The Other Boleyn Girl

“We men are not where we are today because of some sort of accident. We chose to get into the great places of power, despite the desires of women; and we chose to use those places to make laws which will hold us there forever.”

One of the novel’s primary concerns is women’s place in this culture. Here, Mary notices the restrictions put upon her. Uncle Howard’s declaration emphasizes that men have made a concerted effort to seize and hold public power rather than by “some sort of accident.” In doing so, they have intentionally shaped the world to their advantage and plotted to keep women and children subservient. The authority and tyranny of those in power are thematic concerns throughout the novel.

“Whatever does [love] mean? We write poems about it all day and sing songs about it all night but if there is such a thing in real life I’m damned if I know.”

George points out the paradox that courtly love is an artificial construct. While it is the topic of music and poetry, courtly love is the antithesis of real, passionate love. Love becomes a motivation for several characters in the novel, but, ironically, real love is only found outside of court, as Mary will discover.

“Oh, don’t think I am doing it for you. I am doing this for the advancement of the family. None of this is for you.”

The Price of Personal Ambition for the Boleyn family is a recurrent theme, and both Mary and Anne take direction on how to promote the interests of the family. Anne’s remark to Mary here foreshadows how Anne’s aim to take Mary’s place in the king’s affections will rule her personal ambition.

“It was me, with my lips slightly parted, slightly smiling, as if I was a woman to want such an adventure. As if I were not the cat’s-paw of the Howard family but a courageous lovely woman in my own right.”

Mary takes her place as the king’s mistress at her family’s direction. For a time, she enjoys the power of being a figure of fascination and desire. When she sees the image of herself as the figurehead, however, she has this moment of dissonance that foreshadows her later character arc, when she departs from her family’s ambitions and makes her future with William Stafford. Gregory employs the metaphor “cat’s-paw of the Howard family” to portray how Mary is a tool in her family’s broader ploy for power. The juxtaposition between this fact and a "courageous lovely woman in my own right" exposes the disparity between the role she is expected to play and her longing for autonomy. The repetition of "as if" further emphasizes her inner conflict due to her familial role.

“Surely to God you can all see that the one thing, the one thing is that I always, always, do as I am told. You made my marriage at the age of twelve, madam. You ended it just two years later when I was only fourteen. I was in the king’s bed before my fifteenth birthday. Surely you can see that I have always done as I have been told by this family?”

When Mary’s mother warns her not to interfere when Anne is sent away from court, Mary responds with this protest reminding her family that she has always been obedient to their will. The authority of others over women’s lives—particularly by their fathers, husbands, and the king—is a theme the novel explores. As foils, Mary and Anne demonstrate two different responses to the expectation of women’s obedience.

“It’s as if I suddenly know what the purpose of life is. It’s not to rise in the king’s favor nor to make one’s way at court. Nor even to raise one’s family a little higher. There are things that matter more.”

When Mary has her first child, her ambitions change. She continues to support her family’s goals, but they are no longer in line with her goals, which are to live on her land and raise a family. This creates narrative tension and conflict for Mary. Additionally, it creates irony as she utters these words to Anne, whose ambition centers on rising as high as she can at court.

“When I think that I have been abused by you and I am angry with you and this wolfpack of your family I suddenly see that we are all of us doing very well off you. All of us are thriving very handsomely and in the middle of it all, like a piece of soft manchet bread nibbled by ducks, is you, being eaten alive by every one of us.”

Mary’s first husband, William Carey, recognizes Mary’s feelings about her family using her as a tool to manipulate the king and advance their prospects. The metaphor "wolfpack" conveys the predatory nature of her family, who engages in a coordinated exploitation of her. Further, the simile "like a piece of soft manchet bread nibbled by ducks" underscores her vulnerability as something offered for easy consumption. Other than her children and a few gifts, Mary gains very little from being the king’s mistress. The metaphor of "being eaten alive" further illustrates how Mary’s family ambitions consume her at the expense of her well-being. Thus, William points to how Mary’s family regards her as a pawn and prey.

“You don’t marry a king for joy.”

