58 pages • 1 hour read
Anatomy: A Love Story
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Chapters 16-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Hazel dons a respectable dress and uses her privilege as a noblewoman to enter the Royal Edinburgh Anatomists’ Society. She expects Dr. Beecham to be angry that she attended his lectures in disguise, but he is fascinated instead and says, “When you’ve lived as long as I have, my dear, you take novelty wherever you can find it, and you are nothing if not novel” (145). She tells him everything about her family, her lifelong fascination with medicine, and her brother’s death. Having lost his own son, Beecham says, he can sympathize with her grief and with her motivation to practice medicine. However, he won’t force Dr. Straine to teach her.
Hazel proposes an experiment: If she can pass the Royal Physician’s Exam without attending the lectures, then Drs. Beecham and Straine will allow women to enroll in their class. Dr. Beecham accepts the wager, warns her that passing the exam without observing dissections will be all but impossible, and raises the stakes by promising her an apprenticeship at the university hospital if she succeeds. When they shake hands, Hazel observes that the doctor’s perpetually gloved hands are icy cold, and she glimpses something golden in his pocket. To aid in her studies, he gives her a copy of the 24th edition of Dr. Beecham’s Treatise on Anatomy complete with his personal marginalia. Their conversation turns to the Roman fever, and Beecham observes that society pays little attention to the suffering and death of poor people. He lapses into a pensive silence before wishing Hazel success in her studies and saying that she may be the one to find the cure for Roman fever.
Chapter 17 Summary
Hazel leaves the Anatomists’ Society and bumps into the gray-eyed boy who helped her attend Beecham’s demonstration. He remembers that she is Lady Sinnett but declines to give his name. When the boy winks at her, Hazel feels “a terrible excitement that she had felt before only while setting up an experiment, still anticipating its results” (154). Munro bursts Jack’s air of mystery by loudly using his full name. Hazel deduces that Jack is a resurrection man, asks how much a body costs, and inquires whether he makes deliveries.
Chapter 18 Summary
Under cover of darkness, Jack delivers a body to Hazel in the disused dungeon of Hawthornden Castle. As their password, Hazel has selected the Latin phrase “Mortui vivos docent,” meaning “The dead teach the living” (160). After haggling over the price, Hazel examines the woman’s body and notes that she was treated at a hospital for the poor. When she opens the dead woman’s chest cavity, she sees that her heart has been stolen. Hazel pays Jack in advance for the next cadaver and asks him to bring her someone who died of the Roman fever if he can. His presence disarms her and makes her want “to open up and say the things she ha[s] never said out loud” (161). For the first time, she admits that her ambition is to cure the plague. Jack loiters as long as he can before bidding Hazel good night.
Chapter 19 Summary
Hazel is so absorbed in dissecting the body that she only stops working when a frightened Iona informs her that it’s noon and that the Almonts’ Ball will begin in a matter of hours. Hazel knows she can’t miss this event, but she dreads the “long and miserable afternoon” she must spend preparing for the ball and the “even longer and more miserable evening to come” (171).
Chapter 20 Summary
As soon as Hazel arrives at the ball, she begins pondering what excuse she can make so that she can leave and return to the cadaver. Bernard greets her warmly, but his eyes turn cold as they dance. He knows she lied about her health and suspects that she’s seeing another suitor. Hazel assures Bernard that there is no other suitor. He takes her to one of the servants’ passages and presumptuously kisses her. Hazel does not kiss him back. She worries that they would be ruined if someone saw them like this, but Bernard dismisses her fears: “I still want to marry you, so consider yourself quite set” (178). He leads her back to the party, gathers the guests’ attention, and asks her to marry him in front of the crowd. Unable to speak, Hazel attempts a smile. She feels herself growing faint, but her tight gown isn’t to blame: “Maybe it wasn’t the dress; maybe it was the room, the house, her life” (179). Someone helps Hazel into her carriage, and she rides back to Hawthornden, feeling as though a dismal future is pursuing her.
Chapter 21 Summary
Hazel expects Jack to deliver another body at ten o’clock the morning after the ball. At noon, he arrives emptyhanded and tells her, “There ain’t going to be any more bodies” (182). Munro is the latest resurrection man to vanish. Jack suspects that a police crackdown is behind the recent spate of disappearances, and he refuses to operate without a partner. Hazel proposes that she disguise herself as a man and accompany Jack. Jack rejects The idea at first but eventually agrees to meet her at the castle at midnight.
Chapter 22 Summary
Jack and Hazel meet at the promised hour. Although he has no definitive reason to trust the young noblewoman, he’s certain that he will continue to do so “for far longer than his survivor’s instinct warned him was prudent” (190). Hazel suggests that they ride to the cemetery, but Jack has never been on a horse before. After his mount throws him, Jack sits behind Hazel on her horse. During the ride to the churchyard, Hazel tells Jack that she is engaged. He notes that she seems less than elated about this, and she explains that she dreads the limitations marriage may place on her medical studies.
They reach Saint Dwynwen’s, “a small iron-colored building with a thin, twisted spire” (196), and locate the grave of a man who died of the Roman fever. Jack is surprised by the strength and work ethic Hazel demonstrates by helping him unearth the corpse. He senses movement and hears rustling in the woods, but the teenagers bring the body to Hawthornden without incident. Jack turns down Hazel’s offer to stay for breakfast and suggests that they team up again in a week.
