The Sirens: Analytical Essay Prompts

This page provides 12 original analytical essay prompts for Emilia Hart's The Sirens (2025). Each prompt explains why it matters, offers a defensible sample thesis direction, and lists 3–5 specific evidence leads from the novel. Use these prompts to explore the novel’s themes, symbols, character arcs, and narrative structure. For further reading, see the themes guide and character analysis.

1. Lucy’s Transformation from Passive Victim to Active Agent

Why this prompt matters: Lucy begins the novel fleeing from trauma and sleepwalking attacks, but her journey to Comber Bay forces her to confront injustice, investigate family secrets, and ultimately embrace a dangerous power. Tracing this arc illuminates the novel’s argument about female agency.

Sample thesis direction: Lucy’s metamorphosis from a silenced student into a self-directed investigator and, finally, a merrow-like being reflects the novel’s claim that women must reclaim their bodies and stories through direct action, not institutional recourse.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: Lucy sleepwalks and attacks Ben, then flees rather than seek help – shows her initial passivity and fear of consequences.
Chapter 17: After university suspension, Lucy decides to investigate the Naiad shipwreck and the eight missing men, feeling “dangerous” and free.
Chapter 32: She sleepwalks to the cliff but uses a song to climb back, demonstrating growing control.
Chapter 45: Lucy learns she is Jess’s biological daughter and begins to shed her skin, accepting her transformative nature.
Epilogue: She chooses to write the Naiad women’s stories instead of returning to university – final act of agency.

2. Sleepwalking as a Trauma Response and a Bridge to Genetic Memory

Why this prompt matters: Both Lucy and Jess sleepwalk, and their episodes are directly tied to trauma and to shared dreams of the convict sisters Mary and Eliza. This prompt explores the novel’s use of sleepwalking as a physical manifestation of psychological pain and a conduit for inherited memory.

Sample thesis direction: In The Sirens, sleepwalking functions as both a symptom of unprocessed trauma and a mechanism for accessing genetic memory, ultimately linking the sisters to their convict ancestors and the sea’s transformative power.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: Lucy strangles Ben while sleepwalking, a violent reenactment of her own violation.
Chapter 4: Lucy dreams of a ship and a mermaid figurehead, speaking Irish – her first connection to Mary and Eliza.
Chapter 11: Jess’s diary reveals she sleepwalks to the dam, a dangerous water source, after discovering her adoption.
Chapter 20: Jess sleepwalks into Max’s pool, nearly drowning, after confronting her parents about family secrets.
Chapter 44: Mary’s transformation into a merrow occurs during the shipwreck, directly linking sleep-like surrender to metamorphosis.

3. The Sister–Mother Bond Between Lucy and Jess

Why this prompt matters: The relationship between Lucy and Jess is the emotional core of the novel. Lucy believes Jess is her sister, but the final revelation that Jess is her biological mother complicates their bond without weakening it. This prompt examines how the novel redefines family through choice and shared experience.

Sample thesis direction: By revealing that Jess is Lucy’s mother, Hart argues that sisterhood is not defined by biology but by mutual care, memory, and a shared supernatural heritage, ultimately elevating the concept of chosen family over genetic ties.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 2: Lucy drives to Cliff House hoping Jess can help with her sleepwalking, showing trust despite estrangement.
Chapter 10: Jess uses Lucy’s birthday as her phone passcode, indicating deep emotional connection.
Chapter 23: Lucy learns Jess is Baby Hope and thus not her biological sister, but refuses to accept their bond is false.
Chapter 45: Jess tells Lucy she gave birth to her in the cave – the truth transforms but does not dissolve their relationship.
Chapter 48: Lucy says they “have the sea and each other,” affirming their bond as chosen family.

4. Contrasting the Convict Ship Naiad and Modern Comber Bay

Why this prompt matters: The novel juxtaposes the cramped, violent world of the Naiad in 1800 with the isolated, mysterious setting of contemporary Comber Bay. This contrast highlights how patriarchal and colonial oppression persist across centuries.

