Line #111 Literature/TheNightingaleKristinHannah


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/21853621_6.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Some stories don’t have happy endings. Even love stories. [[TemptingFate Maybe especially love stories]].]]
3	->''"I know now what matters, and it is not what I lost. It is my memories. Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain."''
4
5	A historical fiction by Kristin Hannah set in pre-war and occupied France during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It follows the struggles of two French sisters—[[RedOniBlueOni the quiet, cautious Vianne and bold, impetuous Isabelle]]—and their loved ones during the Nazi occupation. Their stories are told [[FramingDevice in retrospect]] while we follow an elderly French immigrant in 1995, who is living out her last days in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
6
7	A woman with a terminal illness is being moved to a nursing home by her son, and finds an old trunk in the attic of her home, filled with memories of a past life. Over the course of her journey to the home and interacting with her son, she recalls the story of love and survival that was her experience during the war.
8
9	It is 1939. [[TeamMom Vianne Mauriac]] lives in the French countryside with her [[TallDarkAndHandsome husband, Antoine]] and [[CheerfulChild their daughter, Sophie.]] Her existence is seemingly idyllic, filled with picnics, gardening, and plenty of time to spend with her loving family. War looms, however, and Antoine is called to the front in an anticipated defense against German aggression.
10
11	Meanwhile, [[ActionGirl Isabelle Rossignol]], Vianne's little sister, is expelled from another boarding school due to behavior issues, and goes to live with her father, [[AlcoholicParent Julien]], in Paris. They tolerate each other's existence until Germany finally invades. Julian forces Isabelle to evacuate Paris and go to her sister in the country right before Paris is sacked by German forces, hoping that at least they will be able to take care of each other until the war is over. Along the way, Isabelle loathes the idea of waiting out the war on the sidelines, and tries to find a way to help resist the invading Nazis...
12
13	''The Nightingale'' was published in February 2015. [[SimilarlyNamedWorks It should not be confused with]] [[Literature/TheNightingale the fairy tale set in China]] written by Creator/HansChristianAndersen.
14
15	----
16	!!In love, we find out who we want to be. In tropes, we find out who we are:
17	* ActionGirl:
18	** One of Isabelle’s central characteristics. Her family members recall with varying degrees of astonishment and horror the time she ran away from a boarding school, embarking on a multiple-day journey across the French countryside to return home. [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior She was 11]].
19	** By the end of the book, she has [[spoiler:evaded the Nazis while distributing "terrorist" literature in Carriveau, stolen a Nazi police officer's bike, escaped across numerous checkpoints while delivering messages for the Resistance, smuggled dozens of Allied pilots across the country and through the Pyrenees to safety, survived multiple days of Gestapo torture, survived the ensuing months in a prison camp and a brutal forced march... only to be finished off by a nasty fever.]]
20	--> '''Sophie:''' [[GratuitousFrench Tante]] Isabelle says it’s better to be bold than meek. She says if you jump off a cliff at least you’ll fly before you fall.
21
22	* AlcoholicParent: Julien started in on the brandy when he returned home from war... and never stopped.
23	* TheAtoner:
24	** Julien wants to make up for being a crappy dad. He just can't sort it out. [[spoiler:Until the end, and even then, it only prolongs the end for Isabelle.]]
25	** Vianne realizes she cannot stay on the sidelines when Jewish children are being rounded up and deported-- and feels all the worse for [[spoiler:providing the list of names to Captain Beck]]. She chooses to [[spoiler:provide secret identities to Jewish children and hide them away at the local abbey. She uses a covert system of keeping track of their real names, so they can be recovered by the loved ones after the war. She manages to save 17 children this way.]]
26	* BilingualBonus: In French, ''nightingale'' translates to [[spoiler: ''rossignol''.]] Of course, [[AllThereInTheManual it says as much in the text]].
27	* BodybagTrick: Isabelle makes use of this, much to Vianne's [[{{Squick}} dismay]]. [[spoiler:She's unconscious, so it's not her decision. After Beck shoots her, she is stuffed into a pine casket and carted across the Carriveau checkpoint by Gaëton and Didier to a safe house.]]
28	* BritishStuffiness: The Nightingale comments on the casual reserve and stoicism of the British pilots, which would ordinarily pass for their having a StiffUpperLip... but the immediate comparison to the [[MinnesotaNice amiable, expressive]] Americans and Canadians drops this in the category of negative portrayal.