Chapter 23 Summary
A few days later, Jack asks Hazel to teach him how to ride. She teases the resurrection man for fearing horses, and he retorts that living things, not dead bodies, hurt people. The riding lessons continue over the next few days. During one such excursion, Hazel asks Jack if he believes in ghosts. She’s never seen a spirit, but she believes there must be “something more than electricity animating our flesh. A soul that lives on” (204). The boy is no stranger to death, especially since the poor began disappearing without a trace after rumors of the Roman fever spread. He surmises that, if ghosts exist, they’d want to leave their bodies and other reminders of death as far behind as possible. On a ride through the woods, Jack draws Hazel’s attention to the wortflower plant, which has “flowers with small light green petals, so light they were almost pearlescent” (205). His mother used to brew the plant’s roots into a medicinal tea. Citing the efficacy of folk medicine, Hazel gathers some of the plants.
Jack succeeds in befriending a black stallion named Betelgeuse, but Hazel decides it’s safer for them to share a horse again when they return to Saint Dwynwen’s on Sunday night. They dig up a body together, and Hazel is saddened to learn from the man’s tombstone that he had no family. Seeing how deeply this information affects Hazel, Jack realizes how desensitized he has become. He wants to kiss her, but he focuses on completing the job instead. Hazel asks Jack to light a candle so she can examine the corpse, and its glow renders Jack’s features “beautiful and strange, angles so sharp Hazel f[eels] the urge to run her finger along the edges of his skin” (209). These pleasant musings turn to horror when she sees the state of the corpse. The dead man’s eyelids are stitched open, and his eyes are missing. Jack and Hazel hear three people approaching and hide in the grave. When the footsteps retreat at last, Hazel kisses Jack, and he kisses her back. They fall asleep in the grave and awaken to the shouts of a terrified priest who mistakes them for the undead. Jack and Hazel leave the body behind and return to Hawthornden.
Chapters 16-23 Analysis
In the novel’s romantic and suspenseful third section, the protagonist explores new opportunities and a new relationship. Chapter 16 brings important developments for the plot and the theme of ambition. Hazel uses her privilege to gain entry to the Royal Anatomists’ Society: “Hazel—dressed like wealth—would be free to walk past [the footman] if she did so swiftly and feigning confidence. And so she did” (142). Boldly creating opportunities for herself, Hazel proposes an experiment with the acclaimed Dr. Beecham. If she succeeds, it will be her most daring feat yet, but it won’t be a private victory. Instead, she will pave the way for other women who want to become doctors. Hazel’s conversation with Beecham offers foreshadowing. The doctor hints at his immortality by mentioning his long life. In addition, he comments on the Roman fever, observing that “there seems to be so little interest in the public when it’s the poor who die. So few who care” (149). His statement is cruelly ironic. The novel’s ending reveals that Beecham takes organs from impoverished people and uses the Roman fever to cover up their deaths. For now, his sinister schemes remain a mystery. He tells Hazel that she could be the one to find the cure for the fever. Thus, he remains an encouraging mentor figure to the protagonist despite her banishment from his lectures.
Chapter 17 also heralds major plot developments. With Jack and Hazel’s third meeting, the novel’s premise about an aspiring doctor and the resurrection man who supplies her with cadavers takes shape. Throughout the novel, electricity symbolizes the thrill of discovery. Jack makes Hazel feel as though a “current of lightning” is racing to her heart (155). This is the same excitement she associates with experiments. Because science is her first love, this bodes well for the budding romance. Jack’s romantic view of life contrasts with Hazel’s rational approach, and this contrast adds humor and chemistry to their interactions. He asks her to call him a resurrection man rather than a body snatcher because it “[m]akes it sound a bit more romantic,” while Hazel is focused on more pragmatic details, such as whether Jack makes deliveries (156).
Hazel’s studies bring her closer to Jack, develop the novel’s themes, and raise the suspense. She creates a laboratory for herself in the castle’s dungeon, a fitting setting for a Gothic romance about an aspiring doctor. The password she chooses means “The dead teach the living” in Latin (160), a detail that contributes to the theme of The Duality of Life and Death. In the world of this book, the border between life and death is porous. If Hazel and Jack’s speculation about the existence of ghosts points toward one avenue by which the dead might continue to act in the world of the living, Hazel’s Latin motto suggests another, more practical one: By offering up their bodies to science, the dead contribute to medical knowledge and thus improve life for future generations. In this way, death becomes something illuminating rather than dark and frightening. The first body Jack brings to Hazel is a woman whose heart has been surgically removed. This macabre detail demonstrates the brutality of the antagonist’s corrupt plan and foreshadows Dr. Beecham’s attempt to remove Jack’s heart later in the novel.
After Bernard announces their engagement, Hazel refuses to abandon her ambitions and surrender to the restricting future she sees hurtling towards her. She doesn’t let the law stand in the way of her career goals either. Jack points out that Hazel’s upper-class background fostered her unwavering belief that she can create opportunities for herself, that she “can do anything [she wants], whenever [she wants]” (185). Though he recognizes that her drive is a result of her privilege, he admires her for it and helps her advance towards her goals, largely due to his growing romantic feelings for her. Although Hazel leads a life of privilege, she doesn’t shy away from getting her hands dirty. She works alongside Jack to dig up cadavers and shares the risks with him. This places her in stark contrast to characters like Dr. Beecham who exploit others and outsource their dirty work. In his specific refusal to come into direct contact with the bodies of the dead, Dr. Beecham can again be seen as a foil for Hazel. Hazel and Jack’s second dig brings major developments for their relationship and the novel’s plot. The three men from the Prologue nearly catch them, and the protagonist and her love interest share their first kiss in a grave. Hazel and Jack realize that someone is stealing body parts and disguising their victims as casualties of the Roman fever, but they don’t yet know that Dr. Beecham is responsible for this brutality. Jack brings some comic relief to the chapter by pretending to be undead when the priest finds them the next morning. Still, this section ends on a suspenseful note, leaving the reader to wonder what the future holds for Hazel and Jack’s relationship and the mystery they have unearthed.
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