Jack Currer: The Scarred Heart of Immortality

Overview

Jack Currer is the haunted love interest of Hazel Sinnett in Dana Schwartz’s Immortality, the sequel to Anatomy. A former resurrection man—a grave-robber selling cadavers to anatomists—Jack enters the story already condemned. His survival of a public hanging, his subsequent life at sea, and his return to London with a scarred face and a new alias (Jack Ellis) form the backbone of the novel’s emotional conflict. Jack embodies the central tension of the book: the weight of immortality on a man who never wished for it.

Plot Role

Jack functions as both Hazel’s emotional anchor and a living symbol of the cost of immortality. His false execution and miraculous survival drive Hazel’s initial grief and later her quest for scientific answers. When he resurfaces at a Carlton House ball—now a scarred naval hero—he reignites Hazel’s hope and her resolve to undo the Tincture’s effects. Throughout the middle chapters, Jack’s refusal to commit to a mortal romance forces Hazel to confront the limits of love against eternal life. His eventual decision to help Hazel fake Princess Charlotte’s death (by digging up a corpse) and their marriage aboard a ship to America resolve the novel on a note of bittersweet union.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Jack’s actions reveal a character torn between self-preservation and self-sacrifice. After escaping the medical school, he immediately thinks of Hazel but refuses to go to Hawthornden Castle. The evidence shows him reasoning that he would be a burden—a man with no name, no future, and a “cursed” immortality. This demonstrates his pride and his protective instinct toward Hazel. At the Companions’ club, he challenges the brilliant Marie‑Anne Lavoisier, asking why anyone would “want to reverse it … to grow old with someone.” His bluntness and emotional honesty contrast with the disembodied intellect of the immortals around him. On the Aurora, he endures bullying from the boatswain Smeaten and later survives a shipwreck that costs him his eye—traits of remarkable resilience and luck (or immortality). When he tells Hazel “the Jack that you knew died,” he is not being cruel but trying to spare her the pain of eventual loss.

Chronological Arc

Jack’s arc moves from condemned criminal to immortal lover. Before the novel opens, he is a resurrection man framed for murders committed by Dr. Beecham. At the end of Anatomy (?), Hazel gives him the Tincture. In the prologue and first chapters of Immortality, we learn he was hanged. Chapter 22 of the novel (our evidence) shows him waking in the basement of the Edinburgh Medical School, naked and newly alive. He escapes, steals clothes, and sees the newspaper headlines branding him “Kirkyard Killer.” He decides against visiting Hazel and instead steals a horse, rides to Greenock, and signs onto a ship under the name Jack Ellis. The shipwreck of the Aurora nearly kills him—a piece of rigging pierces his eye—but his immortality keeps him alive. Rescued by HMS Iphigenia, he serves as captain’s steward and later helps repel pirates. By the time of the Carlton House ball, he is a naval hero in London. His reunion with Hazel is tense; he agrees to meet her but soon tries to leave again. His visit to the Companions confirms his belief that immortality is a curse. He and Hazel eventually work together to dig up a corpse for Princess Charlotte’s escape, and they marry in Saint Pancras church. After Hazel is shot by Marie‑Anne and survives because she has also taken the Tincture, the couple commits to an immortal life together. The epilogue shows them in America: Jack works at the Park Theatre and Hazel attends medical school.

Relationships

Hazel Sinnett

Jack’s most defining relationship is with Hazel. He loves her deeply but fears that his immortality will force him to watch her age and die. Their reunion is marked by Hazel’s slap and his guarded demeanor; he calls her “Miss Sinnett” and tries to leave. Over tea, he admits he considered never seeing her again. When she takes him to the Companions, he feels out of place and later confesses “I can’t bear to say goodbye to you.” This conviction nearly destroys their chance at happiness. Only after Hazel consumes the Tincture (unknowingly, from wine at their wedding) does Jack accept a shared immortal future. Their chemistry is shown through small gestures—Jack smoothing his hair, Hazel remembering the feel of his skin—and through their partnership in the grave-digging scheme.