29	* ChekhovsSkill: All those boarding schools Isabelle ran away from before the war? She managed to spend enough time at a Swiss finishing school to learn English. [[spoiler:Guess what makes her the best candidate to lead a bunch of English-speaking pilots out of France?]]
30	* ChildByRape: [[spoiler: Vianne becomes pregnant with the child of Von Richter, the Nazi officer who rapes her. It's the one secret she never tells anyone, not even the son that results. Isabelle is the only one to figure it out.]]
31	* ChildhoodFriends: Vianne and Rachel. Both were awkward, aloof teenagers-- now they're inseparable. They both graduated teaching school together and teach at the same school in their hometown.
32	* LesCollaborateurs: Can be just as dangerous as the Nazis themselves, and they don’t wear uniforms. The French police are particularly unscrupulous.
33	** VillainousGlutton: The chief of police in Carriveau actually ''gains'' weight as the story goes on (while the rest of the townspeople starve), which emphasizes how much he benefits from playing for the German side.
34	* ColdBloodedTorture:
35	** Commonly described as a favorite Gestapo interrogation technique.
36	** Almost becomes a pun when [[spoiler:Isabelle is stripped naked and locked in a refrigerator as part of her interrogation.]]
37	* CoolOldLady: Madame Babineau wears men’s clothes and trades goats for awesome cigarettes. She also [[spoiler:operates the final safe house in the route out of France for downed Allied pilots]] and in the end [[spoiler:helps Isabelle muster enough moral strength to survive the Nazi prison camp.]]
38	* DeadGuyJunior: [[spoiler:Julien. Somewhat of a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], since the child was the result of Von Richter’s repeated rape of Vianne.]]
39	-->'''[[spoiler:Vianne]]:''' [[spoiler:Antoine was Julien’s father in every way that mattered. It is not biology that determines fatherhood. It is love.]]
40	* DeathOfAChild: Children are almost routinely abandoned, starved, threatened, harmed, and killed. Isabelle describes a ''two-year-old'' wandering around crying after [[spoiler: his or her parents are bombed and strafed to bits by German Stukas.]] WarIsHell, indeed.
41	* TheDeterminator: It must be in the genes. Vianne and Isabelle endure seemingly superhuman amounts of pain, shame, and violence, and somehow continue to keep it together for the people they care about.
42	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler: Isabelle dies just after she has been reunited with Gaëton while he holds her.]]
43	* DisappearedDad:
44	** Julien, Vianne and Isabelle’s father, abandons them to a live-in nanny after their mother dies. Vianne gets knocked up by Antoine and is roughly given away in marriage, while Isabelle makes multiple attempts to reconnect with her father.
45	** [[spoiler:Also Antoine and Marc, after they are captured in battle.]]
46	** Captain Beck misses his family a lot, including a newborn son, and it's hard not to imagine that they miss him, too. [[spoiler:He never gets to see his son.]] God, WarIsHell.
47	* DistantFinale: The ending takes place in 1995, fifty years after the war has ended.
48	* DistractedByTheSexy: Resistance leaders bank on Nazi soldiers not being overly analytical of cute, young, blonde [[spoiler:Isabelle]] while she's smuggling contraband and passing messages. It works.
49	* EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: Vianne is constantly surprised at her sympathy for Captain Beck. However, it makes perfect sense for the TeamMom to get all empathetic when the German captain frequently comments on how much he misses his family-- and how much he wants the war to end, just so he can go home.
50	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Both Vianne and Isabelle are pretty blondes-- which both [[DistractedByTheSexy helps]] and [[AbhorrentAdmirer hurts]].
51	* EvilWearsBlack: SS and Gestapo soldiers wear black uniforms. The effect is not lost when [[spoiler:von Richter moves in with Vianne.]]
52	* FisherKingdom: As the war drags on, the residents of occupied France become more desperate and brutal, on all sides.
53	* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: [[GenderFlip Gender-flipped.]] [[spoiler:Gaëton and Isabelle]] get it on after the former patches up the latter after being shot by [[spoiler:Captain Beck.]] [[{{UST}} It's about damn time.]]
