The Thing in the Forest

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2003

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Character Analysis

Penny

Penny is one of two girls who befriend each other while evacuating the blitzkrieg of England during World War II. One of the two protagonists, Penny is a girl of slim, even “gaunt,” build with pale skin and dark hair. She is taller and (it is implied) older than her friend Primrose. Like the other children, she is afraid but finds some solace in her new companion. Together they explore a forest by their temporary housing and find a creature they later learn is called The Loathly Worm. Neither girl has been in a forest, but it is Penny’s idea to capitalize on seeing this part of the countryside. Although both girls are traumatized, Penny is most deeply affected. A student who thrives academically, Penny pursues a university education, choosing the field of developmental psychology. She later becomes a child psychologist and never marries. She chooses to work with similarly traumatized and “troubled” children—the “abused, the displaced, the disturbed” (10)—and specializes in treating children who have severe autism or are otherwise nonverbal. Her experience glimpsing the “other world'' makes her equipped to empathize and connect with these children; she describes them as the “hopeless” and feels she can identify as one who is similarly without hope (19).

Grief looms large in her life, not only because of her father—an older man who worked in the Auxiliary Fire Service and died in a fire—but because of her mother’s all-consuming sorrow. When her mother throws herself entirely into her grief and becomes a shut-in, Penny loses her mother along with her father. Her experiences with her mother shape her personality. Byatt uses Penny’s clothing to reflect this personality; for example, when she returns to the mansion, she wears “a charcoal trouser suit and a black velvet hat” that indicate she is a somber and almost dour person (6)—similar to her mother.

Penny experiences the hallmarks of trauma: nightmares, distorted memories, and an inability to focus on the present. To confront her traumatic past and find a way of coping and living with it, Penny returns to the forest. She does not see the worm on her first trip and returns for a second out of a compulsion to see the creature. The story ends as the worm approaches Penny, but in that moment she experiences a rare calm and stillness. It is an open ending that leads readers to assume the worm destroys her, implying that just as her mother was consumed by grief, so too is Penny by her trauma.

Primrose

Primrose is the other protagonist of the story and one of the two girls who become friends while fleeing the German bombing of England during World War II. While her friend Penny is slender and dark-haired, Primrose is chubby with blonde curls. When they first meet at the station, Primrose's nails have been chewed away by anxious biting. On the train ride, there are early signs of the creative imagination that will blossom into a career as a storyteller: While Penny recalls characters from novels, Primrose conjures scenarios of her own making.

Despite some hesitance on Primrose’s part, she and Penny investigate the forest by the mansion they stay at on their way to more permanent housing. Like Penny, she has never seen a forest, and her curiosity lures her in. Together, they find a disturbing creature that they later discover is a thing of legend called the Loathly Worm. This is an extremely traumatizing experience, but it seems to be less disruptive for Primrose’s life than Penny’s. Primrose experiences greater disruption after losing her father. He drowns when a crew carrier sinks as the war is nearing its conclusion. Afterwards, Primrose's mother, who seems to have been an attractive woman with numerous suitors, remarries. She subsequently has another five children—who, unlike Primrose, presumably grow up without the experience of wartime life. The responsibility of caring for these children severely restricts Primrose’s access to an education and deprives her of the freedom of youth.

In adulthood, Primrose flits from job to job, working as a barmaid and in a shop, doing odds and ends to get by. She responds to the war’s harsh rationing by overindulging in this time of relative plenty. This gives her an even plumper figure, which creates another point of contrast with the gaunt Penny. Despite her limited access to schooling, Primrose’s gift for storytelling flourishes, and she eventually survives on the mediocre earnings she makes from her career telling stories to children. Underneath this, the memories of the worm in the forest remain an unforgettable reminder of her childhood trauma. On her return to the forest, she is less concerned with literally facing the worm than with creating a different story for herself about the experience. She realizes that the same mind that regurgitates painful memories also creates the glamorous stories she tells children. Using her imagination, Primrose retells the story of the worm, transforming that which was once terrifying into something safe.