The Companions to the Death

Jack is skeptical of the society. He challenges Marie‑Anne’s assertion that the Tincture cannot be reversed, using the milk‑in‑tea analogy (though he does not use those exact words). He asks whether Beecham might have found a way to undo it. His presence unsettles the group, and Lord Byron mocks him as “the brilliant female surgeon who fell in love with a common criminal.” Jack’s low social status and his raw emotional need clash with the Companions’ detached intellectualism.

Dr. Beecham

Beecham is Jack’s antagonist. It was Beecham who framed Jack for murder, and Jack vows to cut out his own heart before asking Beecham for anything. Later, Hazel discovers Beecham alive and posing as his own solicitor; Jack does not confront him directly, but the hostility is clear.

Key Decisions and Consequences

1. Deciding not to visit Hazel after the hanging: Jack chooses to spare Hazel the burden of a fugitive husband. This prolongs their separation by almost two years and deepens Hazel’s grief.
2. Joining the Aurora under an alias: This allows him to escape Scotland but leads to shipwreck, loss of an eye, and years of isolation.
3. Revealing himself to Hazel at the ball: He could have remained in the shadows, but his love compels him to let her see him alive. This triggers the central conflict of the second half.
4. Leaving the Companions’ club: His outburst about growing old with someone alienates the group but affirms his humanity.
5. Agreeing to help Hazel dig up a corpse: This act of loyalty risks his freedom and reputation, but it secures their partnership.
6. Marrying Hazel: By accepting the ring made from a surgical needle, Jack commits to an uncertain immortal future—a decision that ultimately binds them together when Hazel becomes immortal too.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Jack’s scarred face and missing eye are symbols of the physical toll of immortality. He survives events that would kill anyone else, but the marks remain—a constant reminder that eternal life is not painless. His alias, Jack Ellis, represents the theme of identity and disguise, which runs through the novel (see identity and disguise). Jack’s desire to age with Hazel connects directly to the theme of love and sacrifice. His status as a framed resurrection man highlights social injustice and class: a poor man is scapegoated for the crimes of the wealthy. Jack’s immortality itself is a double-edged sword—both a miraculous second chance and a burden—tying into the novel’s exploration of immortality and mortality. His eventual acceptance of a shared eternal life with Hazel subverts the traditional tragic arc, but the ending explained reveals that they cannot fully escape the Companions’ reach.

Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Jack refuse to go to Hazel after escaping the hanging?

Jack believes he would burden Hazel. The evidence shows him reasoning that he has no name, no prospects, and—if he is truly immortal—he would watch her age and die. He decides to vanish rather than tie her to a fugitive.

2. How does Jack lose his eye?

During the shipwreck of the Aurora, a broken piece of the rigging strikes his right eye. The wood remains embedded until a naval surgeon removes it. Jack later wears an eyepatch, and the empty socket is described as “purple and wet.”

3. What alias does Jack use, and why?

He calls himself Jack Ellis. He chooses this name when he joins the Aurora in Greenock. The alias allows him to hide from the murder charges still hanging over his identity as Jack Currer.

4. Why does Jack leave the Companions’ club so abruptly?

After listening to Marie‑Anne argue that the Tincture cannot be reversed, Jack asks quietly, “To grow old with someone?” He sees no hope for a mortal relationship and flees rather than break down in front of the society. Hazel runs after him, but he insists he cannot be with her because he “can’t bear to say goodbye.”

5. Does Jack ever become mortal?

No. The novel confirms that the Tincture is irreversible. However, Hazel also drinks it (unknowingly) and survives being shot. In the epilogue, Jack and Hazel are both immortal, living in America. He works at the Park Theatre, and she attends medical school. The eternal couple chooses to be together rather than seek a cure.

For further reading, see the overview of Immortality or explore its themes of gender and medical authority and social injustice and class. For lingering plot questions, consult the questions and answers page.