33 pages • 1 hour read
Jessica Day GeorgeTuesdays at the Castle
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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The Castle Conundrum
Castle Glower is said to be a magical place, yet that description doesn’t offer a helpful definition. Much of Tuesdays at the Castle concerns itself with defining the nature of the palace. In mapping the ever-changing physical landscape of the place, Celie is also probing what the castle is on a metaphysical level. Initially, the castle is merely described as having a will of its own because it adds or removes rooms on a whim. Of greater significance than the castle’s changing moods is its ability to judge the personalities of the people who inhabit its walls.
These traits suggest that the castle isn’t simply a giant Aladdin’s lamp that fulfills the wishes of its residents. It possesses sentience and an agenda of its own. The structure is merely the castle’s body. Celie can sense its walls breathing. She sometimes feels a pulse beneath its stones. Like any sentient organism, the castle has likes and dislikes. It decides that it likes Celie and would do anything for her. Celie’s family often remarks on her special connection to the place.
As the story unfolds, this connection develops a visceral quality to such an extent that Celie becomes a part of the castle herself. When she perceives it to be dying, she feels a part of herself dying too: “But now the Castle was dead, its stones nothing more than stones; the sense of warmth, of listening, was no longer there, and the silence of it echoed in her ears and hollowed her out” (169-70). She and the castle are so entwined that her blood revives it, implying a living quality to it.
The castle functions similarly to God. It determines the physical landscape and how it changes; it determines good from bad. In this way, the characters, especially the children, don’t feel as alone as they might otherwise—they are being “look out for” by something larger and wiser that can protect them.
Children Take Charge
The novel’s central themes all pose different questions. The first theme asks what the magical castle is. The second theme asks what the world might be like if children were left in charge. Celie, Rolf, and Lilah must answer this question when their parents and brother are presumably killed. Because the children are royal offspring, their fates have implications for the kingdom as a whole. Also, because of their elevated status, they have some capacity to see their orders obeyed by the adults around them. However, their freedom from parental control presents a new problem in that other adults want to exploit their vulnerability to gain power.
Celie and her siblings have all lost the ability to rely on a trusted parent or guardian to protect them. They must now rely on nothing but their wits and innate talents in order to survive. Faced with a series of challenges, all the children demonstrate ingenuity and resourcefulness that belies their years. As the youngest of the three and the baby of the family, nobody expects too much from Celie. This is the plight of all eleven-year-old children in a grown-up world. Everyone underestimates and ignores them.
It’s only when the normal order of things is thrown out of balance that Celie can function as the heroine of the story. Rather than having her ideas dismissed or ignored, she is allowed to lead because she is literally the only one who knows all the secret passages inside the castle. When Celie is allowed the freedom to act on her instincts, she ends up saving everyone, including Castle Glower itself.
Covert Rebellion
The third theme of the book is closely aligned with the second. For most of the novel, Celie and her siblings must take charge of their own survival. The greatest danger they face is from the malicious adults who surround them. This problematic situation poses yet another question. How can the weak fight the strong? Children are automatically placed in a subordinate position to the authority figures in their world, and yet they are traditionally seen as pure and “unadulterated” in a literal and metaphorical sense. This makes them vulnerable and powerful at the same time.
The siblings must resort to covert tactics to wage their war for survival against Khelsh and the Council. Celie begins by eavesdropping on conversations in the throne room and council chamber using a magic cloak. Lilah uses a magic spyglass to watch these proceedings and also intercept help when it arrives in the form of Pogue. All three resolve to undermine the confidence of Khelsh and the council by acts of outright sabotage. They rip the seams of their enemies’ clothing and spread manure on the soles of the councilors’ shoes. They then tell the maids to hide all the chamber pots too.
Celie secretly dismisses all the castle staff so no one will be around to feed or clean up after the traitors. When the staff people can’t find their way out of the castle, Celie leads them through a labyrinth of secret passages to avoid Khelsh’s soldiers. Celie also helps Rolf, Lilah, and Pogue escape by leading the soldiers on a merry chase through a serpentine floorplan that only she understands. None of these actions are overt challenges to authority. They undermine from the shadows because subversion is the only tactic the weak possess against the strong. Ironically, it is an innocuous stuffed animal that ultimately comes to Celie’s rescue when the castle transforms it into a griffin to carry Khelsh away.
