the theme of The Insulation of Wealth; much as a ship is surrounded by water, the wealthy are surrounded by the rest of society. When boundaries are breached, Madeleine faces a much harsher reality than her insulated norm. Indeed, the Titanic strikes Madeleine as a world frozen in time; it is initially a dreamscape to her, and she senses desperation lurking beneath the opulent appearance.
Madeleine is not always able to rise to the challenge of meeting the real world beyond her insulated one. When those aboard Noma rescue the passengers of an overturned boat, Madeleine makes a rare gesture of acknowledgement of the plight of others in offering to give them blankets and coffee. This moment marks the first time in the novel she demonstrates care for the plight of another who is outside her world. However, once rescued after the sinking of the Titanic, she retreats to the captain’s cabin, unable to cope with the reality of her situation. Madeleine’s reaction hints at later reflections that the sinking of Titanic, as well as the eruption of war in Europe a mere two years later, signals the end of an era.
Madeleine’s Jewels
In the novel, Madeleine’s jewels symbolize various things: Madeleine’s worth to Jack, his effort to make her acceptable in his world, and the great wealth that insulates her from the cares of the world. He gives her an enormous string of pearls for her debut that signals his intentions to woo her but also acts as protection in Madeleine’s, as she imagines herself wearing the string like a bandolier of bullets, shielding her from speculation that she won’t land a marriage proposal from Jack after all. Once they are married, Jack showers her with jewels until she has rings for every finger, showing that he values and wants to protect her. The rubies she wears on their arrival in Egypt are Madeleine’s one spot of color in the pallid feelings she is experiencing around her pregnancy. The carnelian he buys her in Egypt shows Jack’s desire to give Madeleine whatever she desires. Yet when she wears the jewels to please him, Madeleine understands they make her a commodity too, transforming her into “Mrs. Astor” instead of simply Madeleine. The jewels are also an attempt on Jack’s part to signal to his reluctant peers that Madeleine is worthy of regard, indeed valuable in her own right.
Aboard the Titanic, as Madeleine’s lady’s maid dresses her for dinner, Madeleine’s jewels build the public face she expects she must show to the world. The passage builds splendor upon splendor: Madeleine’s necklace is “a fitted collar of more diamonds, platinum filigree that reached from her jaw to the base of her throat” (211). She adds bangles, then rings, and “[w]hen she rose from her chair, she was fully Mrs. John Jacob Astor, ready to ignore all that displeased her. Ready, on her husband’s arm, to glimmer” (212). The jewels thus help Madeleine present the proper public face, acting also as her armor.
When they are departing their room at the captain’s order and Jack scoops Madeleine’s jewelry from her box—her first hint that the danger might be more real than he is letting on—the jewels are both armor and insurance. The furs that Jack has the valet fetch are practical, meant to keep her warm, but Madeleine’s jewels are among the few valuables she could take with her in the event they must abandon ship; they are their most portable possessions that can also act as means for her to barter for help and survival if her name is not insurance enough. Madeleine doesn’t think about the jewels around her neck or in her pockets as her lifeboat floats away, nor does she consider them while she is on the Carpathia. This lack of attention signals that her “armor” has failed, as she has realized that not even Jack’s great wealth could protect them from great loss.
At Jack’s funeral, Madeleine carries the carnelian beads he bought in Egypt, their fairy-tale escape together into a world of their own. After his death, the only jewelry she wears are her engagement ring and diamond clips at her ears. She is “all black and silver and sparks” (312), a sign of how diminished she feels by losing him.
Art and Music
Exemplifying the high class of Madeleine, the Astors, and their crowd, the art and music they enjoy serve as a motif in the novel to demonstrate the quality of culture that permeates their lives. Madeleine first meets Jack when she is performing in a play by Shakespeare, a mark of educated enjoyment. Madeleine and Jack first hold hands at a performance of the symphony. They bond over opera music that they both like, Tales from Hoffman. In her appreciation for art and music, Madeleine shows that she is Jack’s equal in taste, as she is his equal in passion.
Just as the interior design of the various Astor houses make them a work of art, the portraits of the various Astors that play a part in the story represent their larger-than-life influence. Lina, the Mrs. Astor, looms over the Fifth Avenue mansion to remind Madeleine that the chateau was once hers and Madeleine is not likely to replace her. The portrait of Ava, removed to Vincent’s bedroom, offers visible proof of Ava’s allure, power, and presence in Jack and Vincent’s life. After returning to the New York mansion, widowed and pregnant, Madeleine sits beneath Jack’s portrait in his study and weeps. All she has left of him are memories and these artifacts, which only amplify her grief for the actual man.
The hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” holds a more poignant meaning in the musical motif as it connects Madeleine to Jack through and beyond death. As the hymn she hears the musicians on the Titanic playing as the ship goes down, Madeleine chooses that song for Jack’s funeral as indicative of the last earthly thing they shared.
