Female Agency and Solidarity in Isola: Building a City of Ladies

Defining the Thematic Claim

In Isola, female agency and solidarity emerge not as a single dramatic rebellion but as a quiet, persistent effort to create space for women within a patriarchal society that dispossesses them. The novel argues that women assert independence not by seizing male power but by teaching, nursing, and founding institutions—transforming personal bonds into collective strength. Marguerite de la Rocque survives marooning, negotiates her return, and eventually builds a school for poor girls, all with the support of other women. This analysis traces the theme across three key phases of the plot, connects it to characters and symbols, and addresses the complexities and contradictions that make the novel’s vision of solidarity both inspiring and realistic.

Early Bonds: Teaching and Reading Against Dispossession

From childhood, Marguerite’s agency is constrained by male authority. Her guardian, Roberval, visits her isolated château only once before she turns ten, coldly examining her and distributing coins for her upkeep (Chapter 1). Though Marguerite longs for the cabinet of gold, she is denied access to her own inheritance. Yet within these limits, women build a world of learning and mutual care. Her nurse Damienne raises her with fierce devotion, and her tutor Madame D’Artois provides an education that becomes a form of resistance. When Roberval displaces Marguerite, her teacher, and Damienne to the cold north tower, the women refuse to be broken. They bring their books, instruments, and the gilt cage with Marguerite’s finch.

The most powerful expression of intellectual solidarity comes when Madame D’Artois introduces The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan. Marguerite and Claire read stories of valorous women—Zenobia, Camilla, Deborah, Dido—and pretend their tower is a citadel of ladies. Marguerite assigns each woman a role: Claire as Reason, her mother as Rectitude, Damienne as Justice, and herself as the authoress. This imaginative act transforms their physical confinement into a space of creative agency. As evidence from Chapter 3 shows, they “walked up and down on the chill mornings” and “talked together of these women and their city.” The book becomes a brick in their own metaphorical city, sustaining them when words cannot warm their bodies. This early solidarity teaches Marguerite that women’s stories and knowledge can fortify against dispossession.

The Island: Survival Through Mutual Care and Divided Labor

Marooned on a stone island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Marguerite, her lover Auguste, and Damienne face extreme physical deprivation. Here the theme of solidarity takes a practical turn. Damienne, who was Marguerite’s nurse, becomes the group’s domestic anchor: she boils seagrass for soup, buries wine bottles in peat to keep them cool, and washes broken shards to use as tools. She works thriftily while Marguerite—raised as a lady—initially stands idle. When Marguerite asks to learn sweeping, Damienne refuses, insisting that such work is beneath her. This moment reveals a tension: Damienne’s sense of propriety reinforces class hierarchy even as she sacrifices for Marguerite’s survival. Yet Damienne’s nursing and resourcefulness are forms of agency. She preserves decency by keeping the featherbed, books, and Virgin picture packed, refusing to let them degrade in the elements.

Gradually, Marguerite’s agency expands. She learns to hunt and fish, becoming “a woman who hunts … one who shoots to eat.” Auguste and Damienne cooperate in establishing a calendar and observing the Lord’s Day. They pray together on the granite ledge, and Damienne’s faith becomes a shared resource. When rescue finally comes via Basque fishermen, Marguerite negotiates her own passage. She presents her picture of the Virgin and a gold écu to the captain, claiming she is no ordinary woman who weeps and sighs but a survivor who can work. Her argument combines spiritual authority with economic transaction—female agency achieved through a blend of piety, pragmatism, and the skills she gained on the island. Her tears of joy and sorrow at leaving alone underscore both her independence and her loss. The island, symbolically named “Isle of My Lady” by Auguste, becomes a crucible where she sheds her passive identity.

