The Other Boleyn Girl
55 pages • 1-hour read
Philippa GregoryThe Other Boleyn Girl
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Symbols & Motifs
Anne’s Necklace
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination and death.
According to All the Queen’s Jewels 1445-1548 by historian Nicola Tallis, necklaces with a pendant in the shape of an initial were popular in early modern Europe, particularly in the 1520s. The surviving portrait of Anne Boleyn held in the National Portrait Gallery of England shows her wearing a pearl necklace with a pendant initial B and three pearls attached. The portrait is thought to be a copy of a royal portrait of Anne Hans Holbein made in her lifetime. It has long been assumed that the B stands for Boleyn, Anne’s family name.
Gregory works this necklace into The Other Boleyn Girl. She shows Anne wearing it when she begins to catch the king’s eye after Mary’s second pregnancy. The necklace is not just a sign of wealth. It also hints at Anne’s status as a Boleyn girl and the fact that Anne shares in the Boleyn’s ambition. Over time, the necklace becomes a symbol of The Price of Personal Ambition for Anne and evidence of her independence and focus on her advancement. Anne’s flaunting of the necklace indicates that she prioritizes her interests and concerns. She delights in becoming the most powerful Boleyn and even designs to take Uncle Howard’s chair at the family counsels. This shows how she considers herself both the pinnacle of the family’s achievement and the new authority.
Her uncle warns her that Anne’s ambition is too self-serving, and he punishes her by allowing her trial and execution to go forward when Henry turns on her. When her family steps away from her during her trial, leaving Anne and George to face the king’s wrath alone, the power Anne flaunted by that singular B initial becomes a sign of her isolation and lack of protection. Historically, Anne’s jewels and her other possessions would have been forfeited to Henry upon her death as a traitor. It isn’t known what happened to Anne’s necklace. Gregory, following the historical record, lets it disappear from the narrative just as Anne does.
Hever
Hever Castle is, both historically and in the novel, the Boleyn family estate in Kent. The property passed to the Boleyn family in 1462. It was briefly in the possession of Henry’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and thereafter passed to other prominent British families. For Mary, Hever represents her origins, as she lived there as a child. As a family seat, it is used as a refuge when Mary and then Anne are sent away from court. When Mary is first sent to Hever for displeasing the king, she uses her banishment to gain a new perspective on her position as the daughter of an aristocratic family. While she enjoys the luxury of her surroundings, she realizes none of this legally belongs to her; she is, in a sense, as poor as a peasant.
As a country estate, Hever represents to Mary an alternate world to king and court, a natural world ruled by seasons and agriculture. Hever is often described with pleasant natural imagery and bright, sunny associations as Mary spends summers there with her children as often as she can. Their outdoor play hints at the freedom that allowed them to be away from court and its demands of decorum. Love and affection at Hever are natural and heartfelt, as opposed to the staged courtly love that dominates discourse in royal circles. Hever offers the kind of simple, natural, and genuine life that Mary longs for and finally achieves in her marriage to William Stafford. The depictions of Hever as wholesome, fertile, and lovely provide a parallel to the dark, barren, corrupt atmosphere that descends upon Henry’s court.
The Altar Cloth
The altar cloth that Queen Katherine begins sewing in the novel is initially a symbol of her piety and a sign of her conformity to womanly pursuits. Embroidery was an occupation suitable for genteel women, and Katherine’s industry in making a decoration for a church or chapel is a sign of her religious devotion and character. Rather than spend her time idly or in artistic pursuits of poetry and music, she decides to craft something serviceable. Mary also notes that the size of the altar cloth is a silent declaration that Katherine does not intend to be removed or replaced as queen, since the project will take years to finish. The blue sky upon which the women begin offers an image of spaciousness, peacefulness, and optimism that Mary sees as a contrast to the threats and shadows beginning to enclose Katherine. In time, Mary works on this altar cloth with the queen. This shows her alliance with the woman who has been a mentor and even a maternal figure, but whom she has betrayed several times over.
When she is crowned queen, Anne takes up work on the altar cloth to indicate that she has fully superseded Katherine in all things; even Katherine’s personal projects are now Anne’s, including the way she wants Princess Mary’s christening gown and Katherine’s jewels. The altar cloth is a confirmation of her status and a declaration of Anne’s fitness to be Queen of England and take Katherine’s place, despite the common people’s resentment. Just as the cloth became a useless hope for Katherine, however, it holds the same function for Anne as she sees another, alternate court spring up around Jane Seymour the way the queen’s ladies once flocked to Anne. The cloth therefore represents unrealized hope and unrequited labor, emblematic of how Anne’s ambitions to become queen cannot keep her position any more than Katherine could keep hers.
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