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The Nightingale
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Chapters 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
When the government flees Paris, it is clear the city will fall. Julien arranges for Isabelle to leave with another family, instructing her to go to Carriveau while he stays behind. She begs to be allowed to remain as a nurse or ambulance driver; in addition to believing that it is cowardly to leave, Isabelle is reluctant to see Vianne, whom she resents for sending her away after the miscarriage. Julien is adamant, however, and Isabelle soon finds herself in a car struggling to navigate through the crowds of refugees.
The car eventually runs out of gas, and the family must attempt to make it to Étampes (a Parisian suburb) on foot. In the chaos, Isabelle is separated from the others and decides that going to Étampes is pointless: “There would be nowhere to stay in Étampes and nothing to eat. The refugees who had arrived before her would have moved through the town like locusts, buying every foodstuff on the shelves” (48). Instead, she heads towards Tours, taking a trail through a forest where she stumbles across a young man with “longish, stringy black hair” and “tattered and patched” (49) clothes sitting by a campfire.
The man, who introduces himself as Gaëtan Dubois, invites Isabelle to join him by noting that he could have already killed her if he wanted to. Isabelle warily accepts, asking why he is not in Paris fighting. In response, Gaëtan tells her he was in prison until the government opened the jail. Now, he intends to make sure his family is safe before “[finding] a regiment to join” and “[killing] as many of those bastards as [he] can” (51). When Isabelle remarks that Gaëtan is “lucky” (51) to be able to fight, he invites her to come with him. Isabelle accepts his offer on the condition that they first check in on her sister, moved by the way Gaëtan looks at her: “He saw her beauty, even in the half-light, she could tell, but he looked past it. Either that, or he was smart enough to see that she wanted to offer more to the world than a pretty face” (52).
Chapter 6 Summary
The next morning, Isabelle catches Gaëtan ogling her legs and decides to “get a few things straight” (54) with him. When she asks why he was in prison, he tells her that he is a communist who “took things that didn’t belong to [him]”; she retorts that, under the circumstances, it “isn’t exactly comforting” (54) that he was caught. Nevertheless, she decides to continue traveling with him.
After encountering crowds of refugees all day, Isabelle and Gaëtan come across a regiment of soldiers in the afternoon. They confront the troops angrily, demanding to know who is defending France. A “bleary-eyed soldier” simply answers, “No one” (56), and Isabelle drags Gaëtan away before he can attack the man, reassuring Gaëtan that they will continue the fight themselves.
By the third day of walking, Isabelle is too tired, weak, and confused to recognize the sound of German airplanes overhead, so Gaëtan pushes her down and shields her with his own body while bombs fall on the crowd. Afterwards, in a daze, Isabelle tries to crawl over to an injured old man and an orphaned toddler, but Gaëtan pulls her away, telling her she will only get herself killed trying to help the injured. The two shelter in a nearby church as the bombing starts up again:
Aeroplanes roared overhead, accompanied by the stuttering shriek of machine guns. The stained-glass window shattered; bits of colored glass clattered to the floor, slicing through skin on the way down […] Gaëtan said something to her, and she answered, or she thought she did, but she wasn’t sure, and before she could figure it out, another bomb whistled, fell, and the roof over her head exploded (59).
Chapter 7 Summary
Back in Carriveau, Vianne tries to push aside her fears for Antoine and Isabelle to reassure her anxious students:
‘[W]e have a part to play, too; those of us left behind. We have to be brave and strong, too, and not believe the worst. We have to keep on with our lives so our fathers and brothers and…husbands have lives to come home to’ (62).
That evening, Vianne is gardening when she hears refugees approaching. She fetches food and water for the first few women who arrive, but soon realizes she cannot help everyone. Frightened, she and Sophie lock themselves inside as a crowd of people scavenge for food and pound on the doors.
Unbeknownst to Vianne, Isabelle and Gaëtan are amongst the group trying to get in; they eventually give up and lie down to sleep beneath the house’s arbor. Gaëtan reminds Isabelle she could remain in relative safety in Carriveau, but Isabelle insists she wants to come with him. Gaëtan says their deal should be sealed with a kiss, after which Isabelle blurts out that she loves Gaëtan. He gives her a “tight and false” (73) smile before kissing her again.
The next morning, Vianne finds Isabelle asleep outside with a piece of paper pinned to her dress. Isabelle begins crying when she realizes that Gaëtan has left her, but she allows Vianne to bring her inside. After resting, she learns that their father is safe, but Paris is under German occupation. Vianne also gives her the note from Gaëtan, which reads, “You are not ready” (79).
Though devastated, Isabelle tells Vianne she plans to leave for the war front as soon as she physically recovers. Vianne scoffs, and the sisters argue about everything from the best response to the German invasion to Vianne’s treatment of Isabelle in the wake of their mother’s death. They are interrupted by a radio broadcast from Philippe Pétain—the temporary head of the government—announcing France’s surrender. Vianne says the decision must be for the best, but Isabelle is fuming. When Sophie enters the room, Isabelle relaxes enough to tease her niece a little: “I have sneaked onto trains and climbed out of windows and run away from convent dungeons. All of this because I can disappear” (82).
Chapters 5-7 Analysis
As the seriousness of the situation in France becomes clear, Hannah begins developing one of the novel’s central themes: the choices people make in war reveal fundamental truths about themselves.
From the start, Isabelle is determined to resist the German occupation in any way she can, often citing Edith Cavell as an inspiration. As a nurse who “saved the lives of hundreds of Allied airmen in the Great War” (72) before being captured and executed, Cavell’s story in fact heavily foreshadows Isabelle’s own. To some extent, Isabelle’s eagerness to join the fight against the Nazis reflects both her naiveté and her general frustration with her life; when Gaëtan invites her to join him, she thinks it “sound[s] like such an adventure, no different from running off to join the circus” (52). Nevertheless, Isabelle’s determination to fight does not waver, even after the stakes of doing so become clearer, and is therefore an indication of her bravery and resolve. If anything, the bombing Isabelle survives only strengthens her determination to resist, as she tells her sister: “Let me tell you what I saw out there. French troops running from the enemy. Nazis murdering innocents. Maybe you can ignore that, but I won’t” (79).
As the same passage implies, Vianne’s initial response to the invasion is quite different. When she talks to her students about the importance of maintaining a home for those away at war, she is echoing longstanding ideas about how women could best demonstrate patriotism. In keeping with her generally cautious and obedient personality, Vianne trusts that Pétain’s decision to surrender is the correct one. However, given that Vianne eventually proves capable of defying Nazi rule in her own way, it’s important to note that her attitude in these early chapters stems less from fears for her own safety than from deep loyalty to her family. Ultimately, it’s this very sense of protectiveness that leads Vianne to save the lives of 19 Jewish children.
In the meantime, the introduction of Gaëtan, and his interactions with Isabelle, underscore the important role that love plays in The Nightingale. Although Isabelle has flirted and fooled around with boys in the past, Gaëtan is the first she feels anything for: “At his kiss, something opened up inside the scraped, empty interior of her heart, unfurled. For the first time, her romantic novels made sense” (73). Of course, her abrupt declaration of love for a man she just met is arguably a sign of immaturity, and it is perhaps for this reason (as well as a desire to protect her) that Gaëtan changes his mind about bringing her with him to the front. That said, given how little affection she knew growing up, it is understandable why Isabelle latches on to Gaëtan’s apparent feelings for her so quickly. Moreover, her feelings for him ultimately prove durable and, in fact, are one of the most meaningful aspects of her life.
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By Kristin Hannah