Sample thesis direction: The parallel narratives of the Naiad and Comber Bay reveal that the exploitation of women and the suppression of female power are not historical relics but ongoing realities, with the sea serving as both a site of oppression and a source of liberation.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 6 (1800): Mary and Eliza are shackled on the dock, transported for assault – immediate female vulnerability.
Chapter 13 (modern): Lucy meets Ryan at the Naiad memorial and hears about local superstitions of drowned women’s voices.
Chapter 17: Lucy researches the Naiad convict list and connects historical injustice to her own experience with Ben.
Chapter 31 (1800): The women sing a ballad about a maiden robbing a sea-captain, subverting patriarchal power.
Chapter 43 (modern): Jess traps Cameron in a cave, using the sea’s protection to exact vengeance – mirroring the convict women’s resistance.

5. Water as Both Danger and Liberation

Why this prompt matters: Water is a pervasive symbol in The Sirens: it threatens drowning, triggers Lucy’s aquagenic urticaria, and yet ultimately enables the sisters’ transformation into merrows. This prompt explores the novel’s ambivalent treatment of the sea.

Sample thesis direction: Water functions as a dual symbol of danger and liberation, representing the patriarchal forces that seek to drown female agency and the fluid, transformative power that women can reclaim for themselves.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: Lucy’s aquagenic urticaria makes water painful – shows water as threat.
Chapter 6: Mary describes the sea as “grey and furious, lapping at the rocks as if it would eat the land.”
Chapter 31: Mary dreams of her mother leading her into the sea, where Mam’s body is monstrous – water as death.
Chapter 44: Mary’s gills open and she feels “rightness in her body” – water becomes home.
Chapter 47: Lucy breathes water for the first time, and Jess reflects that the sea is “home” – ultimate liberation.

6. The Merrow/Mermaid Figurehead as a Symbol of Female Power and Monstrosity

Why this prompt matters: The Naiad’s mermaid figurehead appears in Lucy’s dreams, Jess’s paintings, and Mary’s description. It represents the ambiguity of female power: beautiful but dangerous, alluring but feared. This prompt examines how the figurehead evolves as a symbol.

Sample thesis direction: The mermaid figurehead of the Naiad symbolizes the novel’s central tension between female power and societal monstrosity, ultimately transforming from a static wooden object into a living embodiment of the sisters’ merrow heritage.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 3: Mary describes the figurehead to Eliza: “a woman … with a fish tail” – first mention.
Chapter 5: Lucy sees the figurehead in Jess’s painting, which matches her dream – symbol of shared vision.
Chapter 10: Lucy dreams of the Naiad with the figurehead before seeing Jess’s art – suggests psychic link.
Chapter 44: Mary’s transformation into a merrow echoes the figurehead’s form – symbol becomes reality.
Chapter 48: Lucy and Jess accept their scaled skin, integrating the figurehead’s monstrous beauty into their identity.

7. Narrative Structure: Diary, Historical, and Modern Episodes

Why this prompt matters: Hart interweaves three narrative strands: Lucy’s present-day investigation, Jess’s 1998–1999 diary, and Mary’s 1800 journey. This structure creates suspense, deepens character, and blurs the line between memory and reality.

Sample thesis direction: The novel’s multi-perspective structure allows Hart to dramatize the persistence of trauma across generations and to show how stories, whether written in diaries or sung as ballads, become a form of survival and resistance.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 11: Jess’s diary entries provide backstory on her skin condition and sleepwalking.
Chapter 13: Lucy reads Jess’s diary while researching the Naiad – parallel acts of discovery.
Chapter 31: The women’s song in the hold echoes the ballad Jess later sings to Lucy – structural mirror.
Chapter 44: Mary’s shipwreck transformation is described in visceral present tense, contrasting with Lucy’s more detached prose.
Chapter 48: Lucy decides to write the Naiad women’s stories, turning the narrative structure into a theme.

8. Foreshadowing Through Dreams and Shared Sensations

Why this prompt matters: Dreams, skin sensations, and phantom memories foreshadow key revelations: that Mary and Eliza are real ancestors, that Jess is Lucy’s mother, and that the sisters share a merrow heritage. This prompt explores how Hart uses bodily and dreamic foreshadowing.