54	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with Vianne and Isabelle. It's obvious that Vianne sees it this way, and early on in the narrative, Isabelle is painted in an extremely impulsive and unsympathetic light. It comes to a boiling point when [[spoiler:Isabelle hides an ''actively hunted Allied airman'' in a cellar under Vianne's barn. Vianne is [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech spitting nails]] as she leaves Isabelle down there, threatening to report her to the Nazis herself if Isabelle ever comes near the house again.]] By the end of the book, [[spoiler:Vianne is in awe of Isabelle's courage and strength as The Nightingale, and deeply ashamed of her earlier threats to her own sister.]]
55	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The old woman refers to “the man I killed, and the man I should have killed.” It’s left to the reader to find out who they are.
56	** The first man was [[spoiler:Captain Beck, who ended up finding Isabelle in the barn with a downed American pilot. Vianne hit him with a shovel and Isabelle shot him, so both women claim to have killed him.]]
57	** The second man was [[spoiler: the Gestapo officer who claimed Beck’s billet, von Richter. He repeatedly rapes Vianne in exchange for not harming her children, and escapes with the rest of the Nazis during France’s liberation.]]
58	* FramingDevice: The stories from the sisters in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII are told by an old woman in 1995. It is left intentionally unclear who the narrator is, until the end.
59	* GayParee: The City of Lights [[SarcasmMode looks fantastic]] with all the Nazi soldiers guarding checkpoints and swastika flags hanging from the monuments.
60	* GratuitousFrench: Police are commonly called ''gendarmes.'' Isabelle is quite fond of ''zut!'' and ''merde!''
61	* GreatEscape: The Resistance’s plan to smuggle Allied pilots out of France into Spain.
62	* HarmfulToMinors: Vianne laments that the war has practically robbed Sophie of the last bits of her childhood. Being constantly under mortal threat has permanently changed her personality from cheerful to cautious.
63	* [[spoiler: TheHeroDies: Isabelle makes it through countless dangers and even the prison camp, but she's too malnourished to fight off the double whammy of tuberculosis and pneumonia. She dies in Gaëton's arms two weeks after returning to Vianne.]]
64	* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:When Isabelle returns home from the prison camp. Her fever renders her bedridden, but she is with family and Gaëton and very happy-- implying she might recover. However, we don't find out until Vianne's speech to the convention that she died.]]
65	* TheInformant: [[spoiler:Vianne]] gives Beck a list of names, which counts a number of Carriveau’s citizens as members of [[{{Understatement}} certain unappreciated groups]] under Nazi occupation. This includes giving up [[spoiler:Rachel]] as a Jew.
66	* InformedAttribute: Captain Beck is repeatedly said to speak French poorly, even though he seems to be perfectly understood. The only hint of this in the dialogue is his use of “[[VerbalTic my pardons.]]”
67	* JerkAss: Sturmbannfuhrer von Richter. So much. It is difficult to find absolutely anything redeeming or likeable about him.
68	* JustFollowingOrders: When Vianne asks Beck about his role in rounding up Jews for deportation, he trots out the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything classic Nuremberg defense]].
69	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Sturmbannfuhrer von Richter flees Carriveau with the retreating Nazis before anyone makes him pay for what he did to Vianne.]]
70	* KickTheDog: Well, it ''is'' set during World War II.
71	** Von Richter goes out of his way to twist the knife. He casually hurls racial insults about Jews having diseases, [[spoiler:extorts Vianne for the purpose of sexual violence]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking pours]] ''[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking real coffee]]'' [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking down the sink]] in front of Vianne (ItMakesSenseInContext, most French non-collaborators hadn't had real coffee in years at that point).
72	** Vianne tries to make the family's money last as well as she can, and they eat reasonably well... until she makes the mistake of asking why a [[DirtyCommunists certain teacher]] was being fired. [[spoiler:The present Gestapo officer fires her just for asking. Good luck making those ends meet.]]
73	* LastNameBasis: Vianne and Captain Beck. The only time she uses his [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness first name Wolfgang]] is when she's trying keep him from [[spoiler: finding Isabelle hiding with the wounded pilot in her barn.]]
74	* LovableRogue: Gaëton plays this fairly straight. He's introduced to Isabelle as she's starving and vulnerable, and he helps her out. Then she finds out that he's there because French authorities ''opened the prisons'', and he's some kind of criminal-- he lets on that he "took something that did not belong to [him]", but he never elaborates.
