Isola Chapter 27 Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Auguste slips away, unable to eat or drink. The narrator, Marguerite, pleads with him to stay, but her words only cause him pain. She promises to hunt for food and defend herself, Damienne, and their unborn child. Auguste speaks of the white fox, insisting it was not a fox. He asks for his cittern and tells Marguerite to burn it. She cannot bring herself to do so. He mentions the lack of a priest. Damienne weeps, but Marguerite does not cry. She lies with Auguste, trying to transfer warmth, but he grows cold and dies. Damienne closes his eyes and wraps him in a sheet. Marguerite is numb with disbelief.

Damienne realizes the ground is frozen and they cannot dig a grave. Marguerite insists on a burial. She clears snow from their linen trunk, and they place Auguste’s body inside, bending it to fit. They cover the trunk with rocks and snow, and Marguerite arranges pebbles into a cross. Fresh snow soon hides the marker.

Back in the cave, Marguerite hides under the featherbed. She refuses to eat or speak, curling into herself. Eventually she falls into a deep sleep. When she wakes, she believes the past events were a dream. She hears sounds outside, and Damienne fears an animal. They go to the cave entrance and see a pure white bear, blood staining its mouth, digging through the grave and devouring Auguste’s body. The bear turns toward them.

Rage consumes Marguerite. She puts on Auguste’s cloak and boots, takes his gun, lights a fuse, and loads the musket. Despite Damienne’s protests, she kneels and shoots the bear. The first shot wounds its shoulder, and the bear rises on its hind legs. Marguerite loads again and fires a second shot, striking the bear’s chest. The bear staggers and falls dead near the open grave. Marguerite is not satisfied. She takes Auguste’s sword and slashes the bear’s throat, then uses an axe to chop off its head. Gore covers her, but she feels no relief—only emptiness.

Key Events

Auguste dies from his illness after instructing Marguerite to burn his cittern.
Damienne and Marguerite bury Auguste in a linen trunk because the ground is frozen.
Marguerite attempts to mark the grave with a pebble cross, but snow buries it.
A white polar bear digs up the grave and consumes Auguste’s body.
Marguerite, overcome with rage, shoots the bear twice with Auguste’s musket.
She further mutilates the dead bear by slashing its throat and severing its head.
The chapter ends with Marguerite covered in blood and feeling emotionally hollow.

Character Development

Marguerite (the narrator): Grief paralyzes her initially; she cannot cry and denies reality by pretending Auguste’s death was a dream. When the bear desecrates the grave, anger replaces helplessness. She transforms from a grieving wife into a fierce avenger, taking on Auguste’s cloak and weapons. The act of killing and mutilating the bear does not bring closure but leaves her empty, suggesting a permanent change in her psyche.
Damienne: She is a steady, pragmatic presence, performing the burial and trying to comfort Marguerite. Her warnings against shooting the bear show concern for Marguerite’s safety, but she cannot prevent the violent outburst.
Auguste: Though dead, his influence persists. His final words about the fox, the cittern, and the priest linger. Marguerite’s adoption of his clothing and weapons symbolizes her becoming his heir in survival and vengeance.
The white bear: More than an animal, it embodies pure destruction and the harshness of the island. Its curiosity before death contrasts with Marguerite’s hatred, making it a complex antagonist.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Grief and rage: Marguerite’s emotional trajectory moves from numbing sorrow to explosive fury. The bear’s violation of the grave triggers a primal anger that overrides all fear and reason.
Transformation and inheritance: Marguerite literally steps into Auguste’s boots and cloak, claiming his identity as hunter. She becomes him in action to avenge his body, indicating that loss can force one to adopt the lost individual’s role.
Desecration and sacred ground: Auguste’s concern about no priest and no consecrated ground foreshadows the bear’s violation. The pebble cross is futile, and the grave is destroyed, underscoring the absence of civilization and ritual in this wilderness.
The white fox and bear as omens: Auguste’s earlier remark that the fox was not a fox suggests supernatural undertones. The white bear may be a real animal but also a manifestation of the island’s consuming, inhuman threat.
Violence as release: Marguerite’s beheading of the bear is excessive, yet it does not satisfy her. The chapter suggests that no amount of violence can truly address the pain of loss.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 27 is the emotional and narrative climax of the survival story. Auguste’s death removes the last male protector, forcing Marguerite to rely entirely on herself. The bear attack escalates the stakes from illness to direct, visceral violence. Marguerite’s transformation into a killer marks a point of no return; she sheds her former self and embraces a ruthless instinct to survive. The chapter also deepens the novel’s exploration of grief, trauma, and the cost of living in an unforgiving environment. It sets up the second half of the book where Marguerite must navigate a world without Auguste.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Marguerite burn the cittern refuse to burn the cittern? What does the cittern represent?
Marguerite cannot burn the cittern because it is the last tangible connection to Auguste. The instrument represents his art, warmth, and love. Destroying it would mean accepting his death completely, which she is not ready to do. Her refusal shows that even in grief, she clings to his memory.

2. How does the author use sensory details to convey Marguerite’s state of mind during the shooting?
The narrative focuses on sounds (gunshots leaving her deaf), smells (acrid smoke), and slow-motion perception (everything becomes “slow” and “still”). This heightened sensory focus mirrors her tunnel vision and dissociation as she acts on pure rage, blocking out Damienne’s pleas and her own fear.

3. What does the white bear symbolize, and why does Marguerite mutilate its body after killing it?
The bear symbolizes death, destruction, and the indifferent brutality of nature. By beheading it, Marguerite tries to assert control over death itself. The act is a desperate attempt to restore her own agency and to punish the force that robbed her of Auguste. Yet her continued rage and emptiness indicate that such violence cannot heal her grief.