Chapter 17: Avilion – 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
The chapter opens with the narrator suffering from insomnia due to aching bones, which she compares to the persistent pain of history. She wanders her house at night, feeling like a trespasser in her own home. The next day, her companion Myra insists on driving her to buy an electric fan. Their route takes them past the family estate, Avilion, now converted into a nursing home called Valhalla. The narrator refuses to enter, preferring to remember it as it was. She recalls the house's construction by her Grandmother Adelia, a cultured woman who married button-manufacturer Benjamin Chase for his money. Adelia decorated Avilion with art, named it after Tennyson's Avalon, and hosted grand dinners for prime ministers. Despite her aspirations, she felt exiled in provincial Canada. She died of cancer in 1913. The narrator remembers her sister Laura and the three Chase sons—Norval, Edgar, and Percival—who scorned the family button business. The chapter ends with the narrator reflecting on the house as a monument to Adelia's conception of herself.
Key Events
- The narrator's insomnia and nighttime wanderings through her house
- Myra drives the narrator past Avilion, now called Valhalla
- Description of Avilion's current state: three elderly women smoking on the porch
- Flashback to Avilion's original grandeur: river-cobblestone construction, verandah, stained-glass windows of Tristan and Iseult, conservatory, lily pond
- Grandmother Adelia's background: marriage to Benjamin, her refinement, her choice of Tennyson's quote for Christmas cards
- Adelia's death from cancer, with Reenie's memories of her fortitude
- The three sons' disdain for the button business and their desire for other pursuits
- The narrator's childhood romanticization of Adelia, inventing a lover for her
Character Development
- The narrator: Reveals vulnerability, detachment from material possessions, and a sense of being a stranger in her own life. Her physical pain mirrors her emotional turmoil.
- Myra: Portrayed as overbearing but well-meaning; she invents pretexts to help the narrator, suggesting a caretaking role.
- Adelia Chase: Presented as a strong-willed woman trapped by social convention. She married for money and used culture to elevate her status, but felt exiled in Port Ticonderoga. Her deathbed defiance shows her resilience.
- Benjamin Chase: A wealthy but socially insecure manufacturer who deferred to Adelia's taste. He admired her but may have felt inadequate.
- Norval, Edgar, Percival: The three sons inherited Adelia's contempt for commerce but lacked her realism. They rebel against the button business without clear goals.
- Laura: Briefly mentioned; the narrator recalls a chip in the mantelpiece from Laura dropping a firedog, contrasting her graceful appearance with her actual clumsiness.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Memory as physical pain: The narrator's aching bones symbolize how past events continue to cause suffering.
- Avilion as a symbol of exile: Adelia named the house after Tennyson's Avalon, where King Arthur goes to die. This reflects her sense of being in a cultural wasteland, far from the European salons she craved.
- Aging and decay: Avilion's transformation into a nursing home called Valhalla (Norse afterlife) underscores the inevitability of decline and death.
- Culture vs. commerce: Adelia's refinement clashes with Benjamin's button factory. The sons reject the business, but their disdain leads to aimlessness.
- The past as a construct: The narrator admits to romanticizing Adelia, inventing a lover for her, suggesting that memory is shaped by imagination.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter deepens the novel's exploration of memory, family legacy, and the weight of the past. It provides crucial backstory for the narrator's present loneliness and her relationship with her sister Laura. Avilion becomes a central symbol—once a monument to Adelia's ambitions, now a decaying nursing home. The contrast between the house's former grandeur and its current state mirrors the narrator's own decline. The chapter also introduces the theme of exile, both Adelia's exile in provincial Canada and the narrator's emotional exile in her own home.
Study Questions & Answers
1. How does the narrator's physical pain mirror her emotional state?
The narrator's aching bones symbolize the lingering pain of past memories. She cannot sleep, and her wandering through the house reflects her feeling of being a stranger in her own life. The pain is "like history"—things long done with that still reverberate.
2. What does the transformation of Avilion into Valhalla suggest about the family legacy?
Avilion, once a grand home named after Arthur's final resting place, becomes a nursing home called Valhalla (Norse afterlife). This ironic renaming underscores the family's decline and the inevitable decay of all ambitions. The narrator notes that Valhalla is where you go after death, not before, suggesting a bitter commentary on the old-age home.
3. Why does the narrator romanticize her grandmother Adelia?
At thirteen, the narrator invented a lover for Adelia, projecting her own desires for passion and escape onto her grandmother. This reflects the narrator's need to see her family history as more dramatic and meaningful, rather than the mundane reality of Adelia's constrained life. She admits that in reality Adelia likely had no lover, but the romantic fantasy persists.