75	** Needless to say, Isabelle falls in love with him immediately.
76	** He tries multiple times to dissuade Isabelle from joining any kind of war effort. She finally makes him promise to take her to the front to resist the Germans, and he claims that such promises (in true LovableRogue fashion) are SealedWithAKiss. [[spoiler:He waits until she falls asleep in her sister's garden to leave, pinning a note to her that reads, word for word, "YouAreNotReady."]]
77	* LoveAcrossBattlelines: PlayedForDrama between [[spoiler:Vianne and Captain Beck]]. With the seemingly miniscule chance of [[spoiler:Antoine ever returning home]] and the war ever ending anytime soon (which would allow [[spoiler:Captain Beck]] to return to his family), the two are really just missing intimacy. There are some [[HeldGaze held gazes]] and even an AlmostKiss, but it’s probably a bit strong to call it “love” in any case.
78	** [[WillTheyOrWontThey Whether or not it's actually happening]] is a hot source of gossip in town.
79	** [[spoiler:Ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when Vianne caves in his head with a shovel.]]
80	* MandatoryMotherhood: Early in the married life between Vianne and Antoine, her string of miscarriages caused her to drink deep from the well of depression. She went down so far that she forced Isabelle to leave their home, which Isabelle resented well into adulthood. When Sophie finally came, she mostly snapped out of it.
81	* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:Rachel, Sarah, and Ari are distinctively Jewish names.]] These three are go on to have some... [[{{Understatement}} difficulties]] with Nazis.
82	* MissingMom: The number of children abandoned by mothers who are shipped off to prison camps is positively heart-wrenching. It includes [[spoiler: Rachel.]]
83	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Vianne's reaction when she finds out [[spoiler:what use will be made of the list of names she provided Beck. Upon confessing this to Rachel and the abbess, they both confidently assert that she had [[TrappedInVillainy very little choice]] and that the [[MortonsFork names would have been uncovered eventually]]. Still, Vianne feels [[ItsAllMyFault a terrible amount of shame]].]]
84	* PetTheDog:
85	** Captain Beck is this trope in spades. He really tries to lessen the burden of occupation on the family he's staying with, to the point where townspeople gossip about his relationship with [[spoiler:Vianne]]. He brings them wine, food, and chocolate from time to time, even information about [[spoiler:Antoine, including his postal information and a guarantee for delivering care packages]]; he provides these favors generally without conditions. [[TheInformant Until he needs a list of all the people in the village that the Nazis might not appreciate]] or drives said townspeople into train cars with a whip. Even afterwards, he's exceedingly kind to his "host family," and takes great care to avoid being a burden to them.
86	** Julien allows [[spoiler:Isabelle to re-open the bookshop]], even when he knows what it will be used for, and the hazards it will introduce for him. He knows it will make her happy and give her a way to contribute, which is really all she wants.
87	* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Isabelle]] [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this when a Canadian pilot collapses during the hike through the Pyrenees and cannot find the strength to get back up-- she asks if he's got a girl at home, and tells him to get up for her. [[HeroicSecondWind He obliges.]]
88	-->'''Pilot:''' You're not playing fair, baby doll.
89	* PrecisionFStrike: Didier's reaction to finding [[spoiler:a dead German officer with his blood all over Vianne's barn]] summarizes just how the situation is the worst case scenario.
90	-->'''Didier:''' What in the ''fuck'' happened here?
91	* PromotionToParent: Sophie. She practically does all the taking care of [[spoiler:[=Daniel/Ari=], since Vianne can’t bring him into town out of fear that he will be recognized and [[WouldHurtAChild deported to a concentration camp]], but she still has to go out for rations.]]
92	* QuitYourWhining: For being ferried along through the French countryside and the Pyrenees at extremely great risk by compassionate French resistors, the Allied pilots do their share of griping about the hike. Eduardo, [[TheStoic naturally]], has NoSympathy. To be fair, all the pilots eventually express how grateful they are for the assistance.
93	* RapeAsDrama:
94	** Implied to likely be the fate of women who are taken prisoner by the Nazis for subversive crimes.
95	** [[spoiler: Poor Vianne. Von Richter threatens to harm her children if she doesn’t submit to his sadistic, repeated rape.]]