Return: From Personal Survival to Institutional Solidarity

The climax of the theme occurs in Marguerite’s audience with Queen Marguerite de Navarre. Here, individual survival transforms into a commitment to collective uplift. Marguerite uses the gold ring Claire gave her—a signet of the Queen—as proof of her story and her friendship. She asks not for herself but for Claire’s dowry to enter a convent, fulfilling a vow made years earlier. When the Queen presses her further, Marguerite proposes founding a school for poor girls, citing Christine de Pizan’s city of ladies as her model. She will teach reading and writing, not just sewing and spinning, so that girls “might pray and study scripture deeply” and “be comforted.”

The Queen hesitates, questioning the practicality of teaching poor girls to read and the propriety of a woman building a school herself. Marguerite responds with humility and boldness: “I would lay the bricks with my own hands.” Her persistence wins the Queen’s approval and a silver casket of gold écus. This scene redefines agency: it is not about seizing power but about persuading authority to fund a project that serves other women. The ring, lost and recovered on the island, becomes a symbol of faithful solidarity between women. The school represents the culmination of the teaching and reading that sustained Marguerite in her tower—now made real for others.

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel does not offer a simplistic triumph. Damienne’s refusal to teach Marguerite domestic skills on the island reveals how class and propriety can block solidarity. Claire is separated from Marguerite when Roberval forces her into service with the Montforts, demonstrating that patriarchal power can sever even the closest friendships. Marguerite’s own agency is often reactive—she survives because others act first. She cannot rescue Claire immediately; she must wait years and rely on the Queen’s favor. Even her school is an exception within a system that usually denies women education and property. The historical notes remind us that Roberval was murdered in Paris and that Queen Marguerite’s version is only one of two conflicting accounts. Solidarity, the novel suggests, is hard-won and incomplete, but it creates possibilities that individual resistance cannot.

Symbols of Female Agency and Solidarity

The gold ring Claire gives Marguerite at their parting embodies enduring promise: it is lost in the snow on the island but recovered, and later presented to the Queen as proof of Claire’s virtue. The bear claw (though not directly in evidence here) represents Marguerite’s adaptation to the wild. The cittern instrument, wrapped and unused on the island, symbolizes the cultural knowledge they preserve. The island itself becomes a female space—named “Isle of My Lady”—where Marguerite learns self-sufficiency. The school charter and the silver casket are the ultimate symbols of agency: institutions built by women for women.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies function as a tool of solidarity for Marguerite and Claire?
The book provides narratives of virtuous and powerful women that Marguerite and Claire use to imagine their own “citadel of ladies.” It gives them a shared intellectual framework for resisting male authority and transforms their cramped tower into a space of creativity. The act of assigning roles—Reason, Rectitude, Justice, Authoress—reinforces their mutual respect and collective identity.

2. In what ways does Damienne’s care on the island both support and limit Marguerite’s agency?
Damienne’s nursing and resourcefulness keep the group alive, but her refusal to teach Marguerite domestic tasks stems from class hierarchy and a belief in what is “proper.” This limits Marguerite’s ability to learn survival skills early. Eventually, Marguerite learns through necessity, but the tension shows that solidarity can coexist with paternalistic attitudes.

3. Why is Marguerite’s negotiation with the Basque fishermen a turning point for her agency?
She uses the Virgin’s image and a gold coin to bargain, claiming she is “not one who weeps and sighs” but a woman who hunts and works. This public performance of capability wins her passage. It marks her transition from a passive castaway to an active negotiator of her own fate, using both spiritual and economic tools.

4. How does the gold ring function as a symbol of female solidarity across distance and time?
Claire gives Marguerite the ring as a token of remembrance before they are separated. Marguerite loses it in the snow but finds it again, representing the resilience of their bond. The ring is later identified by the Queen, confirming Claire’s identity and enabling Marguerite to secure a dowry for her friend. It connects the two women’s fates and proves that promises can survive loss.

5. What does the founding of the school reveal about the kind of solidarity Marguerite envisions?
Marguerite asks not for personal enrichment but for a gift to Claire and then for a charter to educate poor girls. The school transcends individual friendship to create a lasting institution. By teaching reading and writing, it empowers the next generation of women to “think and know,” extending the intellectual solidarity she experienced with Claire and Madame D’Artois to those without means.