Mary’s seclusion during her second pregnancy is when the Boleyns start pushing Anne forward in Mary’s place, and Anne latches onto this opportunity. When Mary warns her that Henry is not the type of man to bring a woman joy, Anne makes it clear that love is not part of her strategy. This further defines the difference in the sisters’ characters and motivations, making them foils and underlining support and rivalry among women.

“The lines between Anne and me were now clearly drawn. All our childhood it had been a question as to which of us was the best Boleyn girl, now our girlhood rivalry was to be played out on the greatest stage in the kingdom.”

Support and rivalry among women surface when the family begins pushing Anne to take Mary’s place; Mary doesn’t wish to supplant the queen, but Anne does. The phrase "the lines between Anne and me were now clearly drawn" uses metaphor to underscore the freshly defined boundaries between the sisters, specifically the sharpening of their rivalry. Their competition plays out like the public entertainments that the king enjoys, evident in its elevation to “the greatest stage in the kingdom.” This contrast between “girlhood rivalry” and public scrutiny underscores how the boundaries between public and private are very thin for royal families.

“I was free of the constant observation of the court, I was free of the constant struggle between the king and the queen. Best of all, I was free from my own constant jealous tally between Anne and myself.”

Hever provides an alternate world opposite to the court. It proves a refuge for Mary, offering natural beauty and soothing rhythms in opposition to the rivalries and calculations of gaining royal favor. Mary increasingly sees that she has no love for the competition or show of court. Instead, she prefers Hever’s natural setting and the countryside, which is governed by a different set of rules.

“If (God forbid) Anne does not have a son, then Henry could claim the throne of England, Mary. Your son is the son of a king, and he could be his heir.”

As much as women are their husbands’ pawns, the novel also demonstrates how the structures of authority make children the pawns of their parents, especially their fathers. The strategizing over Henry’s need to have a son creates conflict for Mary, showing the limitations of her power as a mother and woman in this world.

“Katherine of Aragon was speaking out for the women of the country, for the good wives who should not be put aside just because their husbands had taken a fancy to another, for the women who walked the hard road between kitchen, bedroom, church and childbirth. For the women who deserved more than their husband’s whim.”

Mary is no longer the favorite. Here, she feels a kinship with Katherine, her rival and foil. When the validity of her marriage is challenged, Katherine invokes a higher authority than that of the king. Mary feels her conviction is a rebellion against a man’s selfish whims. The underappreciated work of women’s sacrifices supports the theme of The Cost of Conflicting Loyalties.

“I felt as if this whole matter, which had started as a summer flirtation, had grown too dark and too great for me to want to know any secrets. Anne’s dark-tempered motto, ‘Thus it will be: grudge who grudge,’ seemed like a curse that Anne was laying on the Boleyns, on the Howards, and on the country itself.”

This passage captures the developing thread that Anne’s ambition is a sinister force that first poisons her, then spreads to poison those about her, and eventually becomes a curse on the whole country. Gregory’s suggestion that Anne’s fate is in part a punishment and consequence of her evil deeds adds a dramatic structure and narrative symmetry to the  novel’s historical events.

“I’ll not be safe until she is dead […] Just as she will not be safe until I am dead. It is not just a matter now of a man or a throne, it is as if I am her shadow and she is mine. We are locked together till death.”

Anne pictures herself not simply as a foil or antagonist to Katherine of Aragon but as a shadow self, locked together in life and death. This statement will prove prophetic as Anne rises and then falls as queen, and Katherine’s death takes place only a few months before Anne’s.

“You’ll be overlooked now for the rest of your life. […] you’ll never match her. She’s the only Boleyn anyone will ever know of or remember. You’ll be a nobody forever.”

George’s careless statement to Mary when Anne becomes elevated as Marquess of Pembroke comments on the historical record: Anne will be the famous, remembered Boleyn. This cements Mary’s place as the “other” Boleyn girl and resolves her conflict about trying to decide where she belongs.

“I have put my family first and it costs me a heartbeat, every day of my life. I do nothing which might cause Anne embarrassment. Love does not come into it for us Howards. We are courtiers first and foremost. Our life is at court. And true love has no place at court.”