96	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Julien does his best to make up for being a terrible father by taking the fall for Isabelle as The Nightingale.]]
97	* RedOniBlueOni: Isabelle and Vianne, respectively. Also, Rachel and Vianne, to an extent.
98	* LaResistance: Naturally, they appear early and often. Just as naturally...
99	* TheReveal: The final narrative reveals who the old woman is. [[spoiler:It’s Vianne.]]
100	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Several Resistance members believe that the passive methods of literature distribution and smuggling downed pilots out of France is not enough to resist the Nazis, and they turn to active sabotage and guerrilla warfare. [[spoiler:Gaëton joins them.]]
101	* SecondLove: [[spoiler: Gaëton is implied to have found one when Vianne sees him at the convention with his daughter, but he admits he never stopped loving Isabelle his whole life.]]
102	* SecretIdentity:
103	** “Juliette Gervaise” for [[spoiler:Isabelle. Hardly anyone in the Resistance knows her real name, by design.]] This was common practice, to prevent captured Resistance members from being compelled to give up real names.
104	** [[spoiler:Ari is given the name Daniel when he is fostered, and eventually adopted, by Vianne. This is to hide not only his trail to Rachel, but also his distinctively Jewish name. He is considerably confused when the men who come to take him to America after the war call him Ari.]]
105	** [[spoiler:[[SerialEscalation In addition]], Vianne constructs a rudimentary, disjointed database of index cards for keeping track of the real names of Jewish children she renames and hides at the abbey, so that they can be reclaimed after the war.]]
106	* ShellShockedVeteran:
107	** Julien served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI at the [[PyrrhicVictory Battle of the Somme]], and the psychological toll is painfully visible. He begins drinking heavily when he comes home from war, and gives up on fatherhood entirely when his wife dies.
108	** [[spoiler:Also, Antoine. He escapes and returns home right before Germany is defeated. He survived for nearly five years in a Nazi POW camp, and it shows. Vianne sadly mentions that their marriage is practically a shell of what it once was.]]
109	* ShovelStrike: How [[spoiler:Vianne offs Captain Beck in the barn when he discovers Isabelle with the airman.]]
110	* ShownTheirWork: There are mentions of the Phoney War, the invasion of Poland, the Battle of Britain, and Operation Torch, just to name a few.
111	* SiblingTeam: [[AvertedTrope Averted.]] The description of the book might lead you to believe that Vianne and Isabelle need to [[ThickerThanWater rely on each other for strength during such tough times.]] But they're so different in personality and far apart in age that it never really materializes.
112	* TheSiege: Paris is practically an open-air prison camp for most Parisians after the Battle of France.
113	* TheStoic: Quite a few.
114	** First prize goes to Eduardo, the Basque mountain guide. Life as a Basque herdsman prepared him very well for long trips through the Pyrenees, but he remains emotionally steady when facing additional hazards like hiking in the dark through freezing rain and armed sentries at checkpoints.
115	** Julien, as well. [[spoiler:It's part of the job, of course]], but he is rather gruff and reserved as a rule ''before'' the war.
116	** Antoine makes an attempt at this to save his family the grief of finding out that he has to go to war. His moodiness is immediately noticed by Sophie and his last moments with Vianne end in NotSoStoic fashion.
117	* SwitchingPOV: There are three points of view that take turns throughout the book: the old woman, Vianne, and Isabelle.
118	* TallDarkAndHandsome: Antoine is described this way. Also, Gaëton, the escaped thief and [[spoiler:resistance fighter.]]
119	* TakeCareOfTheKids: Common, given how many parents are rounded up and sent to camps on train cars. The most prominent example is [[spoiler:Rachel giving up Ari to Vianne.]]
120	* TeamMom: Vianne. She is almost always described in matronly terms.
121	* ThickerThanWater: Isabelle forces Vianne to make a tough decision by [[spoiler:hiding an Allied airman in the cellar under her barn.]] Vianne can either cover for Isabelle and put herself and Sophie at risk, or leave Isabelle to the consequences of her own rash decision. Her choice is resoundingly clear when [[spoiler:Beck discovers Isabelle hiding with the airman, and Vianne takes him out with a shovel.]] But not before [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech unloading a harsh, vindictive diatribe]] against Isabelle for putting her own family in so much danger... again.
