The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Essay

In The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell portrays many secrets and lies. The secrets revolve around Kitty taking Esme’s baby, the secret of Esme being kept at Cauldstone and also the secret that Kitty was not an only child. The lies that are portrayed are that Kitty was living a lie, the lie of the baby, Kitty was also lying to herself by telling herself that it would be alright to take the baby when she knew that it was wrong and the last lie was that Mrs. Dalziel was lying to everyone by telling them that Esme was drunk at the dance. These secrets and lies portray the way that the author wants to see the novel.

In the Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox the characterisation of Kitty explore the idea of secrets. For Kitty the main secret revolves around the taking of Esme’s baby. Through the use of flashbacks from Kitty’s perspective, the readers begin to learn the truth of betrayal shown towards Esme. The reader is shown through the symbol of the baby that there was a baby involved in more than one situation in Esme and Kitty’s lives. Kitty goes back in her mind and says one strange thing that gets the readers thinking “she wouldn’t let go of the baby”, which does not tell us whose baby or who would not let go. We later discover that it was Kitty who was taking the baby from Esme. Throughout the novel we also see Kitty acting in different ways, at one point she says, “I couldn’t take the baby as it smelt of her”. As well as this Kitty also shows that she deserves the baby and her actions are justified for “… and so I took hers, and no one ever noticed,” this proves that Kitty did not mind keeping secrets from her family and makes the readers aware that she is a selfish character. Another secret that is kept is the secret of secret of Esme being at Cauldstone. Esme’s whole family keeps the secret of Esme being put into Caludstone, we find this when years later Cauldstone is shutting down that Iris receives a letter from the institute saying that she is