Sample thesis direction: Hart uses dreams and shared physical sensations as a form of genetic foreshadowing, suggesting that the body remembers what the conscious mind has repressed, and that these forewarnings prepare Lucy and Jess for their transformative identity.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 4: Lucy dreams of a ship and mermaid figurehead before seeing Jess’s painting – foreshadows Naiad connection.
Chapter 7: Lucy feels the house “wants to be reclaimed by the sea” – foreshadows her own transformation.
Chapter 10: Lucy unlocks Jess’s phone with her own birthday; the phone contains photos of the Naiad cairn – foreshadows link.
Chapter 20: Jess’s dream of Eliza and drowning foreshadows her near-drowning and eventual life in the sea.
Chapter 45: Lucy’s skin becomes iridescent before she knows the truth – bodily foreshadowing of merrow heritage.

9. The Ending: Jess’s Revenge and the Acceptance of Transformation

Why this prompt matters: The climax involves Jess trapping Cameron in a cave and killing him in self-defense, followed by Lucy accepting her ability to breathe water. The ending resists easy resolution, offering ambiguous justice and a new beginning.

Sample thesis direction: The novel’s ending redefines justice as female self-protection rather than institutional punishment, and suggests that embracing one’s “monstrous” transformation is the ultimate act of survival and love.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 39: Jess leads Cameron to the cave, steals his phone, and isolates him – deliberate revenge.
Chapter 43: Jess fights Cameron and a blade is pressed to her throat – crisis point.
Chapter 47: Jess kills Cameron in self-defence and hears siren song from within herself – acceptance of power.
Chapter 47: Lucy breathes water for the first time and swims to save her father – embrace of transformation.
Chapter 48: Lucy chooses not to return to university but to write the Naiad women’s stories – new life.

10. Art as Catharsis and Preservation of Memory

Why this prompt matters: Jess is a painter who translates her dreams and trauma into art; her exhibition is called “The Sirens.” Lucy, a journalist, writes stories. Both use art to process pain and preserve erased histories.

Sample thesis direction: In The Sirens, artistic creation functions as both a therapeutic tool for managing trauma and a means of reclaiming silenced female voices, particularly the convict women of the Naiad.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 5: Jess’s paintings depict the Naiad and imprisoned women – art preserves convict memory.
Chapter 16: Mr. Hennessey tells Jess to use art as catharsis, and she draws Eliza for the first time.
Chapter 35: Jess uses snakeskin in her painting to represent transformation – art as documentation of change.
Chapter 17: Lucy feels her journalistic instincts “driving her forward” – writing as investigation.
Chapter 48: Lucy decides to write the story of the Naiad women, making their lives visible.

11. Colonization and the Silencing of Female Voices

Why this prompt matters: The Historical Note and Mary’s chapters detail British colonization and the transport of convicts. The novel connects this historical oppression to modern silencing of women, suggesting a continuum.

Sample thesis direction: Hart uses the Naiad shipwreck and its aftermath to critique colonial violence and show how the erasure of female convict stories parallels the contemporary silencing of sexual assault survivors.

Evidence leads:

Historical Note: Details colonization, land theft, and assimilation policies – establishes context.
Chapter 6: Mary and Eliza are transported for assault after Byrne’s attack – colonial punishment for self-defense.
Chapter 14: Women on the ship resort to sexual favours for food – commodification of bodies.
Chapter 17: Lucy reflects on how the university welfare officer asked her to “put Ben’s feelings above her own.”
Chapter 21: Lucy discovers that her parents hid their adoption and family history – suppression of truth.

12. The Motif of Shedding Skin and Physical Transformation

Why this prompt matters: Characters repeatedly shed or transform their skin: Jess’s “flakes,” Mary’s scales, Lucy’s webbed hands. This physical change mirrors psychological and spiritual metamorphosis, linking the sisters to their merrow ancestry.

Sample thesis direction: The recurring motif of shedding skin represents the characters’ ability to discard self‑hatred, secrecy, and victimhood, ultimately embracing a wild, fluid identity that defies social norms and patriarchal control.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 11: Jess’s skin condition causes her shame and triggers family secrets.
Chapter 22: Mary and Eliza discover scale-like patches on their hands – first sign of transformation.
Chapter 29: Jess’s webbed skin sheds, revealing blue scales underneath – acceptance begins.
Chapter 44: Mary’s transformation during the shipwreck is described as “blooming into herself.”
Chapter 45: Jess shows Lucy she can shed her skin, and Lucy undergoes her own transformation.