25 pages • 50 minutes read
Jeanette WintersonThe Passion
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3 Summary: Pages 77-93
In Part 3, “The Zero Winter,” Napoleon’s war gets worse, Henri loses an eye, and soldiers begin to desert. “We fought on no rations,” Henri recalls, “our boots fell apart, we slept two or three hours a night and died in the thousands” (77). Napoleon makes an agreement with Russia, but Russia betrays France, so Napoleon invades Moscow despite the freezing conditions. Many soldiers die in what Henri calls The Zero Winter. Looking back, Henri explains that to survive war, one must live without a heart, insisting, “It’s the heart that sings the old songs and brings memories of warm days and makes us waver at another mile, another smouldering village” (80). He admits to the reader that he started to hate Bonaparte.
Domino is so badly wounded that he cannot speak. He writes what he wants to say instead. One day he writes the word “future” and strikes a line through it. He gives Henri the gold chain he wears around his neck.
While camped in Moscow, Henri meets Villanelle, who is now a vivandiére, a prostitute. She tells Henri that snowflakes are all different, and Henri instantly falls in love with her. Patrick, Henri, and Villanelle decide to abandon the army together. Henri leaves food for Domino before they go.
While on the run, Villanelle tells Patrick and Henri her story. She describes falling in love with the Queen of Spades though they only spend nine nights together, and her realization that the Queen of Spades would never love her the way she loved her husband. Villanelle then decides to get married. Though she is disgusted by him, Villanelle marries the rich, fat gambler who enjoys her cross-dressing, and he takes her all around the world.
Part 3 Summary: Pages 94-110
After travelling with her husband for two years, Villanelle runs away with his money and watch. She learned five languages and worked on ships for three years before venturing back to Venice. There, her husband finds her again. To settle their differences, a friend of Villanelle’s husband’s suggests they play cards for Villanelle’s freedom: if she wins, Villanelle can walk, but if she loses, her husband can do with her what he pleases. Villanelle loses, and her husband sells her to become a vivandiére.
While travelling through Russia, Patrick and Henri pretend to be Polish to hide their connection to the French army, which has ransacked Russia. They find that, since Poland was also invaded by Napoleon, the Russians are exceedingly kind to them. In Poland, they pretend they are Italian. Everywhere they go, people universally hate the French.
Villanelle and Henri pretend they are married and share a room where they stay. Henri watches Villanelle, only daring to touch her when she is asleep. One night she turns over and tells him to make love to her. He confesses he does not know how. “Then I’ll make love to you,” she says (102).
After a brief illness, Patrick dies. Henri and Villanelle press on to Italy. Villanelle offers to keep Henri safe in Venice until he can return to France. In exchange, she asks his in reclaiming her heart. She confesses that the Queen of Spades still has it. Henri agrees if Villanelle will show him her feet. Villanelle laughingly refuses, professing that boatmen never take off their boots.
They arrive in Venice in May 1813 and are greeted warmly by Villanelle’s parents. Through them, Henri discovers that Villanelle’s husband is a Frenchman.
Part 3 Summary: Pages 111-129
Villanelle’s mother presses Henri to stay in Venice and marry Villanelle. Villanelle takes Henri to the Queen of Spades’s house. She asks him to break in and find her heart. Henri does not believe Villanelle’s heart is actually missing until he feels her empty chest. Villanelle reveals that she has Domino’s gold chain and will return it to Henri when he brings back her heart.
Henri finds Villanelle’s heart in the Queen of Spades’s personal room, along with a tapestry of Villanelle that is three-fourths finished. After returning the heart, Henri asks Villanelle to marry him. She tells him she cannot give him her heart. When Henri replies that he does not need it, Villanelle says, “Perhaps not, but I need to give it. You’re my brother” (115).
While at the casino, Villanelle and Henri encounter Villanelle’s husband. Henri discovers that Villanelle’s husband is the cook from Henri’s early days in the army. The cook threatens to inform the French army of Henri’s whereabouts. As the cook lunges toward Villanelle, Villanelle throws Henri her knife. Henri stabs the cook to death. Villanelle uses her webbed feet to walk on water, pulling them to safety to get rid of the bloodied boats.
Part 3 Analysis
Henri’s disillusionment with Napoleon grows as the war continues. Henri highlights the stark difference between the way the soldiers live and the way Napoleon lives, saying, “he had furs to keep his blood optimistic” (82). Henri realizes that Napoleon does not understand or care to understand the real consequences of war. As Henri travels from Russia to Italy, he realizes how desensitized the army has made him. Reflecting on France’s enemies in Russia, Poland, and Austria, Henri says “I had been taught to look for monsters and devils and I found ordinary people” (103).
Winterson builds upon her use of paradox by alternating the narration between Henri and Villanelle in this section. When they meet in the book, Henri and Villanelle become joint storytellers. Both Henri and Villanelle continue to share their perspectives on the nature of love and passion. Villanelle maintains that people gamble the most precious things away and that love can reveal a person’s most “valuable, fabulous thing” even when they do not know what it is themselves. Hers, she discovers, is her heart. Meanwhile, as Henri falls in love with Villanelle, he questions what exactly this means. He ascertains, “It is as though I wrote in a foreign language that I am suddenly able to read. Wordlessly, she explains me to myself” (120). Following Henri’s logic, the nature of love is selfish, valuable only for what it reveals in oneself. This is similar to Villanelle’s stance in Part 2, in which she deduces that lovers only miss their partners when the other is not around. Thus, Winterson continues to complicate the concept of love, questioning its composition and motives. Villanelle’s insistence on only being with someone she can give her heart to reveals the author’s point of view on the necessity of passion. This perspective is also echoed in Henri’s earlier observation regarding passion and faith.
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