47 pages • 1 hour read
M.L. StedmanThe Light Between Oceans
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 35-37Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3
Chapter 35 Summary
Tom’s cell has flooded in the storm. Because the roof of the cell may collapse, Knuckey brings him up to the front office. Isabel walks in, asking to see Knuckey, presumably to betray Tom. Tom reaches out to her, and terrified, she turns to dash out. Tom wrenches free from the pipe to which he is handcuffed, and they embrace. Knuckey enters, and Isabel confesses her guilt, admitting that Frank was dead when he washed up.
Knuckey tries to convince Hannah not to go to trial and to ask for clemency. Tom, after all, is a war hero, and Isabel had three miscarriages with no one to help her. Hannah at first is appalled by the suggestion, but she remembers Frank’s refusal to hate people, explaining that it is easier to forgive.
Septimus helps to repair Grace’s relationship with Hannah, agreeing to call her Lucy-Grace. As Hannah enjoys a moment of peace with her daughter, Frank’s words echo in her mind, and she feels a sense of peaceful relief.
Chapter 36 Summary
Hannah asks for clemency. After a short three-month stay in prison, Tom has the opportunity to thank her. She explains that she is not going to let the past control her future. Isabel is in a nursing home in Albany, where Tom finds a job at the harbor.
Tom, knowing he will never see Lucy again, hopes that someday, Hannah will tell her that he and Isabel loved her. Later, Hannah intimates that she might. Her relationship with Lucy-Grace grows.
Tom and Isabel consider what their future together may look like. She wonders how she will live with the resentment she feels for Tom and the shame she feels inside of herself. Tom reassures her that they have done the best they can to make things right. He still loves her deeply.
Chapter 37 Summary
With money that Tom inherits from his brother Cecil, Tom and Isabel buy a small farm in Hopetoun, 400 miles east of Partageuse, where they live quietly for twenty years. Isabel is diagnosed with cancer, and Tom sits with her until she dies peacefully. He has promised to look after a letter she has written.
Two days after the funeral, Lucy-Grace arrives at his door. Tom learns that Hannah had moved with Lucy-Grace to Perth, to start again. Lucy-Grace joined the Air Force, where she met her husband, Henry, and they had a child. She explains that she had waited until she had Hannah’s blessing to come and visit.
Lucy-Grace shares vague memories of her time spent with Tom and Isabel. She remembers the nature of the island, and Tom gives her the letter from Isabel, along with things that Isabel kept aside for Lucy.
Lucy thanks Tom for saving her life and for taking such good care of her. She promises to visit again.
As the book closes, Tom reflects on his life and the experiences that have shaped him: Isabel, the war, the light, and the ocean. As he watches the light from the nearby lighthouse appear and disappear as it rotates, he is comforted knowing that the light of lighthouses will continue to illuminate the darkness.
Chapters 35-37 Analysis
At the story’s climax, storms rage and lightning strikes, and the symbolism of the turmoil of nature represents the inner lives of many of the characters of the novel. Both Isabel and Tom take comfort knowing that the storm is unlikely to frighten Lucy, whom they have taught to respect nature and to understand that nature is not to be feared.
Though Isabel is the character with the least amount of respect for the difference between right and wrong, she ultimately makes the right decision and saves Tom from a death sentence. Tom’s faith in Isabel reflects his goodness as a person; he is rewarded for his understanding of the difference between right and wrong, though he is made to suffer first. They live together after Tom’s prison sentence and Isabel’s stay in a nursing home, shadows of their former selves but still intact as a couple who feel love and loyalty for each other.
The prevalent theme in the final chapters is forgiveness. Isabel forgives Tom and she learns to live with her own knowledge of her mistakes and the consequent shame. Hannah, in her own way, forgives Tom and Isabel, and Lucy-Grace also experiences peace as she develops a relationship with Hannah. The novel ends on an optimistic note as Tom reflects on the experiences of his life and finds hope and peace in the existence of lighthouses so similar to the one he managed on Janus Rock.