George’s statement shows how he and Mary diverge on the choice between loyalty to family and being with the person they love. As illustrated by the alternate world of Hever, where love can flourish, the court is a barren place where love is false, and sacrifices are costly. George’s statement that he has given his lifeblood to his family serves as foreshadowing of his death at the end, the cost of his loyalty to Anne.

“I thought of her, separated from her daughter as I was parted from my son and by the ambition of the same woman. […] I missed her. She had been like a mother to me when I had first come to court and I had betrayed her as a daughter will betray her mother, and yet never stop loving her.”

Previously Mary saw herself as a rival to Queen Katherine and felt guilty because of it. Now, as lady-in-waiting to the new queen, Anne, Mary thinks of Katherine as more like a maternal figure. This imagery further shows that Mary values love and affection over power and ambition. The nurturing imagery of mother and daughter reframes the way they were foils and rivals without losing that bond.

“I could have said that she kept my son because she could have none of her own. That she had taken from me everything that she could ever take, she would always take everything from me. That she and I were sisters and deadly rivals and nothing would stop us from endlessly eyeing the other’s plate and fearing that the other had the biggest portion. Anne wanted to punish me for refusing to dance in her shadow.”

When Anne banishes Mary from court for becoming pregnant, Mary sees this as another iteration of their sisterly rivalry. Gregory uses the metaphor of "endlessly eyeing the other’s plate" to convey the ongoing jealousy between the sisters, with the "biggest portion" symbolizing the desire for power. Where Anne has come to represent greed, vanity, corruption, and barrenness, Mary stands for love, nurturing, and fertility. The imagery of "refusing to dance" in Anne's shadow emphasizes Mary’s refusal to be subjugated, which fuels Anne’s desire for revenge. Mary knows Anne’s jealousy is the reason she is banished, further emphasizing Support and Rivalry Among Women.

“She never thought when she overthrew a queen that thereafter all queens would be unsteady.”

Part of what adds narrative symmetry and tragic logic to the story is the sense that Anne has orchestrated her eventual downfall through the steps she took to make herself queen. In classical tragedy, the hero is brought down through some tragic flaw of his own, and Anne’s flaw is personal ambition, as she sacrifices everything for her ambition. George reflects on this to Mary in his letter here.

“I remembered riding in the barge with Queen Katherine and how everyone had pulled off their hats as we went by and the women curtsied, and the children kissed their hands and waved. There had been a trust that the king was wise and strong and that the queen was beautiful and good and that nothing could go wrong. But Anne and the Boleyn ambition had opened a great crack in that unity and now everyone could see into the void.”

While Anne strives to take the place of the queen, she never achieves the public acceptance and admiration that Katherine gained. This further casts Anne as a dark shadow of Katherine. The new world order Anne bragged of creating is not an improvement but rather, as the imagery of the crack and the dark void shows, resting on a weakened and dangerous foundation.

“Henry, who had been the golden Prince of England, acknowledged as the most handsome man in Europe, could see old age coming toward him when he would be lame and in constant pain and stinking like a dirty monk.”

Another of the tragic character arcs in the novel, mirroring that of George and Anne, is King Henry’s. He begins the novel as a handsome, riveting man and devolves into a petty, repellent tyrant by the end. Gregory juxtaposes this arc by highlighting his descent from “the golden Prince of England” and “most handsome man in Europe” to a man approaching old age, where he will be “lame,” “stinking” and “in constant pain.”

“I am not some ignorant peasant crying over a relic which is chipwood and pig’s blood. I will not be turned from my way by silly fears. I will think and I will do, and I will make the world to my own desire.”

This passage suggests that Anne has used means that would be considered unholy by the church to become pregnant with a son. Her single-minded focus on her ambition mirrors Henry’s ruthlessness. However, Anne’s drive and her irreverence for the church and state authorities are the flaws that lead to her downfall.

“The look he turned on Anne […] was that of a man who has used a cup and is going to break it. A man who is weary of a dog and is going to drown it. He had finished with my sister. I saw it in that look.”

Another piece of narrative logic that Gregory weaves into her version of events is that Anne taught Henry to heed his wishes above all else. In doing so, she made Henry into a tyrant. It is a dramatic irony that she suffers from the will she encouraged him to indulge. Mary, as the observer and narrator of these historical events, sees Anne’s fall coming.