122	* TragicKeepsake: Vianne hangs a piece of fabric from the apple tree for every loved one who is taken from her. By the end of the novel, there are [[spoiler:four.]] The tree [[RuleOfSymbolism dies shortly after the first piece of fabric is hung]].
123	* TookALevelInCynic: Gaëton is furious when he spots French soldiers deserting the front in a tank. The soldier he assaults and ''threatens to kill'' is too defeated to fight back.
124	-->'''Gaëton:''' Where are you going? Who is fighting for France?
125	-->'''Soldier:''' [[WhamLine No one.]]
126	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior:
127	** Isabelle escaped a boarding school and hitch-hiked across France back to her father in Paris at age 11.
128	** Sophie rebuffs Vianne's attempt to console her, by claiming that no, she won't see [[spoiler:Sarah]] in heaven, because ''she was Jewish.'' Sophie makes it clear that she sees this as a ''patronizing'' comment from Vianne and does not appreciate it. Vianne is too shocked by this response to reply.
129	* YouAndWhatArmy: Vianne’s reaction to Isabelle hearing UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle giving his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_of_18_June Appeal of 18 June]] speech on the radio, and her suggesting they join his resistance.
130	** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], in that De Gaulle really only had a comparative handful of troops who evacuated to England, and most of those even decided to return to France instead of stick with De Gaulle (not that Vianne had any way of knowing any of that).
131	* YouHaveFailedMe: The driving force behind Beck's sudden vengeful mood-- the Gestapo are having trouble finding an Allied pilot who went down over Carriveau, and are [[JurisdictionFriction blaming the Wehrmacht captain]] for being incompetent. Beck claims they will kill him if he cannot recover the pilot soon.
132	** [[spoiler:Of course, when he ''does'' find the body, he is killed anyway. [[BlastOut But not by]] [[ShovelStrike the Gestapo]].]]
133	** [[spoiler:Von Richter, being the consummate {{Jerkass}} that he is, blames Beck's death on him being a poor shot, presumably due the Wehrmacht's low standards of marksmanship training (which would be an absurd statement about a ''German army officer'' regardless of the InterserviceRivalry). Just this quick, tasteless quip demonstrates that the point was not really that much about finding the pilot as it was about asserting the Gestapo's dominance over the local Wehrmacht.]]
134	* WellDoneSonGuy: Isabelle repeatedly attempts to gain the affection of her father. [[spoiler: He lacks the words to say it outright how sorry he is for abandoning them, so instead he takes the fall for Isabelle when she is captured. The effect is not lost on her.]]
135	* WhamLine: Isabelle accuses her father of cowardice when she finds that he gave up the bookstore to be an attendant at a Nazi-frequented establishment, and he is visibly hurt. [[spoiler:He cannot defend himself by telling her his purpose for this, since that would put her at risk if she were ever interrogated.]]
136	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Marc, Rachel's husband. We can maybe assume that he was captured, but that's as far as the trail goes.
137	** In a brutal fashion, all the "mice" rounded up by the Nazis during the story are finally accounted for at the end. [[spoiler: Rachel and Marc are dead, as well as many of the parents of the Jewish children Vianne saved, while Henri the resistance fighter was hanged in the street while the rest were sent to concentration camps.]]
138	* WillTheyOrWontThey: Isabelle and Gaëton. They're both afraid to fall in love since they're in the middle of a war. [[spoiler: Eventually, they do.]]
139	** In a more serious fashion, Vianne and Captain Beck. It's shown as being a very complex relationship brought on by the stresses of war, being apart from their respective spouses with no idea when or if they'll ever see them again, and how Captain Beck keeps behaving like a decent man to Vianne. Like most things about the war, it's made clear there isn't going to be a happy ending for them. [[spoiler: Aside from an AlmostKiss, nothing ever comes of it, with Vianne actually brutally killing him rather then letting him hurt Isabelle.]]
140	* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: Sarah is mercilessly gunned down by a Nazi soldier while attempting to escape Carriveau.]]
141	* YamatoNadeshiko: Vianne is a Western example. She is demure and quick to defer to the authority of others, but when her back is against the wall, ''watch out'', because there's nothing she won't do to protect her family.

Context Literature / TheNightingaleKristinHannah